(Dove and Josh) Mancholy

We´ve been with our host families for over a week now and thought it might be time to update our ´familia y amigos na Merka´about our adventures.

Josh and I are both living in the small village of Mancholy, about 20 minutes from the booming metropolis of Asomada (note the sarcasm) and only a 10 minute walk from each other. We love it. There are only about 100 people in our village so you can imagine how 5 American´s stick out. Everyone is friendly and helpful, though no one speaks any English, which is the point anyway. All of the trainees are scattered throughout villages surrounding Asomada and on Wednesdays we head back to Asomada for training on things like diarhea (it only took us 2 days to start talking about this with each other, seriously. It´s a big thing over here lol).

After three days in Praia, all the volunteers piled into several Hiace (yass, a large van that is supposed to seat about 15 including three in the front seat, but which regularly holds over 20) and took the winding road to Asomada. There we were greated by our smiling, clapping and singing host moms and piles and piles of food. We had to introduce ourselves and try to find our moms, which was easier than expected. After that, we took off (5 moms, 5 volunteers, 1 LCF ie Language and Culture Facilitator and 22 pieces of luggage) in another hiace speading down the road towards Mancholy with Funana music blasting and our moms singing and clapping the whole way. It is something none of us will ever forget.

The island of Santiago is beautiful. It´s the beginning of the rainy season so things are getting green. When it rains, everything is covered by clouds and mist and it feels like you are walking through a big fat rain cloud. There are mountains everywhere, everything is uphill lol (not sure if I´m going to get fat from the food or skinny from the hiking), and we are loving every minute of it (not counting the flies and mosquitos; Dove even loves the roosters and donkeys that wake her up in the morning).

Right now the kids are all out of school in Mancholy so they spend a lot of time playing and helping out with housework and in the field. Dove´s mom works in Asomada and her dad tends to the animals and does other assorted jobs around the house, which is rare for CV but pretty cool.
Dove is living in a family of four, with her mom, dad and two amazing sisters (12 and 6). All are very patient and speak slowly and put up with the fact that she can´t really say much still and walks in the house with muddy feet all the time (I keep forgetting!). She also has the most amazing thing: a flush toilet and running (cold) water in the shower. HUGE luxury. Our family also has 1 pig, 2 roosters, many chickens and 5 goats. Dove is very happy about this and is looking forward to killing her first chicken. Woohoo! Her mom is an awesome cook and her sisters are adorable, plus her dad speaks a little french which is very helpful when learning the language.

Josh...isn´t sure how many people he lives with. A lot. We think it´s officially 5, but it´s a virtual hub of activity so people are constantly coming and going. It´s awesome. He also has a plethora of animals and next Wednesday they are killing a porku (pig) and we´re going to go and check it out. Quite the event! He is not so lucky with the running water, but they heat his water for his bucket bath every day, so that´s a plus. There is always too much food to eat but it´s so good it´s hard to say no.

There are a zillion things we want to say, a zillion pictures to post, but internet is expensive and slow and Dove isn´t feeling so hot today (not a good night sleep) so txow (chow) for now, and we´ll try to make this a weekly event!