(Dove) First night in Praia

July 17, first night in Praia

The air is warm but the breeze is cool, blowing through our open windows as the sounds of voices singing and hands clapping float up to our fourth floor room, and though I have not slept in 37 hours, I’m too excited to sleep now. Tonight is our first night in Praia and, although they may not realize it, the residents are welcoming us with a beautiful serenade from a few blocks away.

Africa. After 20 months, we are here. And it feels like a dream. Unlike the events of the past months, our flight was uneventful, if a bit crowded. After our lunch in Boston with RPVC’s from Cape Verde, which was quite a treat, we ended staging with a closing “artistic” ceremony including an interpretive dance from Josh’s group and a stunning cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind” by the group I was in (The answer my friend is in-te-gration…), loaded our luggage on and off the bus to the airport, waited in line with Cape Verdeans returning home from vacation (and some juggling of luggage – though our bags were underweight, our carry-ons were not, though we were not charged any extra fees, even for checking my guitar), we toasted our goodbyes to America (and to the birthday boy!) and boarded the plane. Imagine my delight when I asked the flight attendant serving our late night dinner how much a glass of wine was, and she said free, all flight! The trainees in our section enjoyed a glass but were all too exhausted to spend much time enjoying more. We talked excitedly about expectations, what preparations we’d done, joked about our favorite Portuguese words (which we all agree is xicara, pronounced shee-cah-rah) and pirates. I don’t know about anyone else, but the 7 hour flight provided only broken and fitful sleep and although I was glad to have rested my eyes on and off, I felt anything but rested upon landing in Praia.

No matter…the second the plane dipped beyond the clouds and we caught our first glimpse of the island of Santiago, I was wide awake and in love. It is the largest of the islands, with a variety of landscapes, but it was still surprising to see it finally, in person. As we circled in to land, we snapped a few photos of the coast and of the tiny fishing boats below, nearly swallowed up by the vastness of the Atlantic.

I have never had such an easy time entering another country. Customs was fairly quick, no complex instructions to follow, and our country director was waiting for us when we got to baggage claim. Although collecting 29 peoples luggage took some time, nothing was lost and we were all welcomed warmly and loudly by current PCV’s as we left the baggage claim and finally stepped foot in Praia. The ride to the training center, where we will be until Sunday, was also organized and easy, though it was difficult to know who was who at first and I felt like I was in a daze, from both exhaustion and reality finally sinking in. That made moving swiftly sort of difficult…staying awake in sessions was a challenge as well but I think we all made a valiant effort in sitting through all the logistical and technical stuff like safety and health (which were pretty thorough). We were also given the opportunity to store valuables, had our pictures taken, shots given (yes, to all who are wondering, we are getting lots of shots. And have to take anti malaria meds while we’re on Santiago for PST) and walking around money for the next couple of weeks. Not too bad.

By far the best part of the experience today was our first language lesson (oh, and Josh and I having to dance in front of the group because we were late coming back from our break – oy). Our Language and Cultural Facilitator (LCF) who will be helping us integrate while we are here, took us into the city for gelato. We had to order in Kriolu and learned a bunch of words, most of which I can’t remember but I did write them all down. Although it was difficult, it was fun to start speaking to Cape Verdeans in their tongue.

So much more happened today, but my head is still spinning from it all, and the people outside are still singing and clapping and drumming and I’m sure dancing and it is all I can do to keep my eyes open to hear one more song…