Better late than never

Bom dia! Our apologies for our lack of updates on the blog...so when we said we were getting internet "tomorrow" we really meant "when they finally come to the house and hook us up. Which was today. A week later. And since we'd already paid for internet, we didn't really have the money to go to the cafe to give updates. BUT we are now on line, in our house, so assuming the electricity is running...we 'll be connected.

This week in PN (Porto Novo) has been interesting and full, frusterating and fun. Last Monday we had our whole week mapped out of places we were going to visit and people to talk to in the community. And then we received a phone call from our Associate Country Director (APCD) who informed us that we should be at the Camara Municipal every day from 8 to 4. This was a huge surprise for us, since we had been told during training to NOT go into work for the first three months, or rather, to go in to work, introduce yourself, and then let them know you would be checking in periodically but that you were supposed to be learning language and the community for the first three months - which is what we had been doing. It was very frusterating to be doing what we thought we were supposed to be doing, and then be told (rather sharply) that we were wrong and that we must report to our site assignments at 8am the next day, and that they were going to actually call our bosses to let them know we would be there.

Needlsess to say, we were both pretty shocked and upset. It felt like we had been caught doing something wrong, though we thought we were just following directions. Never in this whole adventure have we wanted to just go and hang out and not do the work we came here to do, but we felt like we were being accused of just that. It was probably the lowest point we have had since we got here, and the first time we had thought about saying "Forget it, we're going home." We felt very disrespected and also concerned that we would lose face with our counterparts at the Camara who were now being told just the opposite of what we had told them once we first started

And so, we took a deep breath and went to work the next day. Josh had some things to work on for part of the day, being IT and all, but my job was less clear. In fact, it is still not clear. I tried to sit down with my boss and figure out what I should be doing, who I might talk to etc. and he basically said my language wasn't good enough and it would be too complicated to explain things now, so that I should go to a town 30 minutes away to work with a current volunteer to learn the language a couple times a week. When I asked what I should do on the other days, I was told "wait." I'm still waiting. I'm not sure that they understand that the person they want me to work with has lived here for over a year, and thus of course would have better language skills than I would, and that, even if I did work with her a few times a week, it's not likely I'm going to have my langage skills up to the level they are hoping in a short amount of time. I'm trying, I really am...but realistically these things take time. By the way, the car that was supposed to bring me to this other town for language lessons was broken down on Friday, so I wasn't able to go anyhow.

The upside...Josh is doing great and is really, really happy to be doing IT stuff again. He can tell you more about his work right now. Also, I talked with the APCD again at PC and I'm assuming he talked to some folks about our training because he seemed to believe that we actually were told at training to not go into work for the first three months...however, the misunderstanding was, because we were working in an institution that had a direction and such, our positions different, that we need to be in the institution to figure out how things work, what is happening, and how we might fit in. The converstation made me feel 100% better, primiarly because I felt validated that what I was doing WAS what we were told to do, and also because it made sense. In addition, it seems like my job will involve policy work, and working on ways to make improvements at the local government level, which was what I have been considering doing once we get back from Cape Verde (International or Public Policy). And I shouldn't be spending all my time in the Camara once I have a handle on how things work and what my role will be; hopefully I will be helping to build partnerships with outside organizatons and the Camara.

In other good news...Josh and I made our first friends in the community. He is a Capoiera instructor and volunteers nightly to teach kids in the community. He's also been helping us with language. Also, I have a language tutor now too...Claude, you asked about language here. First, I 1000 times agree you MUST continue language to be successful in the Peace Corps. Second, for some reason that I don't quite understand, because this is an election year, there is only enough money in the budget for 10 people to get a paid tutor. I didn't qualify for one because I scored too high on my LPI, which I am a little grumpy about because I wanted to use the money for a tutor to learn Portuguese. Everyone here SPEAKS Kriolu, but everything is WRITTEN in Portuguese, so any written work I do, any proposals etc, needs to be done in Portuguese, w hich I don't know any of. Fortunately we did find people willing to work with us for free, but it's difficult because sometimes they aren't available at the last minute, so you walk 20 min to go to a lesson and they aren't there. Ah well.

Sunday was beach day, and we are both nice and crispy. We finally found some cumin at a local market, and the Unicoop has cheese again (these things are a HUGE deal in PN, at least to us!). We discovered that the sparkling mineral water in the store is close enough to club soda. I made Peanut Butter cookies, chicken and mushroom alfredo, and Indian dahl, all delicious. Josh gave me my first hair cut - it's growing realy fast, or at least it seems so!

We hope all is well State side. This weekend was emotionally difficult for us because Josh's sister got married on Saturday and we couldn't be there. We tried to call but couldn't reach anyone, so we were both pretty disappointed. This is the third wedding we've missed too.

Being away for so long, things are bound to fluxutate, but in the grand scheme of things, things here are pretty good. Besides, how bad can life be stranded on a windswept island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?