Visitors!

Yes yes, I know it's been months since we've had an update...and this isn't really going to be a good one, but here are some pictues from my mom's trip to visit last month!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/collections/72157622513474057/

New in Cape Verde:

- Dove and Josh get a new puppy! Her name is Bolacha and she's 6 weeks old
- The rain season has come and pretty much gone, wiping out numerous roads and washing out fields. It was our heaviest rain in 25 years - yikes!
- Dove and Josh "passed" their Mid Service Medical exams with no worms or parasites!
- New Volunteers were sworn in on September 19th; Dove helped with the training and transport back to the northern islands
- A National Geographic expedition ship came into Port Novo last week and Dove and Josh got to hang out with 80 or so American visitors and help with the tour of the island

No promises on our next post, but we'll *try* to be better in the future!

24 Hour Party People - Part One

If there is one thing in Cape Verde they know how to do, it's throw a party. Festival season kicked off with Cocouli back in May, but the REAL event was in June, at the Festa de San Joao Baptista. Yes, that's right, all this excitement and hullabaloo over a saint. Officially, the festival started on May 30st with activities for kids and soccer tournaments, but the festivities kicked into high gear the week of the 15th with live music in Abufador (a zone in the city of Porto Novo). That lasted 4 nights, starting usually around 9pm and continuing until...uh...well after we went to sleep.

But even THAT didn't constitute the REAL festival, seeing as the ACTUAL saint day wasn't until the 23rd. So the weekend before, the entire zone of Abufador turned into a street party (though the street itself wasn't blocked off until Sunday, but what's a few cars driving down the road amongst a group of festival-goers, right?). Much like other festas, San Joao consists of lots of walking around, lots of food vendors selling grilled meats and french fries and drinks (out of little make-shift shack type restaurants and bars called "barakas") and lots of general craziness. On roof tops, discos magically appear for festa goers to dance the night away (by which I mean, around 2am folks start to GO to the discos and dance til dawn), there are fashion shows in the racinda (sort of like a small stadium) accompanied by live music some days, including big acts such as Gil (zouk singer that everyone loves here - we were too cheap to spend the $1000CVE to get in).


Our friend's aunts baraka (you can see how dusty it was!)

During the day, you can visit these same baraks and also ones that sell clothes, sunglasses, shoes, jewelery, sort of a flea market with both cheap products from China and stuff that has been sent over from Brazil and America...which probably were also made in China. On the weekend (19th - 21st) there was an agricultural fair, where - I hope you're sitting down for this - we found BROCCOLI! Now, it might have been the WORST broccoli I've ever had in my life, totally bitter, but we were in heaven. Santo Antao is well known for their cheeses, grogues, ponches and liquors (the last three all being forms of alcohol, btw) and some of the producers have learned some great marketing principles and bottle their wares quite nicely. We bought a few unique flavors of ponche and liquor, including passion fruit. We also had the privilege of trying bolacha liquor, which was AMAZING, and chocolate as well - sort of like Bailey's style drinks. Bolacha, btw, is a type of cookie/biscuit (Tarantellis - think Italian nothing cookies). Most days as well there were horse races by the ocean. We generally skip these - let's just say that animals aren't always well cared for here and leave it at that.


The agriculture fair




So we spent the days of the weekend shopping and doing agricultural stuff and the nights dancing our butts off, and come Monday...we were exhausted. We TRIED to head in early, but then my counterpart insisted that Monday was the best night! There was the Desfile de Grupos de Sao Joao! Huh? So out we went, no idea what to expect, other than it was "sort of like Carnival!" and we'd be walking with this group...er...ok...well, each zone that chooses to designs a float, has dancers and women walking around with fruit and statues of saints on their head and palm leaves, and everyone is danced in "old" aka traditional clothing of long black skirts (or pants for the men, with the pant legs rolled up), white blouses and lensus on their head (long scarves that you wrap your hair in).


Getting ready for the Desfile de Grupos

They dance in pairs, in sort of a...4 4 count...sort of like...er...well they walk up to each other, taking big steps, and then raise their hands and jump forward, slamming their pelvises into one another. I am so not kidding. Then they back up, some spin around, and then repeat. It is QUITE the site to see. Men do it with men, women with women, and men and women together.


Dancing the Coladeira :bump:



And here's where they randomly plop a church down...check out my counterpart with the drum...and the dude in the yellow - BEST outfit EVER!

Oh and one other thing. At ALL the festas we go to, there is always someone in the procession wearing a boat. Yes, WEARING a boat. We have tried to get to the bottom of this phenomenon to no avail. We've come to the conclusion that it must have something to do with the whole living on an island thing, especially before there were planes. We're still looking into it. In other news...my counterpart has enlisted yours truly to help with choreography for next years festa in our zone (Armazem). Stay tuned...


The boats

But wait, there's SO much more!

I know by now you're asking yourself "Wait wait guys, if you are out til 4 or 5am every morning at the disco and dancin' in the streets, and then getting up for daytime fun (oh yeah I should mention the heat here was in the 100s during S. Joao so there was no sleeping past 8am)...WHEN do you SLEEP!? Well...we asked the same question to several of our friends and co workers, and the response was always the same: SO FESTA!!! "So" in Kriolu means "Only" and "festa" of course means "party like a rockstar." So there you have it: no sleep, just party. And that is literally how it is. We tried really really hard to nap, but how could you when it was 114 degrees out? I think by Tuesday afternoon I was actually in tears I was so tired and hot and miserable...but of course Tuesday is the MAIN day, and we haven't even gotten there yet...

Tuesday is the actual Sao Joao Baptista day. What exactly does that mean? It means that everyone piles in cars at 7 30 in the morning from Porto Novo and heads up to the small town of Ribera das Patas, where we meet up with an actual statue of the saint and then WALK back to Porto Novo. Or, if you're like any reasonably intelligent (and lazy) person, you walk to Lagedos and then take a car the rest of the way down. So we did! Tons of people were there, lots of drumming and a couple of stops along the way for food and drinks (if you were fast enough to get your hands on it) compliments of the local government. We walked, we took pictures, we saw dancing in the streets, we bailed. Tried to finally take a nap but no, 114 degrees would not allow it, and so we struggled through the day (I think I took 4 showers that day) in order to party it up, again, at night. Of course that night was the biggest of the nights and we stayed out for all of it. Or at least all of it that I could stay awake for - I have a vague recollection of falling asleep at a table...the next night was more of the same: lack of sleep during the day, dancing all night until FINALLY, the final night of the festa arrived: Dia 25 de Junho, Sao Joaozinho, where the Saint returns to his home in Ribera das Patas to chill for another year.


The procession from R. das Patas to Porto Novo


Saint JB, up close and personal

That nights event was up in R. das Patas, and...of course...we dragged our butts up there around 4 30 to check it out. It was definitely smaller, but more intimate and more fun. We saw more people we knew and had fun laughing and talking and drinking and dancing. That day we actually sort of got a nap in at another volunteers house (sort of) and headed back out around 11. Little did we know...

Because we'd gone up so early, we grabbed a backpack with clothes to change and my contacts, glasses, random stuff. Because we were in Ribera das Patas, it never occurred to us that it would be a bad idea to take said backpack down to the party with us. We were obviously mistaken. After wandering around talking with friends and having a grand old time, we went up to one of the roof top discos (yep, they had them in RdP too) to dance. I was dancing with our friend Chuky when I saw Josh walk by with our friend Nany...and an open backpack. I grabbed him and looked inside - they'd taken almost everything. It was the most random assortment of things too: my glasses, my sun glasses, my make up case (?), our pen drive (damn), my brush, Josh's PC hat, Josh's shorts, his shirt...but they didn't take everything, and I still don't know why they took things like my comb...but alas, for the first time in Cape Verde, we were "cash or body"'d.

The expression "Cash or body" or, as they say it "cah sho baw dee" sounds like it is: it's what muggers say when they want your stuff - gimme your cash or I'll take your body. But people, especially in the fora (countryside) use it for any sort of pickpocketing etc. Apparently what happened to us, several young gentlemen from Mindelo (our friend described them as rastas) circled around Josh from behind without him knowing it and then unzipped his bag and robbed him. Because there were so many of them, they were able to cut him off from our friend Nany and cause a distraction so no one could either notice or stop them. Nany saw it happen (that's how we know who it was) but because he had been cut off from Josh, couldn't do much. Plus...they took his picture (Nany's), which is what they will apparently do as a threat, meaning If you tell who we are, we know who YOU are.

Okay this all sounds far more sinister than it really is, though I suppose I could be wrong and maybe it IS really that sinister, but in the end...it WAS the last night of Sao Joao after all...and there wasn't anything we could do about it...so we found a friend of a friend who had a baraka and stashed what was left of our stuff and went back to the disco to dance our cares away. And dance we did! It was probably (post theft) one of the most fun nights out I had had to date. There is nothing like being with a group of 10 Cape Verdean friends in the midst of a packed crowd dancing together, especially when you are the only white people there and you really, really like to dance. I admit it, we like the attention, but then again we like the attention we draw when we're dancing in America too!

Around 5am we took a Hilux home (open backed pick up truck with benches) and fell fast asleep. Thus ended what is truly one of the largest saint festivals in all of Cape Verde, and we could not have been happier.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another exciting episode of "24 Hour Party People." In the next installment, Dove and Josh go to Mindelo for a 10 day vacation starting with Love Feria and ending with the huge music festival Baia das Gatas!

Life's little pleasures

Well it's been a couple weeks since our last update, guess it's time for a new one!

Summer is in full effect here in Cape Verde. It is HOT, but usually not unbearably so (most of the time). Kids are out of school, folks are at the beach every day, and our new youth center is in full swing.

I've started working several days a week at the center, where kids ages 3 to 10 come to hang out and do structured activities. Mostly they do art projects or put together puzzles, play games etc. I've started teaching them English and will be starting a more structured program next week, with each week having a Theme and each day doing an activity related to the Theme. Next week is "ME!" so they will start out by making name tags that are decorated with pictures of things that could describe them...for example if they like music they could draw music notes, or books if they like to read.

I have a meeting on Tuesday to see about other activities I can start doing for older kids. It seems like the center was designed for a younger audience, but it seems a shame for that space to not be used to benefit the whole community. We'll see what we can do.

Josh is still plugging away doing programming for the Camara. He's also working at the youth center behind our house, teaching one of the women that work there basic computer skills so that she can teach other people (sustainability! ).

Last night, we were treated to a wonderful meal (and REAL wine!! OMG!) by the Country Director of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (a big deal in American foreign development work). It was wonderful to sit down and speak with him, about everything from development work to language, women's studies to wine. A big thanks to our Country Director Hank for mentioning our names to him, it was such a pleasure.

Today was a pretty big day - there were 3 "inagurations" today, all related to agriculture. The biggest one is right at the city limits of Port Novo and is sponsered by the Millennium Challenge Corporation . They'll be opening a cold storage facility that will help preserve the food that is grown and harvested on our island. In addition, there has been an embargo on the food produced on Santo Antao for the past umteen years due to a millipede problem. However, with the new facility they will be able to treat the produce, allowing it to be shipped and sold off island. Pretty cool.

The other cool thing about today was that here we are, in an African country, and on stage giving speeches is the Prime Minister (who we got to meet and speak with for a while) and the President of the Camara (local government). The PMs political party is PAICV, whereas the President of the Camaras party is MPD. In America, maybe this is commonplace, but looking at the history of many African countries, it's an amazing testimony to the democratic process in Cape Verde to see this.

The new volunteers arrived on July 15th, which also means that WE have been here over a year now. I honestly can't believe that I haven't been in America for a year - how fast time flies. We're still thinking about extending for a third year if we can, as long as we have enough work and projects to keep us busy and contributing to our community. We really do love it here (most days). It gets harder to blog though, as life here seems to be, well, normal to us. Trust us, there is still lots going on, we're just used to it by now.

Last month was the Festa de San Joao Baptista, but that will have to have it's own blog entry (I'll get on that). Its high festa season and we've been thoroughly enjoying them. Next week we head to Mindelo for a big party, then a week on the beach, followed by Baia, a huge music festival on the beach. It should be pretty crazy, and we're psyched to get away for a bit.

So, I guess that is it for now. Oh yeah, thanks everyone for the KoolAid! And in case you didn't know, my mom is coming October 2nd to visit for two weeks. WOOHOO!

Gus Gus

I hate to have to write this blog…but our baby Gus Gus died last Monday. We think that he had a bowel obstruction, no doubt caused by one of the many things he liked to eat while playing in the street or in the house. He was really the best puppy and brought a lot of happiness into our lives. He was not even 5 months old when he left us, far too short of a time for us to love him.


Our beautiful baby boy

One of the saddest parts of this for us is that you all will never get to meet and know our little guy. I know everyone must say this about their beloved pets…but he was really the coolest, most amazing dog ever. We wanted to share with you some of his amazing qualities in hopes that you can get a little taste of how great he was.

Our little guy on his first day with mom and dad

I met Gus when he was in utero I guess, and then again when he was only a week old. When he came to us he was the tinyest little thing. It took about 10 seconds for us to fall in love with him.

Our first meeting

Before too long he started to become our little “pog” (puppy-dog) and then “duppy” (dog-puppy). He learned to potty on his paper when we said “fazi shee shee” which in Kriolu means “go potty.” He learned to sit pretty, mostly in the hopes of getting our food, and when we said “mon” (hand) he gave us his paw…sometimes both. When he barked, we would tell him “kala boka!” which means, literally “shut your mouth.” He would bark again, softer, and still softer when we said it a third time. We couldn’t help but laugh. He was just so smart (and sneaky – he knew he could get away with anything).

Helping dad build his playpen

He loved to sit with us and on us, especially on his daddy’s lap when dad was reading. He was a good reader, helping dad turn the pages and point out where dad had left off…he never chewed our shoes (thankfully) but managed to get into everything else. He always loved to be near us, even when there were other dogs around (except his girlfriend, Feya, who was about three times his size). He liked cooking with mom, or rather sitting under my feet while I cooked, but I think that he was just hoping I would drop something. Actually, Gus had a thing about sitting. It was like he was never content sitting just on the floor, like a normal dog. He liked to sit on things. Like when we were sitting on the couch, he’s sit on our foot, like it was a chair, or he’d sit on our leg or really any part of us, so his hindquarters were elevated above the rest of him. He’s sit on bags or rocks or the power adapter, anything really that was above an inch tall, if he could, instead of just sitting “normally” like a puppy on the floor. It was as if he couldn’t fully accept that he was a puppy and instead though he was part human, and used everything he could to sit in like a chair.

Reading with dad

A new chair!

He was smart and industrious and it took us numerous attempts at a play pen before we could construct one that he couldn’t climb out of. That only lasted about 2 weeks, until he was big enough to just jump out of it. When we doubled the size, he figured out how to push it aside, and when we reinforced it, he just climbed out. Fortunately he was big enough at that point to let have a bit more freedom than his playpen.

Escape!

He loved his Kong, an indestructible toy we had mailed to us. I tied a rope to the end of it and used to go “fishing with him.” I’d launch the Kong and it would bounce and he would try and latch onto it. He always let me take it from his mouth without so much as snapping. He loved playing fetch with his little tennis balls (and he almost caught on to how to bring it back to us so we could throw it again) and tug with his “UFO” as dad liked to call it. Before he completely destroyed it, he would latch onto it and dad would run him round in circles til he got a little dizzy.

Recently he had taken to talking with us – making weird noises, not barks, like he was really trying to make human sounds. He made us laugh all the time. He had just learned the trick to getting to sleep with us over the past few weeks – at night he go into his kennel (all we had to do was lead him there, he never argued) and after a few hours, he’d whine a little. I reached over and let him out and he went right to his paper to potty, then would come back and look at dad to pick him up so he could give us kisses and squeeze between us to sleep. Of course our wiggle worm couldn’t stay still and kept us up most nights…that was ok though, it was worth it.

He was so different than all the other puppies around here…we taught him early not to bite, and so when the other dogs would “fight” with him, he always lost. We taught him to be calm when we tormented him a bit, by pulling on his ears or tail; we figured that it would prepare him for when we had kids and they started pulling on him – that way he’d never bite or even care much. When our friend came over with her baby, he didn’t mind when she poked and prodded him. He was a protective little guy, and every time he heard someone come into our building, he’d give us fair warning (until we told him to be quiet…then he’d give us another warning, just quieter).

Our little protector

Everyone in the neighborhood, and the city really, knew and loved Gus. If we went out without him, they all wanted to know where he was. I’m pretty sure they all like him better than us, or at least they all know him better than us. We took him into the grocery store with us – he had a human girlfriend there that he loved to see. He wasn’t very fond of mom keeping a tight rein on him when we were visiting the fish ladies – he would have rather been eating them (the fish, not the ladies). All the kids loved him even if he didn’t respond too well to them, and even the adults laughed at his antics and wouldn’t let the other dogs be mean to him.

He loved to watch movies with us…or rather he loved to stomp on the keyboard while we were watching movies. He didn’t need a leash, he always just followed behind us and came when called. He loved the beach but not the water. He wasn’t too fond of other people and was even scared of the neighborhood chihuahua, Simba. That was pretty funny to watch. His other favorite thing to watch was the girls, our guinea pigs. They were introduced at a young age, so they weren’t afraid of each other, and Gus always tried to sneak into their cage. We kept a close eye on him…and he sat outside their cage and kept a close eye on them too. It was pretty funny to watch him watch them…and he liked to eat their hay too. We never quite understood that, other than he liked to eat pretty much anything. Except ants, he wasn’t a fan of ants. We aren’t either.

Wishing he could play with his "sisters"

He used to sit so pretty, sort of with his legs to the side on his hip, and he’d cock his head at us and furrow his brow, deep in contemplation. He wore that expression often. One of his ears was “broken,” meaning that it flopped differently than the other, not so upright. It was just one of the things that made him awesome. Like many dogs here, he looked like he had Cleopatra eyes, lined with eyeliner, and it curled out to the sides and up toward his forehead. Also like many dogs here, he had 6 toes on each of his back paws. They looked so silly flopping about, but it was just another thing that made Gus, Gus. He was the most beautiful little boy.

Sittin' pretty, even at 2 months

Probably the funniest thing he did was sleep on his back, with his lower legs stretched out and his upper ones sort of flopped over and his neck totally leaned to the side. It always reminded me of a chicken. I can’t imagine how in the world that was comfortable, but he slept like that in his kennel, on the floor, on his pillow, on the couch…such a clown. Then again he could never stay that way for too long, he liked to wriggle around too much, getting up, walking around for about 10 seconds, flopping down again. I timed him once, he didn’t stay in one position for more than 28 seconds.

His favorite position

We called him, in the true Cape Verdean fashion of having multiple “nominias” (nick names) Gus Gus, Gus, Gustopher, Gusolupogus, Wiggle Worm, Worm, Stinker Butt, Monkey, Buddy, Bud, Pupper, Baby Boy…his dad loved to say “Such a puppy!” or “Such a boy!” as if there was anything else he could possibly be. I kept trying to get him to use an adjective in there, but it didn’t stick.

I had a special bond with my boy, but so did his dad, and both our hearts were broken when he left us.

When he was sick, we took him to the vet in town, who said he would be fine and that it was nothing. I knew the next day it was something more serious. He wouldn’t eat or drink and wasn’t going potty. I think we were in denial that it was a bowl obstruction because we knew that without surgery he probably wouldn’t make it. We went to the vet every day to try and help him…they told us that there were no vets with x-ray machines and no one to do surgery. We called the capital city to talk to the vet there, and they said the same thing. We had been all packed and ready to fly him there…but there was nothing we could do. We fed him water with a syringe to try and keep him hydrated, thinking that would be the worst of his problems…We stayed by his side day and night, not wanting to leave him, for four days. Monday night I knew it was bad – he was too weak to throw up any more and I told Josh we needed to sleep with him again.

He started to mess himself…at first I hoped so much that meant he was better. We took him in the shower with us, and before we had finished cleaning him up, he was gone. We buried him the next day on the beach by the ocean. I didn’t want to…I kept thinking he would wake up and give us our morning kisses. He didn’t.

Gus was like a baby to us, as silly as it sounds. Animals can be “pets” or they can be your little furbabies. I do feel a bit foolish comparing him to a child, but he came into our lives and stole our hearts in a way that I think surprised both of us. I can’t believe he is gone and that we won’t have more time to get to know him and love him, and that you all will never get the chance to fall in love with him either (as everyone did that met him).

Sorry for the blubbery post, I just wanted to share our joy and pain with you.

-Dove

Should I stay or should I go now? or...the Art of Txiga-ing

"Bzot kre mais um ponche?" he offered, the strong sweet liquid already starting to pour into the glass. "Si!" Josh replied; "No obrigada, m ti ta toma feria" I said...I'm taking a vacation. From alchol, that is. And so we sat, Josh sipping his ponche, me trying desperately to hold Gus in my lap; he wouldn't stop freaking out over the chiuaua Simba who, although twice his age but only half his size, would not stop mounting him.

This continued for about 20 minutes, with sporadic bursts of conversation intertwined, mostly about work and the upcoming huge festa, San Joao. Our neighbor, Arlindo, who had invited us to "txiga" was telling us about his band that would be playing on Monday night, and how we should come. And how it would start around midnight. On Monday.

"Txiga" technically means "to arrive." As in "Nos txiga!" - We've arrived! But as with all languages, there are nuances and alternate meanings, and txiga also means to come over and sit and visit for a while. So when someone says "Txiga, txiga!" and motions for you to come towards them, it is an invitation to hang out for a while. It's sort of rude to turn them down, although as typical Americans we are generally hurrying to and fro...except it's not like there's really anywhere to go in a hurry. It's something we're learning to adapt to.

But we have yet to really master the art of the txiga. Maybe it's because I talk so much, or because in America we like regular streams of conversation, but I find it sort of akward. Here you are sitting in someones house, usually with the tv on, and no one is really talking or you talk in short bursts but not about anything in particular. Small talk...but really, really small talk. And lots of misunderstandings, or at least a degree of difficulty exactly understanding what each other is saying.

"When is your group playing?"
"Last Monday, in Paul."
"Oh, ok so when do they play in Port again?"
"Monday."
"So they played in Paul last Monday and in Port this Monday?"
"No no, just in Port for the festa."
"But the festa is next week..."
"Right, we start early and someone will play every night in the praca."
"Oh down here?"
"No, the other praca."
"Ahh, ok."
*end*

It got even more confusing last night because apparently, in our neighbors first floor, the Camara and some other NGO's have build a community/youth center, with one small room that has computers and chairs for classes, and another open space for youth. I tried to figure out who paid for it, who was involved, who would be doing programming, what sorts of stuff they would be doing, how he was involved, why it was built at his house...I think I got most of it...but I'm mostly confused by the following:

1. The project somehow involves the Camara.
2. The project somehow directly involves my Counterpart...you know, the one who never has work for me or time to work with me.
3. My Counterpart is apparently involved in setting up programs.
4. My Counterpart has never mentioned ANY of this to me.

*sigh*

But I digress, as this is about the txiga.

The artful portion of this for a foreigner is how to exit. At what point is it rude to stay? At what point is it rude to leave? How does one gage this, and how does one artfully rise and exit? They already think we're nuts because we eat dinner at 7pm...apparently 9pm is a better time to eat and they think it's funny when we get up to go make dinner when we're hanging out on the street outside...or txiga-ing. But when you are sitting around, akwardly in someones house that you really only know in passing, and the conversation is halting at best and for the most part you are watching Portuguese soap operas on tv...well...what happens next?

I don't know. I'm not sure I'll really ever know. It's like the whole toilet paper thing - if you aren't supposed to put the TP in the toilet, but there is no waste paper basket to throw the TP into, where do you put it? (the answers I've gotten were "on the floor behind the toilet" or "in the toilet anyway." Verdict is still out on that one.) So in our akward foreigner way, we said we should go so we could feed Gus and plus he was being a total wiggle worm. They also thought that was funny, that the dog had a feeding schedule.

Oh well.

Ti logu,
Dove

Happy Birthday to MEEEE! (well, almost...)

Sooo...Friday is my 30th birthday. Just thought I would remind everyone, which might prompt some of you to actually send us an email or comment on the blog (*cough* hint hint *cough*). Just sayin...

Also, I've had a couple of you lovely readers ask me what stuff we need on our little island. We're pretty set here, thanks to the bi-weekly spice-and-snack contributions of my mother, who apparently has nothing better to do with her money than spend it on me (of which I am eternally grateful). However, it's always fun getting "stuff" from folks, so here is a super short list:

1. Kool-Aid packets! Just plain ol' Kool-Aid, those $.20 packets, in most flavors except maybe apple and grape. Oh and Purplesaures Rex. Never did like that one. Nothing with sweetener, we add it here. I'm not a big fan of the uber sweet stuff we have here, plus you can make a mean cocktail with some Kool-Aid and sweetener.

2. Flax seed meal. As some of you have followed my expanding and then shrinking waistline (btw I'm down almost 25lbs now), I've started using flax seed meal a lot. I think Wegmans sells it in the Nature's Market for $5.

4. OH! Adding another! Unsweetened gelatin. So much you can make with that.

That's it, I think we have everything else we could possibly want.

A "for real" blog update coming your way soon...

Making progress (Josh)

The old soccer stadium

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing a couple construction projects actually see an inauguration. Oh and how they love their inauguration parties. Especially when it's a soccer stadium. Nothing brings people together here like a game of soccer. So when the new beautiful stadium with artificial turf opened it was a big deal to say the least, and we were curious what it would be like. We were told to show up at 10 am and there would be a tour of the new stadium and so we did. Sure enough a fair number of people wandering around and checking out the new shiny stadium, but no real festa. We waited around in the heat for about 5 hours with nothing really going on but a steady growing buzz of activity. Then there was an announcement that everyone had to go outside for the ribbon cutting. We thought, great this is it! As everyone was piled around the flag poles that held oversized soccer flags trumping even the country flag, the ribbon was cut and we asked, "Ok, now what?" A youth soccer game of course, to come before the official game. Oh ... well since arriving, we've decided that soccer really isn't our thing, and to sit through two games, let alone one was a bit too much. So we decided to call it a day, a little disappointed that there wasn't more a party but glad to see a major construction project come to completion where so many languish. Oh and we came to find out later that we left at a good time, as we also missed a lengthy speech in between the soccer games that "officially" inaugurated the stadium; they like their speeches too. I guess some things are universal!
The new stadium

That brings me to our second construction project that was completed and inaugurated just two weeks later: The first paved road on our island. After our lengthy day of wandering the stadium and being underwhelmed by the activities, we decided to sit the actual inauguration of this one out, thinking the cool festa portion would take place later. This time the choice was not so well advised. It turned out that there was the mother of all parties at the end opposite end of the road, and by the time we decided to go, everyone was already there partying so getting there was out of the question. Ah well, that's life.


The new road

We've enjoyed the road since then. Just this past weekend I went with my counterpart and a group of others from the Camara to a "beach" (a place where the ocean meets land that isn't a cliff side). We had a cookout and just relaxed for the afternoon. Who knew that squid was such a grilling delicacy? Who knew I'd get so harassed about not having a "picania?" (ie a girlfriend on the side)

As far as my work goes at the Camara, that's making progress too. They have actually started to do some serious data entry in the program that I created for them after I gave them an update and opened their eyes to what the application could do. I love to see the excitement build as they roll ideas around in their head about what else it could. I've even taken the opportunity to publish some of the internationalization objects I've created for dealing with different currency formatting. (http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/1525/) It feels pretty good to be doing what I'm actually GOOD at while I'm here.

Anyone have a spare webcam?

So we have discovered the wonders of using Skype with webcam, talking with my mom today. We'd love to be able to chat with her and anyone else using video, but before we purchase a new webcam, does anyone have one that they're not using anymore? If so, we'd love to borrow it for a while!!!

Hiatus Recap

In case it's been so long you forgot what we look like!

Over a month has gone by and again we have slacked at our blogging efforts. Part of this is because we've been busy, part of it is because we've been lazy, but most of this has been because the longer you are a part of a culture, the less..."interesting" it seems to you, the less you feel you need to tell people about. Life starts to become like life anywhere, you have a flow to your day and things just don't seem that exciting. But I know some of you have been asking what's up, so I'll try and fairly quickly sum up the last weeks here :)

Return to Santiago - In Service Training - March 13 to 20

Wow, that was a while ago! Going back to Mancholy to visit our family was really great. We love them so much, and we had a blast. They cooked up a storm for us and on Saturday we had a little festa where we made a ton of American food - bean salad, quiche, squash pie, mashed potatoes, spanish rice...super good, super fun. The biggest challenge for me was remembering how to speak Badiu, the southern Kriolu.

Training itself was good. It was nice to see everyone and to hang out in the big city of Praia. While I felt it could have been spaced out better (ie more focus on project design management and less on behavior change; longer session on life skills and less "fluffy" stuff the first two days), we learned a lot. The most interesting aspect was our counterparts came with us for two days. You've all heard brief musings about my counterpart - the frequent blow-offs, the goofball attitude - and unbelievably, his behavior at training was no different. I was happy though that he acted this way so that Peace Corps could see what I was dealing with. Example: at dinner the last night, one of the second year volunteer was standing too close to a candle and caught her hair on fire. My counterpart was in the middle of his part of the talent show (a magic act) and as soon as the fire was out he kept trying to redirect all attention to him. He's sort of like a 6 year old with ADHD. Ah well. At least he's fun, right?

Sal - March 21 to 24

After IST we headed off with Jacky and Leah to visit the island of Sal. It was BEAUTIFUL! We fell in love, but mostly because we've been on an island that isn't very touristy, and to go to an island that is was fun. They had all the things we'd been missing: Amazing italian food, a wine and martini bar, 2 for 1 happy hour, an Irish pub or two, pina coladas, margaritas, tiramisu, and a gorgeous beach. For our anniversary (March 23rd) we started the day early and hit the salt pans, old salt mines about 20 minutes from Espargos where we stayed. We swam in the salt pools and after went to the ocean to snorkel, then had lunch. After we went to town and had an amazing dinner of beef caprecio, serra ravioli and gnocci with a tomato cream sauce. OMG. And tiramisu for dessert. We also hit this really cool spot where there is a natural pool, sort of like a giant tide pool, that you can swim in at certain times of the day. There's an awesome cave there as well you can climb into and swim, but the tide wasn't' right and it wasn't safe so we passed. All in all, Sal was great. Totally reminded me of the Caribbean and we can't wait to go back.

Boa Visa - March 25 to 29

Boa Vista is one big island of beach. Much less developed than Sal, it has a budding tourist industry which provided just enough variety of bars and restaurants to keep us busy. More homemade gnocci, awesome grilled octopus and squid, a fantastic pizza or two...mmmm. BV has amazing beaches, some of which are totally secluded and no one goes to. Most days we just hung out near the wind surfers and sunned ourselves, but one day at breakfast we met this really awesome German couple (Hi M and J!) and rented a car with them (PCV's can't drive, so we really wanted to see the island and were glad to find folks that were happy to split the cost and take us along!). We saw everything - the wreck of the Santa Maria, Baia das Gatas, the desert dunes and the 18 km long beach of Santa Monica. We were the only people there on the entire beach...it was paradise. No development just us.

On our third day there, we went to visit Guest House Orquedea, a spectacular place to stay if you are ever in BV. The PCV who used to live on BV had friends there, and we asked him to take us snorkeling in the bay. There is a small islet right off of the main town in BV, so close you can swim there (it's very shallow to get there as well) so he took us out, we snorkeled around and then swam to the island itself. A few hours later he picked us up, after exploring the old military fort and the beach. It was pretty awesome - we were literally stranded on a desert island for about 3 hours lol. Okay not stranded, but we had our camera so we didn't really want to swim back.

All in all our vacation was spectacular. We've decided we don't really want to go to any other islands anymore, we just want to revisit Sal and Boa Vista. They are just so totally different than either Santiago or Santo Antao. That's the beauty of Cape Verde. Don't forget all the pics are on our flickr page!

Introducing...GUS! Arrival March 31



Josh and I have been contemplating getting a dog for a while now. Back in January we found out that a street dog that has a great personality was pregnant up in Ribera das Patas, so we talked to the owner and asked if we could have one of the puppies. I met our new friend about a week after he was born and totally fell in love and named him Gus Gus, like the little mouse from Cinderella. They don't really have breeds of dogs here, so we call him a Cape Verdean Street Mutt or an "Island Mix" but he's wonderful and sweet and we love him to death! You can see pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616988115864/ He's getting to be a big boy now, almost 8lbs!!! He shouldn't get too much above 15...we hope!

Easter - April 11th and 12th

Cape Verde is a Catholic country, so holidays like Easter are a pretty big deal...or at least a pretty good excuse for a pretty big party. For this Easter we skipped the baskets and headed to the big party Saturday night in Ribera das Patas. It was really fun, tons of music, we're finally getting this Zuke dancing thing down, we saw tons of people we know and it made us realize just how integrated we're becoming. I'm sure there were some religious activities going on as well...but we didn't see them!

Site Visit from our new APCD - April 23 to 24

Our new APCD (the person in charge of the Small Enterprise Development Program) came to visit us at the end of April. This was a great opportunity for me to 1) show her the three project proposals I'd been working on, 2) explain the difficulty I'd been having with my counterpart and getting him to work with me, and 3) get a free meal (woohoo!). I'm very proud of my project ideas and it seems that my counterpart is interested, but he is also very busy and doesn't seem to be able to help me move forward with them. Ana Lisa tried to help me out but from what I understood of the conversation, he wasn't entirely truthful about the work he was doing with me. That's neither here nor there I suppose, but it still was nice to be able to talk about the issues.

Festa da Santa Cruz - May 1 to 3



This past weekend we went up to visit the girls in Cocouli for their town's saint day festival. I mentioned how Easter seemed to be a pretty good excuse for a party...so are saint days. The whole tiny town converted into bars, shops and discos and the parties went all night. We had a wonderful time with the volunteers from the North - got to see some folks we haven't seen in a bit, ate some great meat on a stick, had a few drinks and danced til the wee hours of the morning. Saturday we grilled out and watched the horse races from the roof of their house, which was awesome. Sunday was the church service - and the church is right outside their back door so we got to watch all the goings on from our pj's on the balcony. The best part was the auction after church for things like giant bushels of bananas and 10lb squash lol. The other great part was that Gus Gus came with us and everyone fell in love with him. He was super well behaved and it was good to see all our training efforts have paid off!



The General Stuff

In other news...I had two meetings with my counterpart post APCD visit - he bailed on both. We were supposed to go visit Morabi clients ever since I got back from vacation; that still hasn't happened. Tired of sitting around for...um...7 months!?!? I went to my "official" counterpart and asked if I could work with someone else in addition to my partner. I ended up in the division of Youth, Culture and Sports and had a meeting about setting up some youth programs in conjunction with the Youth Center in town. Today we were supposed to have a meeting...but the director was in S. Vicent so who knows when THAT will actually take place. At least things are moving along with the girls summer camp we are planning, and I at least have more of a variety of potential partners to work with. I'm also hoping to go and talk with OMCV, the womens group, about implementing some of the projects I designed. They also work with micro credit, so I think we could adapt the ideas to fit their needs as well possibly.

I'd mentioned back in the winter that I had been gaining weight and was big and fat. Well, I was...but since January I've lost 19lbs and am back to my "pre road trip" weight (you guys remember that's when this whole Giant Dove thing started). I'm feeling awesome and hoping to maybe lose a little more...we'll see! I'll have to post a new pic on here so you can see my sexy little butt. Now the only problem is the clothes that were getting tight are now getting too loose...never ends.


(Much smaller bariga)

I think that's all for now. Sorry for the long intermission, hopefully I'll be better in the future. Maybe now. We'll see :o)

Ti logu,
Dove

We're baaaaack

Hey everyone, Josh and I are back from IST (In Service Training) in Praia, which included a visit to our host families. After that, we spent 4 days on the island of Sal and 5 days on Boa Vista. I'm still pretty busy catching up from out long time away, but I wanted to get some pictures up for you to enjoy. The corosponding blog will be up soon!

In Service Training:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616182927874/

Sal - Salinas:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616094297091/
On our anniversary we went to the salt pans of Sal and spent time walking around and floating in the small salt lakes.

Sal - Buracona:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616197279392/
A really cool lagoon type pool and a hidden cave - very sweet.

Sal - The Other Side:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616118613743/
A look at the poverty on Sal

Sal - Santa Maria:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616208156606/
Hanging out with Jacky and Leah, enjoying 2 for 1 happy hour, awesome homemade gnoccis and tiramisu, pedicures, Irish pubs, pina coladas, and a beach to die for...what more could you want?

Boa Vista - Sal Rei:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616208582332/
The main town on the island of Boa Vista

Boa Vista - Guest House Orquidea:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616120653545/
Leland, a RPCV from Boa Vista, told us to stop in and see Gerry. He was a great guy and his bird was a riot! A BEAUTIFUL place to stay if you are ever visiting Boa Vista.

Boa Vista - Beaches:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616121014435/
Estoil, Chave, Gatas and Santa Monica Beaches, plus some shots of the old brick/tile factory on Chave Beach and the towns up near Gatas

Boa Vista - Kite Surfing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616210709320/
I snapped some great shots of a couple of guys kite surfing, one of the main past times on Boa Vista.

Boa Vista - Desert of Viana:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157616211976198/
No desert island would be complete without, well, a desert!

Stay tuned for some actual updates on how COOL our vacation was, and how we may never come home again...

Workin' 9 to 5...

From all my postings, it may appear that Josh and I do nothing but go to festas, sunbathe and play with our guinea pigs. In the midst of all this, believe it or not, we do manage to fit in time to do “real” work too. Bird, you asked us what we were doing, and if we thought what we were doing was really making a difference, so I thought I’d post a little “work plan” update.

Although I initially came to Cape Verde to do Youth Development, the most important skill to have with Peace Corps is flexibility. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m working at the local government office and, more specifically, with the NGO Morabi. Morabi is a women's organization in Cape Verde that also provides micro credit to women (and men, if they have a woman to cosign on their loan) to start micro businesses. This can range from animal husbandry to agriculture, to making and selling baked goods and jams, to running a bar or small market. In Porto Novo, we have approximately 40 micro credit clients, most of whom are concentrated in the city.

My job is broken into several related parts. First, I work with existing micro credit clients and offer them "additional" services and trainings; for example, an introduction to marketing concepts or help with writing budgets and teaching smart accounting practices. This can also include making connections between businesses. For example in Cirio, we have a client who is a shoe maker. When I asked him how he sells his shoes, he said it was by word of mouth. He receives orders and then makes the shoes, and then when someone is heading down to the city, or to where the customer lives, they will deliver the shoe. Some ideas I am discussing with this customer is marketing – how do people find out about his product? Would it be possible to make sample shoes and display them in stores in the city? Would he be able to handle the additional orders if he were to receive them? What is his current work capacity? Other things to consider is depreciation of big ticket items – if he has 3 sewing machines, has he factored the cost to replace these when they break into his monthly budget, or does he have a separate “savings” to buy a new one when necessary? If not, this is something I can help him to understand and hopefully to plan for.

The second part of my job involves "recruiting" new micro credit clients. There are several challenges to micro credit in Cape Verde, and one of the main ones is lack of information. So my other task is to educate more people about the benefits of micro credit and micro enterprise. I’m currently designing information sessions to give to different communities about these things. Another challenge is lack of the “entrepreneurial spirit.” In America, we are saturated with the idea that opening our own business is a perfectly viable career choice; in Cape Verde, this can be a foreign concept. Part of my training sessions focus on the WHY’s of opening a small business, the HOW’s, and the WHAT’s, as in what sort of businesses are viable options in Cape Verde and how you can choose one that will work best for you.

The third part of my job is an extension of the second; once we hold information sessions to introduce people to the possibilities of entrepreneurship and micro credit, I want to run small business training courses. This “work plan” continues on to include a small business mentoring program, a summer business camp for girls and finally an after school business club, where girls from the business camp will partner with American youth (possibly through Junior Achievement) and open and run their own small business, using a micro loan from the American partner.

In addition to this, we are now starting work on planning Camp Crioula, a girls summer leadership camp that has been run on our island the past two years. This year we are looking to reach 40 girls, including 10 from the neighboring island. This will hopefully take place the last week in July.

So...yep, we do work around here, but things move slowly and the most important catalyst is language. This in particular is why my work has moved more slowly than others; not only did we move to the northern islands and have to learn a different “way” of speaking Kriolu, but I’m also in the business sector and in my work, if I can’t explain something or understand what someone is saying, it can have a real negative effect on someone else’s life. This is also the main reason that Josh and I want to stay here for an extra year; the later parts of my project, including the business camp and after school program, would be implemented next summer and school year (although there is a possibility of having a winter camp over the break).

I’m sure Josh can better explain what he is doing in his work, but in a nutshell, he’s working on several programming projects, including designing a database for storing tax information, one for helping to monitor water in our concelho, and working with me on a way to streamline the credit process for Morabi. We’re also looking at designing an island wide website with links to each concelho.

Now that we've talked about work, it's probably a good time to mention that we're leaving for training in Praia on Thursday, and then will be on VACATION visiting the islands of Sal and Boa Vista from the 21st to the 29th. Sorry, no blog updates during that period I'm afraid, but I know we'll have TONS of photos to post when we get back! The 23rd is our 2 year wedding anniversary (and Josh's mom's birthday - Happy Birthday!), and we thought what better way to celebrate than sitting on a beach doing NOTHING all day along!

Ti logu,

Dove

Carnivale!

Not even a week since we got back, and I've already got pictures! Wow!

So...not much to say specifically about Carnivale, except it was a TON of fun. Most of you know I went to school in New Orleans and so I've experienced a little bit of Fat Tuesday already. And some of you know how much I disliked Mardi Gras proper in New Orleans - too crowded too many tourists, too many people spilling beer on you etc. But the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras were awesome, just the locals celebrating their favorite holiday.

Carnivale in Cape Verde is like that, the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. The people that live here far out number the tourists, although quite a few Cape Verdeans who live abroad take this opportunity to come home and visit friends and family. We heard a bit more english than we are used to, but it wasn't overwhelming. Just like you'd expect there were dancers in the streets, music, drumming, and really awesome huge floats. But there weren't a zillion people, so you could move around, you could walk fairly easily to get some food or a drink, and people in general were pretty awesome.

We arrived late on Sunday, but in enough time to have dinner at this fabulous little Italian restaraunt - gnocci in 4 cheese sauce anyone? Plus sangria, which was delicious. Some folks made it out that night but me and Josh were zonked, so we made it an early night.

Monday was a blast - we dressed up in our Burner best and turned lots of heads (who wouldn't in a fluffy rainbow tutu?). Things were mostly happening at night, so we headed for schwarma and pizza and then to the praca to party. After the parades and dancing started to let up, we opted to hit a warehouse party out by the beach bar...and were we glad we did!! Many of you know how much Josh and I loved techno and electronic music at home, especially when we could dance our butts off til dawn, and since we've gotten here we haven't had much of an opportunity to do so (at the discos they mostly play zuke, which is repetative slow dancing and for me, not something I enjoy). So we coughed up the money, enjoyed the open bar (some of us more than others *cough* Josh *cough*) and danced til about 4am. The music was stellar, the vibe was awesome, I got down with a "naughty nun" (oh how I wish we'd had our camera) and it was just a great night over all. Then someone needed help getting home and good samaratin that I am, everyone arrived safely at their respective destinations.

Tuesday was the big day, and the parades started around 2. We were totally exhausted from the night before but made it in time. A big group of us from Santo Antao all dressed like cave people and had a fantastic time dancing in the streets (seriously, every time the drums started, we started dancing, and every time Josh started dancing, everyone stopped and watched us and joined in - it was really cool). The parades stopped around 6 or 7, and we headed home cause we were cold in our rags and loin cloths. We had planned on hitting the Hotel Mindelo for a later party, but instead we crashed. We needed it.

Wednesday was amazing. We hit the beach around 11 and spent the whole day getting fried there. The weather was awesome, there was a great breeze, the chicken at the beach bar was delicious...it completely felt like we were on vacation....that ended too soon :o(

The pics tell the story way better than I can, so without further adu...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157614760589554/

C took a bunch of video clips, so once I put all those together I'll get them on line. Enjoy!

Airborne! (Or, I get by with a little help from my friends)

(Once again we have fallen slightly behind schedule with our blogging, but hope to catch up this week. Although many of you probably know that Carnivale was this past weekend/week, and we did go to Mindelo for the big party, THIS post is dedicated to my friends.)



A month or so ago, we received an oddly cryptic email from our friends Kim and Bird. It was a series of clues with the title "Airborne Art." The clues were similar to those in the photo above (though not as cooly rhymed). We tried to figure it out and weasel some sort of clarification out of our friends...but the last "clue" they had sent stated "Patience is a Virtue;" I knew we were screwed.



A few weeks ago, the package finally arrived! That's me above, feeling pretty excited about the swift delivery. Part of the instructions said we had to invite over a bunch of our sexy friends and make a party out of it - it even came with SEXY necklaces for us to wear - so we planned to unveil the package that weekend.



Not all our peeps could make it, but L & K came down for the night, and we got to work (with the help of a little vino)!



At first, we were a little lost...



Then we made a few important discoveries and were on our way!



Slightly off topic, but check out my shoes! Those are slippers Kim sent to me a while back, and on the bottom they have fabric rope type things on them, so that when I walk I am dust mopping the floor!



Now, if we turn this piece this way...I think maybe...



We've got it!



I know the picture isn't the greatest (because our lighting here isn't the greatest...) but if you can tell, it's a map of the Cape Verde Islands, Jackson Pollock style. The easiest way to see it is to look at the lower left to lower middle - you'll see the islands of Brava, Fogo and Santiago. In the upper right, you'll see our island, Santo Antao. Also see if you can find the clues - the bird rising in the West, Dusty settling in the East. We had such a fabulous time figuring this out - it just took us a couple weeks to figure out where to hang it so the most people would see it.

Continuing on with the Ode to My Friends...yesterday, Kim's missing package arrived! So for anyone counting, we have lost ZERO packages (that we can tell...) and only one letter (but I bet it comes eventually!). The envelope was crammed full of spice packets, Good Seasoning salad dressing mix (omg Kim, awesome idea, our salad last night was increadible, first time we've had a salad in fact in months!), and hot cocoa. And because a package from Kim wouldn't be complete without a little something fun(ny)...



Snickerdoodle thought this was particularly hilarious. We were also just informed that there are directions on the back for use - too funny.

I also want to thank Meredith for including me in the "book tree" and including all the letters and lables so that life was a lot easier - I got them all mailed out and the book I'm supposed to send is in the mail! I'm so psyched to see if I actually get any books back :o)

I have truely been amazed at the level of involvement our friends and families have had while we're over here...we've been well stocked with letters, spices, books, movies, candy, cookies, music, all the things from home we've been missing. If any parents or friends of other PCV's or future PCV's are reading my blog, know that there is nothing as exciting as getting mail while you are in the Peace Corps. You don't need to send huge boxes or things that cost a lot of money; PCV's get just as excited with a letter, a picture and a bouillon cube :o)

Next up will be our Carnivale 2009 report, and some great pics! (Kim the art supplies you sent, along with the masks, arrived just in time for Carnivale!)

Ti logu,
Dove

PS - Claude, we just got another book that you sent! Thank you!!!

Without further adu...

...a new blog!

Sad to say that there hasn't been a HUGE amount going on, which accounts partially for our lack of reporting. When we last left off, it was after the festival for Liberty Day. The following weekend there was this really cool agricultural fair up in Ponta de Sol, on the other side of the island. It's about an hour drive to get to Povacao, and then another 15 minute ride to P. Sol. We got there Friday night and spent the weekend at the fair. It was pretty similar to the fair in Lagedos that we go to every month (this month was no exception, we were there this Saturday!), except it was bigger, maybe 4 times the people, and at night they had live entertainment. We got tons of good stuff, INCLUDING broccoli and cauliflower! It was worth the trip just to make some of Merediths delicious roasted broccoli with lemon, garlic and red pepper flakes (no olives, sorry Mer!). Plus of course we saw tons of people from the Camara in Port up there, and we always find it good to show our faces around the island as much as possible so that we're really integrating with the culture on many levels. The president of the Camra in Port was there and told us they have a similar fair in PN around June, so we're looking forward to that!
Also that weekend was Municipal Day in the conselho of Ribera Grande, so they had a live free concert in the street, including fireworks (the concerts are pretty common, the fire works are not). The music was great; a funana band from Praia was playing when we got there and they closed out the show. It was freezing with a light drizzle but apparently we survived.
We also made it to Mindelo for Super Bowl Sunday - GO STEELERS! Michelle, if you are reading this, we had several toasts in your honor and even tried to call you, but we got the machine! It was a great night with lots of pigging out on pizza - this restaraunt Flostells in Mindelo has some GREAT pizza, really really awesome, almost like American pizza, and they have one where you can get schwarma meat on it, which is sooooo awesome. Yeah, sometimes, like on Super Bowl Sunday, you just need some beer and pizza.
I've started going up to visit one of the volunteers, the one in Ribera das Patas, a couple times a week. She has a boyfriend who is SUPER patient with language, as is his friend, so in exchange for lunch I can sit down with them for 4 hours and just talk and practice Kriolu and not feel too stupid, plus the volunteer is usually there too so she can help with things I don't understand or help me say it better. It's definately one of the highlights of my week. It also gives us ample opportunity to walk around the town, meet and talk to new people, become familiar with that particular community (which is part of my conselho and are people I hope to be working with) and get some good walking/hiking in!
Work is...slow. I'm not sure what is going on but my counterpart said he is sorry but he has something really important going on and can't meet with me. This is after he said I'd really start seeing clients in February. I have this great four part program, complete with timeline, that i want to start working on, but I can't do anything until I talk with him. Thank you Peace Corps for letting me borrow MakingCents.com's BEST Game to review to see if it's something I want to use in my project - I'm pretty sure it is and I"ll be running a test game with some volunteers hopefully this weekend! It's basically a game that teaches you how to open and run a small business, but it's fun, almost like you are playing LIFE or Monopoly. If it works out well then I'm going to see if the Camara will buy a copy and see if we can't use that to start up some business training courses and possibly a summer business camp for girls, plus a mentoring program for business owners in the community and...ok I'm getting ahead of myself, but you can see I've got some ideas!!
Josh is doing GREAT! He met with NOSI today, the IT department of the national goverment who handle programming for nationwide databases and manage the interisland network. He got to review with them his plans for the new Camara building. He's also started working on some programming to put tax information into a database. Exciting! Well, not for me, but Josh is thrilled to be programming again. I never see him anymore, just like in America ;o)
Right now we are getting reved up for Carnival in Mindeo; we're leaving Saturday the 21st and staying in a for real hotel - can you believe it? Complete with air conditioning and maybe even hot water!!! There is a large group of us from the island that are going together as a bunch of Sexy Cavemen (okay, just cavemen, but you know when I'm involved it's GOT to be sexy!!!). I just finished my costume and am working on the guys now. Plus I had my mom send my tutu and rainbow corset AND I got some great goodies from my friend Miss Fidget, complete with this rockin' wig, so I'm PSYCHED to be dressing up like a fool again - I've missed costuming! We'll definately send pictures from the hotel rooms, but not from carnival itself I think - too much concern for theft and safety.
So that's it, kind of a lame update, but things are going well, life wise. Eating lots of beans. Gotta love that. OH and Pat, thanks SOOO much for sending the musical Christmas card that Josh JUST opened again, for the zillionth time. ARRRRRR!!!!

Ti logu,
Dove

Slacker

Yep, that's me, total slacker. What can I say, I've fallen off the blogging wagon. No worries, I'm sure I'll get back up on it soon ;o)


To get you started...here are a few pics of Porto Novo. Some of you have been asking what it's like where we live, so this should help give you an idea:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157612508191421/


So let's do a quick rundown of life in Port. After Christmas, me and Josh, along with some other volunteers, went on a hike that started in Cova and ended up in the Ribera of Paul. It was gorgous. The hike starts basically in a pine forest and ends in a rain forest. You start at the top of the crater of the volcano, hike down into the volcano, to the other side and up out again and down the outside into the ribera. At the end of the hike we stopped at O Corral, the infamous grogue and cheese guy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157612507078159/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/3198236482/ (a video of our hike)


On the 30th, we had a Christmas party at the Camara. Yes, another Christmas party. It was more of a small luncheon just for our department. Food was really great, and we even had champagne! Okay, sparkeling wine. We did a sort of secret santa type thing, and I got this beautiful cross stich of women working in Cape Verde, and Josh got these cool terra cotta plates, one was of all the islands, like a map, and another was a scene from Porto Novo. Super cool

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157612579105342/

For NYE, we left the island for the first time since arriving at site and went to Mindelo, across the ocean to the island of Sao Nicolau. We had a blast. Not only did we enjoy the best pizza I've had in a long time and schwarma, but we partied all night long into the wee hours of the morning. We decided to go all out and pay the big bucks to head to a hotel party. But first, there were fireworks. So we went down by the water and watched them light off what was quite possibly one of the most dangerous fireworks displays ever lol. Then there was this awesome women's drum corp that played for about 30 minutes while a bunch of Cape Verdeans, in keeping with tradition, jumped into the ocean for the first swim of the new year. Then we hit the party, where there was a buffet dinner plus tables upon tables of snack foods (including several pig heads - have I mentioned I'm taking a vacation from pork? Actually, we're at this point pretty close to vegeterian, not for any other reason that it's cheaper and some of the meats here really disgust me. Chicken and fish are fine, but other than that I would just rather not go there) and three giant dessert tables. Open bar was all night long, as was the live music. Around 9pm we were all pretty exhausted but we made one last stop at the praca to see the drummers again and danced out butts off before we dropped. Enjoy the cheesy "Prom Photos" we took after we got dressed up, including our "Island Photos" with us spelling out the intials of our islands using our hands and bodies, and the traditional Cape Verdean group shot, where no one at all smiles:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157612529207965/


In the time since we've been back, it's been a whirlwind. I've lost about 5lbs (phew!), Josh is nearly finished with his network design for the Camara, I've come up with a project plan for myself and have a meeting about it tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed - if all goes well I'll post my ideas next time!), we gotten a couple more "long lost" packages, one that was mailed November 3rd, the 2nd year volunteers have returned from the states with lots of goodies for us (yay makeup!)...and yesterday was Liberty Day!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doveandjoshua/sets/72157612541717419/

So something cool about Cape Verde. They received independence in 1975 but were a one party system until January 13th, 1991 when they had their first democratic elections. Previously, the party PAICV was in charge, but in 1991, the new MPD came into power and stayed in power for 10 years. Although the current national government is PAICV, our local government is MPD...so of course there was a HUGE party. It was held in Ribera Das Patas, out in this sort of...well field I guess. I can't explain it. It was a day full of dancing and eating and drinking. By the time we got home around 7 30 we were exhausted and fell right asleep (then woke up at 2am and watched Wall-E, which BTW ROCKS!). It was really neat to see, and to actually hear one of the "fathers of democracy" give a speech about something that just happened less than 20 years ago.


Well, that's us in a nutshell. Enjoy the photos and we'll write more soon!


Ti logu,

Dove