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