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!