4 limes, squeezed
1/2 an onion, diced
1/4 c olive oil
2 hot peppers, diced
salt and pepper
- combine well, add about a cup of fresh tuna, cut up in a mish mash of sizes and shapes, stick in the fridge for about 20 min, gobble up, repeat.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
TUNA!!!
So here is what 300$00 (Cape Verdean Escudos), or about $4.20, can buy you in terms of tuna, assuming you know the guy who knows the guy that catches the fish. Pay no attention to how horrible I look - I was cleaning a fish! So what exactly is a girl to do with all this fish? Especially now that we're going to be getting a package like this once a week? First things first - ceviche! Ok, MAYBE it's not the greatest idea to eat fish raw, especially when it comes to you in a plastic grocery bag in the back of a truck, but isn't that what the lime is for? To cook it a little? Well, if I do get sick and die from some strange food poisoning, at least I will die with a happy grin on my face. Plus its a great way to use the butt end of the tuna and still save the middle for steaks! My ceviche recipe:
4 limes, squeezed
1/2 an onion, diced
1/4 c olive oil
2 hot peppers, diced
salt and pepper
- combine well, add about a cup of fresh tuna, cut up in a mish mash of sizes and shapes, stick in the fridge for about 20 min, gobble up, repeat.
4 limes, squeezed
1/2 an onion, diced
1/4 c olive oil
2 hot peppers, diced
salt and pepper
- combine well, add about a cup of fresh tuna, cut up in a mish mash of sizes and shapes, stick in the fridge for about 20 min, gobble up, repeat.
Monday, November 3, 2008
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever...
Another week down, and so much to write about! I'm not sure where to start, so maybe I'll start at the end...
Yesterda Josh and I were invited to go into the fora near Cova to eat corn. That's all the info we got on the outing, except to be at Josh's counterparts house at 10am. We'd been out at the opening of a new club the night before, so it was a struggle to get out of bed to make it there on time...and then in true Cape Verdean fashion we didn't leave until 11:45. Cova is right at the top of the old volcano, and yesterday was a particularly cloudy day so we spent the whole afternoon sitting inside a cloud. If you've never sat inside a cloud before, its a very cool experience. It's cool, much cooler than life outside the clouds, and misty, like it's raining in all directions. We were dressed in sweatshirts and pants and were still cold after about 3 hours. Another aspect of the coolness was the drive up...it was a clear day outside of the mountains, so we had a great view of not only Sao Vincent but also of two of the three islands that make up Sao Lucia. It was the first time we'd seen them. Living on an island is soooo cool.
We did exactly what they told us we'd be doing - we went to Cova and we ate corn all day. A couple of guys (oh did I mention it was all men there? Mostly those that work at the Camara, but still majorly akward for me!) were inside boiling salted fish and corn, so the corn had a salty fishy taste but was still good. Then another couple of guys built a small fire and roasted the corn right in it. Corn here is quite different from the corn we're used to in New York; the kernels are larger and it's tougher and not so sweet. But when you roast it right in the fire it gets chewy and tastes sort of like roasted popcorn, and you can pull the kernels off one by one and pop them in your mouth. I think we each ate 5 ears of corn. It was really good. We tried to show them how we roast corn in America, leaving the husks on, but they were confused and thought we were idiots, though they did roast two ears like that for us but wouldn't eat it that way themselves. When we left they gave us a huge bag of corn to make at home and kept repeating that we were supposed to take the husks off before boiling them. It was pretty funny.
There are two political parties in Cape Verde: PACV and MPD. The Camara in Porto Novo is MPD controlled so most of the people there were MPD, but one of the guys was PACV. It was pretty funny, they spent the whole afternoon drinking and arguing and arguing louder and more as they drank more. It reminded me of guys getting together in the states to watch sports on Sunday - no women around (except me), making "manly" food, enjoying some beers with the guys. I think next time I'll let Josh go on without me.
At the end, they piled up all the leftover corn husks and Josh's counterpart put them in his car. I asked him what they were for and he kept saying "something something pig" and I said "huh?" and he said "something something small pig" so I said "OH! Liton?" which means baby pig in Kriolu, and he said "No no, you want me to show you?" and I said "Of course!" So back in Port we stopped at his fathers house, which is right around the corner from us, and went in to see these small pig like creatures. As we walked into the back, there was this strange purring-squeeking-chirping noise that completely freaked me out. Then they opened this large pen and inside were about 100 guinea pigs!!! They were so cute, running around and purring, and I started to chase after them and squeeling myself and saying "M KRE! M KRE!!" which means "I want I want!" They thought it was hilarious and gave me one to take home; we insisted on paying for it but they refused. We're still not sure if they raise them for fun or for food...but in any event...
Josh and I got a pet! Her name is Miss Muffinhead Pettagonia Fofanu, II, but we call her Muffin. I think we're going to adopt a second one so she dosen't get lonely (guinea pigs are very social creatures). She is currently living in our laundry wash basin, but we're going to build her a cage. She's so cute! Pictures are below :o)
In other news...Halloween was out first celebrated holiday in Cape Verde; here it's called Dia di Brudja, or Day of the Devil. There is no trick or treating or costumes really; people that go out usually dress in all black and it's like most other nights at the clubs. My friend Meredith recently sent us a care package (with totally awesome stuff! Thanks Meredith!!!) and had wrapped this cool dragonfly magnet in a scrap of zebra patterned cloth. It was just enough to make four ears and a tail for me, so Josh and I brought "sexy" to Cape Verde and went as sexy zebras. Other CV's were wearing costumes too actually, but most people were in black. We had a great time dancing until 4am and talking and laughing with everyone.
Saturday we went out to the opening of another club. The atmosphere itself was cool but they played the same type of music the whole night, this slooooow couple dancing music that is popular up here. They seriously played it for two hours straight, it was painful. We left around 3 30 I think.
In work related news...Josh has been helping all sorts of folks with virus control and other assorted issues that come from having a computer in the land of sea, salt and sand. I spent the majority of the week translating some documents about MORABI, a microcredit institution in Cape Verde, from Portuguese to English, which was MUCH harder than I thought it would be, but now I have a better idea of the organization, which I believe I'll be working with. I also spent a ton of time compiling resources on micro finance in general and reading as many websites as I can. I'm glad that I have a) a computer with internet access at home, b) free time to learn as much as I can about this stuff and c) something to do finally!
Yesterda Josh and I were invited to go into the fora near Cova to eat corn. That's all the info we got on the outing, except to be at Josh's counterparts house at 10am. We'd been out at the opening of a new club the night before, so it was a struggle to get out of bed to make it there on time...and then in true Cape Verdean fashion we didn't leave until 11:45. Cova is right at the top of the old volcano, and yesterday was a particularly cloudy day so we spent the whole afternoon sitting inside a cloud. If you've never sat inside a cloud before, its a very cool experience. It's cool, much cooler than life outside the clouds, and misty, like it's raining in all directions. We were dressed in sweatshirts and pants and were still cold after about 3 hours. Another aspect of the coolness was the drive up...it was a clear day outside of the mountains, so we had a great view of not only Sao Vincent but also of two of the three islands that make up Sao Lucia. It was the first time we'd seen them. Living on an island is soooo cool.
We did exactly what they told us we'd be doing - we went to Cova and we ate corn all day. A couple of guys (oh did I mention it was all men there? Mostly those that work at the Camara, but still majorly akward for me!) were inside boiling salted fish and corn, so the corn had a salty fishy taste but was still good. Then another couple of guys built a small fire and roasted the corn right in it. Corn here is quite different from the corn we're used to in New York; the kernels are larger and it's tougher and not so sweet. But when you roast it right in the fire it gets chewy and tastes sort of like roasted popcorn, and you can pull the kernels off one by one and pop them in your mouth. I think we each ate 5 ears of corn. It was really good. We tried to show them how we roast corn in America, leaving the husks on, but they were confused and thought we were idiots, though they did roast two ears like that for us but wouldn't eat it that way themselves. When we left they gave us a huge bag of corn to make at home and kept repeating that we were supposed to take the husks off before boiling them. It was pretty funny.
There are two political parties in Cape Verde: PACV and MPD. The Camara in Porto Novo is MPD controlled so most of the people there were MPD, but one of the guys was PACV. It was pretty funny, they spent the whole afternoon drinking and arguing and arguing louder and more as they drank more. It reminded me of guys getting together in the states to watch sports on Sunday - no women around (except me), making "manly" food, enjoying some beers with the guys. I think next time I'll let Josh go on without me.
At the end, they piled up all the leftover corn husks and Josh's counterpart put them in his car. I asked him what they were for and he kept saying "something something pig" and I said "huh?" and he said "something something small pig" so I said "OH! Liton?" which means baby pig in Kriolu, and he said "No no, you want me to show you?" and I said "Of course!" So back in Port we stopped at his fathers house, which is right around the corner from us, and went in to see these small pig like creatures. As we walked into the back, there was this strange purring-squeeking-chirping noise that completely freaked me out. Then they opened this large pen and inside were about 100 guinea pigs!!! They were so cute, running around and purring, and I started to chase after them and squeeling myself and saying "M KRE! M KRE!!" which means "I want I want!" They thought it was hilarious and gave me one to take home; we insisted on paying for it but they refused. We're still not sure if they raise them for fun or for food...but in any event...
Josh and I got a pet! Her name is Miss Muffinhead Pettagonia Fofanu, II, but we call her Muffin. I think we're going to adopt a second one so she dosen't get lonely (guinea pigs are very social creatures). She is currently living in our laundry wash basin, but we're going to build her a cage. She's so cute! Pictures are below :o)
In other news...Halloween was out first celebrated holiday in Cape Verde; here it's called Dia di Brudja, or Day of the Devil. There is no trick or treating or costumes really; people that go out usually dress in all black and it's like most other nights at the clubs. My friend Meredith recently sent us a care package (with totally awesome stuff! Thanks Meredith!!!) and had wrapped this cool dragonfly magnet in a scrap of zebra patterned cloth. It was just enough to make four ears and a tail for me, so Josh and I brought "sexy" to Cape Verde and went as sexy zebras. Other CV's were wearing costumes too actually, but most people were in black. We had a great time dancing until 4am and talking and laughing with everyone.
Saturday we went out to the opening of another club. The atmosphere itself was cool but they played the same type of music the whole night, this slooooow couple dancing music that is popular up here. They seriously played it for two hours straight, it was painful. We left around 3 30 I think.
In work related news...Josh has been helping all sorts of folks with virus control and other assorted issues that come from having a computer in the land of sea, salt and sand. I spent the majority of the week translating some documents about MORABI, a microcredit institution in Cape Verde, from Portuguese to English, which was MUCH harder than I thought it would be, but now I have a better idea of the organization, which I believe I'll be working with. I also spent a ton of time compiling resources on micro finance in general and reading as many websites as I can. I'm glad that I have a) a computer with internet access at home, b) free time to learn as much as I can about this stuff and c) something to do finally!
Another sort of odd thing I'll mention, because it kind of threw me off. Last night, after our adoption proceedings (but before we went out to dinner for Megans b-day), we stopped at our friend N's house because it was his birthday as well (21, though not so big of a deal in CV). He told us to come at 6, so, like good Cape Verdeans, we got there at 7 with a plate of fresh and hot sugar cookies (he told us to come by for a "lantxi" which is a snack here). So we get there and told them we only had an hour, we had to go to dinner with some friends, and immediatly everyone rushes into action. His brother and father leave the house, as does he, to go to the store, his mother and these two girls that are there go into the kitchen and start cookign and leave me and Josh in the living room with his 6 year old cousin. So for about 30 minutes it's just us and this kid hanging out. Then N comes back and has some cookies and brings us a snack. Then...here's the part that threw me...I ask him who the girls are in the kitchen and he says they are his and his brothers girlfriends. I was suprised because I'd asked him before if he has a girlfriend and he said "Not really." So I started making small talk about her and why she never came out, what she was doing etc, and she says that she's 4 months pregnant. I didn't know what to say. And I'm not sure why it threw me off so much, except that I would have thought he would have mentioned having a girlfriend that was pregnant with his child sooner than this, and he was just really flip about it, though looking back I think it was more embarassment than being flippant. Anyway, then I kept thinking about how things like this happen, what happened to birth control, why was she keeping the child, how would they support it (N doesn't work; the unemployment rate in CV for youth is very very high...he's and his brother are both still living at home). Granted, it's not that different from a lot of situtations in America, so I'm not sure it WHY it threw me off so much, other than it just seemed like he was spending a lot of time with us and when we asked him about his life and what he does all day he never mentioned her...so we tried to say congradulations and then insisted that they both come over to our house for dinner this week. We'll see what happens!
I guess that's all for now...enjoy the photos below of Halloween and Muffin! We'll post more of our other new friend when we bring her home!
Our new arrival!
Josh and Muffin hard at work
Smile!
Little Miss Muffinhead
EEK! Don't squeeze so tight!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Water water everwhere, and not a drop to drink (or bathe in, or wash dishes, or...)
Ah, yes, our first experience running out of water. We all knew it was coming right? But first, a weekend update...
This may have been the most "normal" of weekends we've spent in Cape Verde thus far (minus the lack of water, but we're not to that point yet). On Thursday, we went out for pizza with some friends. Then on Friday, we had dinner at the other PCV's house in Porto Novo. It was an interesting mix of American and Cape Verdean - the people, the food and the drinks. C made some fabulous lasagna and a Cape Verdean fruit and cream dessert. I whipped up some garlic bread and brought some red wine, and a couple other folks brought the fixin's for some Caiparinhas, sort of the Cape Verdean equivilant of Mojitos. The food was great, the wine was...well...cheap, and the caiparinhas were perfect for a relaxing island evening, sipping on the balcony under the stars. Around midnight we decided to go out to a local club near me and Josh's place. Typically people here don't go out until that late and then stay out until dawn. This is most likely why this weekend is the first time Josh and I ventured out - we're just getting too old for that!
We stopped first at our place to show folks around, and it was nice to have company and play host for a while. I'd forgotten how much I like to have people over to hang out. Then we trotted off to the club, which in the end we decided not to go into after sitting outside and mingling for a bit - I think we were all tired. The next day people came over to our place to veg a bit and enjoy some fresh brewed mint iced green tea. We did some laundry (in record time I might add: 38 minutes!) and then went off to catch a soccer game, which I have to admit I still find borring. BUT the idea was to mingle with the community, to spend more time doing with people in Porto Novo do, and thus the goal was achieved. After we went for pizza again and then took a nap before our CV friend took us out to the other discotheque in town. We still spent a good amount of time outside, but this time we actually went in (honestly it seems like more people hang out outside the clubs than go inside...plus there are usually small bars and food stands outside that you can go to, which are cheaper than the drinks inside, so I think part of it is a money issue). The club was crazy. Layout wise it was pretty similar to clubs in America, but there was this one very disorienting strobe light that drove us nuts all night. I immediatly was dragged out to dance (being the only white woman in the club and being taken for a tourist) and had to politely peel several very intoxicated men off of me, who's grasp of the english language appeared to stop at "I like you. You are very beautiful." It is definately a good idea for women to go to clubs with men they trust who can come to their rescue if necessary. Of course, this applies in the States as well, who are we kidding. Our evening ended around 4am at which point we exhaustedly fell into a blissful sleep.
Okay so let me backtrack for a minute here, to when we were doing laundry on Saturday. Josh went up to the roof later that night to take our clothes down and when he did, he saw two people we didn't recognize on top of the water tanks taking water out. The way water works at our place, apparently, is that water pumped up from the street to the roof of the house, fills a cement tank on the roof of the house (each apartment should have one), and then when you turn your water on the water flows from the tank into your sink with the assistance of gravity. So when I heard people on the roof (no one uses the roof but me and Josh, so I can tell when people walk up the stairs and new it was strange), Josh went to investigate. Each tank has a lock on it so pepole can't steal the water, but one of the tanks had the lock busted off and the two people had climbed on top of the 7ft tanks and were dipping in to fill buckets of water. Josh asked them what was up and they said they had no water in the apartment downstairs. On their way down, we showed them in our apartment that we did, in fact, still have water. Also, neither of the people on the roof were people we'd ever seen in the apartment downstairs, so we thought maybe they'd come in off the street to steal our water. I talked to the other PCV in town who confirmed this is done and that we needed to get a new lock for our tank.
Sunday, we notice our water pressure seems low, and then all of a sudden it stops. As in our toilet won't flush, our sinks are dry. We call the other PCV again and she tells us we need to wait until Monday to go to the water company. In the mean time, we have no water to cook, bathe, do dishes, drink....all those things that you do with water. So, we did what every good Cape Verdean would do in this situation: we climbed on top of the water tanks on top of house and took water out of the tank with the broken lock (which obviously wasn't ours, since our tank was dry). It was pretty hilarious - Josh laying on his stomach 7ft up on this huge concrete tank, dipping a pitcher into the water, dumping into my bucket below, then bringing it all downstairs to fill a wash tub to bathe in and the sink to do dishes in. Yes, probably not the most honest thing in the world to do, but seeing as we had to go to work the next day and it would have been two days without a shower, it seemed to be the best option. Oh plus, we were thirsty!
So the rest of Sunday we hung low, not wanting to torture the rest of our community with our unbathed selves, and wanting to spend some time alone since we'd been hanging out with others so much that weekend. Monday, the other PCV came with us to the water company, and it turns out they turned off our water for six months of non payment, and that to turn it back on, we had to pay the six months of back payments PLUS a fee to turn it back on. Given that we'd only been here for a month, and that it meant the water had been turned off for a while (seeing as we drained the whole tank...), Peace Corps obviously said they would reimburse us for the cost the months we weren't there and the cost to turn it back on. So we paid up and waited another 24 hours before the water actually came on. Fortunately we've been pretty good about learning how to conserve water, so we needed very little to get by for a couple of days.
I don't know if there is a moral to the story, except to pay your water bill...except that our first bill arrived after they'd already shut our water off...and we don't really understand why the water to the whole building was shut off, ie the apartment downstairs....or if we somehow paid for their water to get turned back on too...or if they don't pay their water, if ours will get shut off again too...but I guess the moral could be that water is good. And you miss it when it's gone. A lot.
The end.
This may have been the most "normal" of weekends we've spent in Cape Verde thus far (minus the lack of water, but we're not to that point yet). On Thursday, we went out for pizza with some friends. Then on Friday, we had dinner at the other PCV's house in Porto Novo. It was an interesting mix of American and Cape Verdean - the people, the food and the drinks. C made some fabulous lasagna and a Cape Verdean fruit and cream dessert. I whipped up some garlic bread and brought some red wine, and a couple other folks brought the fixin's for some Caiparinhas, sort of the Cape Verdean equivilant of Mojitos. The food was great, the wine was...well...cheap, and the caiparinhas were perfect for a relaxing island evening, sipping on the balcony under the stars. Around midnight we decided to go out to a local club near me and Josh's place. Typically people here don't go out until that late and then stay out until dawn. This is most likely why this weekend is the first time Josh and I ventured out - we're just getting too old for that!
We stopped first at our place to show folks around, and it was nice to have company and play host for a while. I'd forgotten how much I like to have people over to hang out. Then we trotted off to the club, which in the end we decided not to go into after sitting outside and mingling for a bit - I think we were all tired. The next day people came over to our place to veg a bit and enjoy some fresh brewed mint iced green tea. We did some laundry (in record time I might add: 38 minutes!) and then went off to catch a soccer game, which I have to admit I still find borring. BUT the idea was to mingle with the community, to spend more time doing with people in Porto Novo do, and thus the goal was achieved. After we went for pizza again and then took a nap before our CV friend took us out to the other discotheque in town. We still spent a good amount of time outside, but this time we actually went in (honestly it seems like more people hang out outside the clubs than go inside...plus there are usually small bars and food stands outside that you can go to, which are cheaper than the drinks inside, so I think part of it is a money issue). The club was crazy. Layout wise it was pretty similar to clubs in America, but there was this one very disorienting strobe light that drove us nuts all night. I immediatly was dragged out to dance (being the only white woman in the club and being taken for a tourist) and had to politely peel several very intoxicated men off of me, who's grasp of the english language appeared to stop at "I like you. You are very beautiful." It is definately a good idea for women to go to clubs with men they trust who can come to their rescue if necessary. Of course, this applies in the States as well, who are we kidding. Our evening ended around 4am at which point we exhaustedly fell into a blissful sleep.
Okay so let me backtrack for a minute here, to when we were doing laundry on Saturday. Josh went up to the roof later that night to take our clothes down and when he did, he saw two people we didn't recognize on top of the water tanks taking water out. The way water works at our place, apparently, is that water pumped up from the street to the roof of the house, fills a cement tank on the roof of the house (each apartment should have one), and then when you turn your water on the water flows from the tank into your sink with the assistance of gravity. So when I heard people on the roof (no one uses the roof but me and Josh, so I can tell when people walk up the stairs and new it was strange), Josh went to investigate. Each tank has a lock on it so pepole can't steal the water, but one of the tanks had the lock busted off and the two people had climbed on top of the 7ft tanks and were dipping in to fill buckets of water. Josh asked them what was up and they said they had no water in the apartment downstairs. On their way down, we showed them in our apartment that we did, in fact, still have water. Also, neither of the people on the roof were people we'd ever seen in the apartment downstairs, so we thought maybe they'd come in off the street to steal our water. I talked to the other PCV in town who confirmed this is done and that we needed to get a new lock for our tank.
Sunday, we notice our water pressure seems low, and then all of a sudden it stops. As in our toilet won't flush, our sinks are dry. We call the other PCV again and she tells us we need to wait until Monday to go to the water company. In the mean time, we have no water to cook, bathe, do dishes, drink....all those things that you do with water. So, we did what every good Cape Verdean would do in this situation: we climbed on top of the water tanks on top of house and took water out of the tank with the broken lock (which obviously wasn't ours, since our tank was dry). It was pretty hilarious - Josh laying on his stomach 7ft up on this huge concrete tank, dipping a pitcher into the water, dumping into my bucket below, then bringing it all downstairs to fill a wash tub to bathe in and the sink to do dishes in. Yes, probably not the most honest thing in the world to do, but seeing as we had to go to work the next day and it would have been two days without a shower, it seemed to be the best option. Oh plus, we were thirsty!
So the rest of Sunday we hung low, not wanting to torture the rest of our community with our unbathed selves, and wanting to spend some time alone since we'd been hanging out with others so much that weekend. Monday, the other PCV came with us to the water company, and it turns out they turned off our water for six months of non payment, and that to turn it back on, we had to pay the six months of back payments PLUS a fee to turn it back on. Given that we'd only been here for a month, and that it meant the water had been turned off for a while (seeing as we drained the whole tank...), Peace Corps obviously said they would reimburse us for the cost the months we weren't there and the cost to turn it back on. So we paid up and waited another 24 hours before the water actually came on. Fortunately we've been pretty good about learning how to conserve water, so we needed very little to get by for a couple of days.
I don't know if there is a moral to the story, except to pay your water bill...except that our first bill arrived after they'd already shut our water off...and we don't really understand why the water to the whole building was shut off, ie the apartment downstairs....or if we somehow paid for their water to get turned back on too...or if they don't pay their water, if ours will get shut off again too...but I guess the moral could be that water is good. And you miss it when it's gone. A lot.
The end.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Small successes, big happiness
Just wanted to post a little update about my work here. Today my boss at the Camara came in to talk to me and asked how my Kriolu was going. I told him it was going ok and that maybe he and I could sit down and talk about my job to see what else I may want to work on language wise. He told me that my job would be to work in the community with people and groups to offer information sessions and individual help on accessing micro credit. I showed him my flash cards of Portuguese business and development words, and he was impressed that I had been putting in so much effort to learn that sort of terminology. I asked him for more information on the micro credit programs they have in CV in Portuguese (written - nothing is written in Kriolu) and told him I could work with another volunteer that speaks English and Portuguese to help me translate it so I could understand it. So now I have more of a focus...he still said the most important thing is for me to keep learning the language so that I can answer questions about micro credit and help people fill out applications etc. and that without the language I really can't do much, but it felt GREAT to at least have a conversation about what my work will entail.
In addition, another volunteer who works at the high school and I are starting a secondary project. It was kind of funny, I had been tossing this idea around in my head of starting a small college information center at the high school, where the students could come and get information on scholarships and international schooling - typically, during 10th grade the school psychologist gives a small talk on post-high school options, and from what I gather the talk is basically just to steer the students in a certain way, either towards trade work or higher education. But after that, there is not a lot of guidence or follow up to see the students through. My idea, based on a few conversations I've had with students who have just graduated and are wanting to go to university but aren't sure how to make it happen, was to train the psychologist in internet research and develop a small on line database or even just links to websites that have information on scholarships etc. Also, we could work with the psychologist on using testing/surveys or something of that nature to help guide the students toward potential careers and then show them how to make those career ideas a reality.
So I mentioned all this to another volunteer, and she was like Dove, I've been thinking about the same thing, putting together a book of scholarships and school options. So we decided to join forces and see if we can't make it a joint project between the school and the Camara to help with funding (and plus, any promotion local government can get with regards to education has to be a bonus for them as well!). I think we are going to start working on survey's for students to get a better idea of what information they currently have and what information may be useful to them in the future. She teaches in the afternoons so that leaves every morning free for her and I to work together on this. Super stoked!
So that's the recent news on my work side of things!! I'm pretty exited and, although I thought I would be doing youth development and not micro credit, I'm happy to be getting some experience in that field. As far as development work goes, micro credit is huge right now, and I can't think of any better experience than serving in the Peace Corps in a country on the cusp of "least developed nation" and "medium developed nation" status, in need of volunteers to help train it's citizens in becoming financially self sufficient.
Feelin' good,
Dove
In addition, another volunteer who works at the high school and I are starting a secondary project. It was kind of funny, I had been tossing this idea around in my head of starting a small college information center at the high school, where the students could come and get information on scholarships and international schooling - typically, during 10th grade the school psychologist gives a small talk on post-high school options, and from what I gather the talk is basically just to steer the students in a certain way, either towards trade work or higher education. But after that, there is not a lot of guidence or follow up to see the students through. My idea, based on a few conversations I've had with students who have just graduated and are wanting to go to university but aren't sure how to make it happen, was to train the psychologist in internet research and develop a small on line database or even just links to websites that have information on scholarships etc. Also, we could work with the psychologist on using testing/surveys or something of that nature to help guide the students toward potential careers and then show them how to make those career ideas a reality.
So I mentioned all this to another volunteer, and she was like Dove, I've been thinking about the same thing, putting together a book of scholarships and school options. So we decided to join forces and see if we can't make it a joint project between the school and the Camara to help with funding (and plus, any promotion local government can get with regards to education has to be a bonus for them as well!). I think we are going to start working on survey's for students to get a better idea of what information they currently have and what information may be useful to them in the future. She teaches in the afternoons so that leaves every morning free for her and I to work together on this. Super stoked!
So that's the recent news on my work side of things!! I'm pretty exited and, although I thought I would be doing youth development and not micro credit, I'm happy to be getting some experience in that field. As far as development work goes, micro credit is huge right now, and I can't think of any better experience than serving in the Peace Corps in a country on the cusp of "least developed nation" and "medium developed nation" status, in need of volunteers to help train it's citizens in becoming financially self sufficient.
Feelin' good,
Dove
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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