Anatomy 201

I have spent all of this past week trying to remember what I learned in Anatomy 201 in college. Why you ask…because every muscle in my body hurts; even the teeny tiny ones in my toes!!! Last weekend was jam-packed full of hiking, which means that when Monday came, I couldn’t move my legs. Friday, I caught a ride up to Cha das Calderas (the town on the volcano) and stayed with the two volunteers up there, Mel and Sam. Saturday, the three of us got up early and hiked up the volcano. It took us 3 ½ hours to get to the top (mainly because of me…I am a slow mover!). Sam, who I like to call Turbo Man, and who Mel has decided is pure ADD rolled up into a functioning human form, can hike to the top in 2 hours (it’s a change in elevation of more than 1,500 Meters). Once at the top though, it is outstanding. It literally feels like you are on top of the world because you are above the clouds looking down on the little town of Cha and the big blue Atlantic Ocean (don’t worry; I know I am a cornball!!!). However, what really makes the trip up worth the pain is the trip down. You don’t go down the same way you go up, something I did not know when we started because Sam likes it to be a surprise. While the hike up is pretty traditional in the way of hiking, ie. some switchbacking and rock climbing, etc., the way down is straight down. You basically run down the side of the volcano in knee deep volcanic rock. As the other Lauren told me before I came here, “it’s like running on black cheerios.” It is definitely pretty close, but I might even say more like powder skiing in black cheerios! It took us only an 1 ½ hours to get down as opposed to the 3 ½ to get up and it really felt like we were the only people on earth who had ever been on this volcano (I know, cornball again!). So, it was a much faster trip down and way more fun!!

I stayed Saturday night too in Cha, and then Sunday, Mel and I got in hiking mode one more time to make the 4 hour trip down to Mosteiros to see Sean and Dave, the volunteers there. After the hard cardiovascular hike up the volcano, I naively thought this trip down to the boys would be a cake walk…boy was I wrong. It is 4 hours of straight down; no breaks, no ups, nothing but down. There were points along the trail where Mel and I were literally running because our legs were no longer strong enough to stop our forward momentum. I was actually hoping that there would be a point where we would have to go uphill a little, but no such luck. By the time we got to the bottom, our legs were jell-o, our feet were torn up and on fire, and we had both taken one pretty nasty fall along the way in the wet mud. I think we must have looked pretty pathetic by the time we reached the boys, but it was nothing a cold beer couldn’t fix…which we drank Cape Verdean style, which is to say that we popped it open right after leaving the store and were finished by the time we reached the house.

The boys already had some activities planned for the evening, so we tagged along to the big soccer game that was happening in town. It was the finals of the girls’ league and it was amazing to see all of the people that were there cheering and really getting into the game. After the game, we went back to the house where Dave, the cook of the house (they have it worked out so that Dave cooks and Sean does the dishes…he might starve if not for Dave…we definitely have to get him cooking!!), made a yum dinner and we sat out on their fantastic roof and drank some beers and talked. I think they definitely have the best volunteer house on Fogo, their rooftop space is bigger than the inside of their house! Mel and I left on the early Hiace Monday morning, and were back in Bila before 8 am. I spent all day Monday trying not to move because my legs were not wanting to work. All is better now, but I think it will be awhile before I do that hike again!!

Sam eating some yummy cookies

Not the best pic, but this is Mel

Mel and me

I made it to the top!!

Going down anyone??

Do you even know what a mop is or how to use it??

I thought I would clarify for all my skeptics out there (Sara Martin…and probably anyone who has ever lived with me/known me), YES I have become quite well acquainted with my mop!! I may not have used it much before, or really maybe never before(!) but I am a good little cleaner now. I clean my house twice a week, can you believe that 2 times in one week! I know I know, I am making people fall off their chairs right now, what with liking onions and actually cleaning on a regular basis. Oh, and I would like to say that I have passed the month mark living here in Fogo, and you can still see the floor of my room. My clothes actually go in a dirty clothes bin, or yes, even get hung up. It is amazing what the threat of cockroaches, ants and dust will do to a person!

As for how my actual work is going here is a little update…I am still going every afternoon to a health “formação (=seminar/talk/discussion)” in different “fora(=rural)” zones of Fogo (sorry there are just some things that don’t translate right coming back into English, so you all get a little Kriolu/Portuguese lesson). I do absolutely nothing but sit there but it is great for me to be getting out there, seeing the different youth of the different zones that I might be working with, and for them to get comfortable seeing me! I am going to start next week at the youth center here in Bila doing something with English, maybe tutoring, maybe lessons, I don’t really know because I think something got lost in translation…my language is still horrific! But I have started really studying, another big shock, which is something up until now I haven’t done…so hopefully I will get over this hump. The peaks and valleys of learning a language are real mental challenges.

And for an update on the fun part of my Peace Corps experience (well it’s all fun but this is just silly), I was a judge at the Miss Fogo competition last Saturday night!! Hahaha, I really don’t know how this happened but it was definitely entertaining…but it was way past my bedtime because it started at midnight and ended at 3:30 am…talk about a culture difference! And then yesterday, I was asked if I wanted to “fazi ginàstica”, which literally translates into “make gymnastics” and my mind immediately goes to “oh my god, they want me to go to a class with a balance beam, vault and floor routine. The woman I have been going to the formação with, who speaks great English, said that no, it was an aerobics class, so then my mind goes to Jane Fonda in the 80’s or sweatin’ to the oldies with Richard Simons, and I think sure..let’s have a little fun. Well I get there and it turns out to be a high impact kick-boxing/Tae Bo class!! It was great! It is held outside on the patio of the primary school where you can see the sunset over the ocean…not to shabby if you ask me.