The satisfaction of a completed project

Sorry, wrote this a couple days ago and never got it up so it's a bit dated:

Well, it’s the end of March, the end of month 9. It’s crazy that April 1 will be the beginning of my 10th month here. You know, I went back and visited my host family for the first time since leaving them after training. I had left this place, my first family in Cape Verde, 7 months ago and going back was like worlds colliding. My town of Ribeira da Barca looked the exact same. All the people were still there, but something had changed. When I left there in September, I don’t think I fully appreciated, or even realized, everything that my first family gave to me. I was frustrated that I still had no idea what Mama Julia was saying AT me and I was ready to be living on my own again. When I left, I still couldn’t communicate. But going back was unbelievably uplifting. I was greeted by a group of kids running at me screaming “Laura, Laura, Laura!” and the beautiful smiles of my family and neighbors, who have taught me about accepting a stranger, no questions asked, and making them part of your family forever. I could see how far my language had progressed first hand as I sat with the women who had looked after me for those two months and I told them what I was doing and they told me all that I had missed and we all understood each other!
My worlds collided again 2 days after seeing my host family, when I picked up my biological parents at the Praia airport!! God, what a head trip that was, to see part of my American life here as part of my Cape Verde life. It was great to see them, of course, but again, it just seems crazy to me, that I have been in this country long enough to warrant visitors. Alan and Ellie had a great time here (or so they tell me!) but I think it took them some time to get used to some of my everyday things like walking all over (and always walking uphill), no electricity in Cha, my stove that has no temperature control (it is just always on high, simmer isn’t an option!), the fact that the noise that comes from my upstairs neighbors sounds like they are in the next room with a megaphone and how to bucket flush a toilet! At the same time, they can finally picture where I am, they can picture my wonderful neighbors who protect little single and alone me; they can picture the woman in the market where I buy my vegetables and they can picture my wonderful friends on this island (who thank God helped me play tour guide cause I was getting a little tired and stressed towards the end of the week). Next up on my visitor list….my bestest friend, Miss Emily Marie Dodds, in May/June!
(sorry i know that was a bit melodramatic, but true non-the-less!)
The end of March also signifies the end of my (and Sarah’s) stressful Cape Verde Women’s Day project. Since I have been lazy and not blogged about this project before, I will tell you quickly what we planned. The 27th was Cape Verdean Women’s day. Sarah got it in her head (and I helped to push it along) to make this giant exchange of women on the island to talk about issues concerning all women on Fogo, domestic violence, education for girls and micro-credit. We took our idea to the local women’s organization for advice and from there, it just took off . We had thought of only using women from zones where Peace Corps was represented, but we ended up inviting 2 women from every zone on the island…in all about 180 women invited with a budget planned for attendance of 150. Well after a few stressful weeks leading up to the event, Thursday the 27th finally comes and Sarah and I are just hoping that some women actually show up. I won’t have an exact count till tomorrow, but it’s in the range of 130-140 women of Fogo!!! In all a great success even though we started 2 hours late and changed the entire program for the day the morning of the event. You see the night before there was an extremely tragic murder; a 20 yr old, mother of two, was killed in an act of domestic violence. She was the cousin of one of our speakers and so in light of that event, we put a little more emphasis on domestic violence. The day lasted until 4:30 and in all the women gave us incredibly positive feedback. Hopefully this can be an annual event as the women really felt empowered and like someone was listening to what they were saying.
Next up…youth group in Bila, camping trip to Brava (another island) and the anniversary of the ’95 eruption in Cha!