The long awaited update

Well, a lot has happened since the last update. The island is once again filled with volunteers…we are now 10. School has started so the education volunteers basically had a trial by fire, arriving Sunday and starting school on Monday. On Sunday, all of us “old ones” gathered at the airport to greet the new 5 with smiling faces…at least that was the plan. My face was more or less contorted in a look of pain from a massive hangover, which was not the best first impression I could have given, but hey, the night before was worth it so we’ll all just have to get over it!! By about three hours in (and a little of the hair of the dog that bit me) I was feeling much better and ready to be the responsible second year wealth of knowledge! We dropped everyone off at their new sites, including yours truly, as the move to Cha das Caldeiras is official!! I am now living in the crater of the volcano that formed the island. It is really such a trip to wake up every morning and come out to see the sun rising behind the volcano and all of the lava, I call it “camping in a cement house” because now I am without electricity or running water and live in a cement box. It is FREEZING right now, and I am a little under prepared coming from the heat that was in São Filipe, but I’ll get there! Katxupa loves it up there. She had her “big girl” operation last month, so now she is free to run around as she pleases. I leave her out and about when I go down to shop in Bila for the day and when the hiace shows up in Cha at 3 pm she is right there to greet me. I have actually heard that she jumps in any hiace that stops, looks around, doesn’t see me and gets out!! How great is that! When I am just walking around Cha, she always tags along and everyone knows her and lets her in their houses, restaurants or stores.

Right now I am getting ready to go a training in Praia, feeling a little bad as I basically just dumped Katxupa on the new volunteer in Cha. He had only been there two days when I said, oh by the way can you please take her for a week? Luckily he agreed, and as I talk to him more, it seems like they are getting along just fine…she really can be a good tool for integrating into the community.

On the work front, Andrea and I just completed a project where we brought youth from the fora into the city to the Employment Center and they got a basic orientation about how to go about using the resources they have to find a job or job training. Then they went to 5 actual places of work and got to ask questions, etc. It went over fairly well, nevermind that we were about 2 hours late and I got yelled at (ok maybe not yelled at, but strongly talked to) by the employment center man. Things are always late in Cape Verde, yes, we should not have been late, but when cars are late, and then the first presentation is late, there is nothing we can do. Anyways, next on the plate is an income generating project for the single women head of households in Cha. We are hoping to open a bakery since the residents of Cha have no access to bread. There are others as well, but I’ll let you know as they get going.