Smells

People always ask me to sum up my cape verdean experience in a couple sentences... normally, i can' t do that because there is just too much to say. but today, when i was wine tasting in Mendoza i got it. i can sum up my entire experience; the smell of fermenting wine. i know it sounds weird, but today i walked into a winery and that smell hit me. the yeast, the grapes, everything about cape verde came back to me in that smell . i miss it...

anywho, today laurie and i went to 4 different wineries in Mendoza. we got to them by bicycle with a couple of english friends we met in a hostel. Well i should clarify, we didn't just bike, we tandom biked....it was a site to see and don't let anyone tell you that riding tandom is an easy thing. we almost crashed a million times, the most deadly was due to a pile of trash sitting in our bike lane, but in the end, we made it safe and sound (and quite tipsy!) we have one more day in mednoza tomorrow, which i think will be spent visitin the local hot springs since our legs and bums (english friends favorite word) are quite sore. we don't really have a plan for the next week but we'll figure it out, we always due.

i'll put some pictures up soon, maybe on facebook so keep a look out!

Argentina

HI friends, it's been awhile but i thought i'd catch you up. I spent the last 6 months in the Vail valley working at the hyatt and enjoying the beautiful snow. It is just an in between thing till i figure out what to do with my life after peace corps but it was definitely fun! but that is not what i really want you too eperience with this post.

My friend laurie and i are taking two weeks and traveling around argentina. We got to buenos aires yesterday. I spent 30 hours in the denver airport trying to get on a plane to atlanta to meet here for our trip but flying standbye on a day when i guess all of denver was trying to get out was not fun! i watched 10 planes leave without me before finally changing my travel plans and getting on a flight to minneapolis and connecting to atlanta. i made it to ATL with 3 hours to spare before out flight to Buenos Aires so i guess it was a good idea i gave myself 2 traveling days!

it has been really rainy here and neither laurie nor myself came prepared! We have just been walking around the city getting our bearings but we refuse to buy an umbrella cause we are sure the rain will let up sometime. we also refuse to take taxis cause we are just that cheap so we have been getting a little wet! here is a picture of us showing up to the museum of fine art looking aweful! i really can't believe we walked in looking the way we did but oh well!! the best thing we have founds so far has definately been the steak. for any of you that enjoy a nice piece of meet, argentina is definately the place for you! We got the biggest, juiciest steak last night and it only cost us 6 dollars! i have never tasted anything like it before!!!




At nine tonight, we get on our overnight bus for the 16 our ride to Mendoza, a.k.a. wine country!! i can't wait. we are going to spend at least 3 nights there exploring the best the region has so offer.

I have been invalidated

I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. Yesterday, after paperwork and meetings and medical appointments, the PC staff put a hole through my volunteer ID card and made me a RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer). It was really kinda weird. Back to real life, but first a little partying and rest (i don't know if those two words go together). Today i fly up to the island of Sao vicente to pass the biggest music festival in cape verde and then another volunteer and i go up to portugal for 4 days.

So what have i learned from this: Well for one, it is harder than i thought to leave my community behind. i keep thinking i see people from Cha walking down the street. I broke down when i left; saying goodbye and walking out of the winery the last night was like stabbing myself in the heart. But everyone was so great and gave me lots of fun remeberances (canned tuna, jarred fruit, 3 liters of dried beans, and most importantly 7 bottles of Cha wine![not all of the wine will make it all the way to america!]). I wished i could tell everyone that i would be back soon, but in this world one never knows and maybe that was the last time i will see most of them. But the tears are drying and it is now time for the next phase. I kinda freaked out because the necklace i have not taken off in 4 years broke the night before i left and i took it as a bad omen. However, the cape verdeans look at it different. they always were bracelets and necklaces till they break and it is supposed to represent a new beginning. Sooooo. here is to that new beginning...

Bees are mean

Market price for grapes right now is 200 CVE a kilo...so about 2 bucks

Bringing in the grapes

The smell of yeast is the only thing in the air right now!

When you are a small winery in the middle of the atlantic, you get creative...They put these cushions on and then keep them wet to make sure the temp is ok.

It's harvest time and Cha is buzzing with activity right now, and not just with scary mean bees! (haha ok, i am done being corny). The beginning of wine season has started and everyone is out in the fields picking grapes and bringing them to the winery to sell. I spent yesterday learning the ways of the small winery and seeing the total process. I followed the grapes from their trip from the field to the de-stemer, to the presser, to the barrels where the sedement seperates and finally to the fermentation barrels. they will sit in the barrels for about 3-7 days before being transfered again where they will remain until filtered and made into the delicious bottle i drink with dinner. The one major pitfall i see in winemaking is the attack of the bees. I got stung 3 times yesterday while throwing grapes into the de-steming machine...ouch

here are a few pics.

It's official...

August 3rd...that's the day my life changes again.

ok, so i am being a little dramatic. But seriously, on August 3rd I fly away from Fogo, my home for the last 2 years. It is so surreal. Since my arrival here in cape verde I have been counting down the months, but for some reason now that i have an actual date of departure, it has really hit home. I can't imagine leaving my peaceful life in my crater to return to the craziness of america (where i will be searching frantically for a job; if any of you know of any in the sacramento area let me know!!). I flip flop between being so excited to go home and get some normalcy in my life and thinking, why don't i just stay here forever. Oh well, it's time for the next phase of my life so i guess i gotta be moving on.

In other news:

*Me and my italian friend Carla organized a 'girls night out" for some of the women in Cha who never get to leave their houses. We went to our local "restaraunt" and ate a lot of pizza and the women actually got to relax and have a glass of wine (which most of them NEVER do) as we talked about the situation of women in Cape Verde. it really was awesome and soooo, much fun, especailly once the dancing started! We are now working with this group of women to start producing jewlery with local materials from Cha, ie, lava, seeds, coffee beans, etc. hopefully it will be a good small business opportunity for them.

*My toenails are growing back nicely, i believe i will be able to wear open heals to BZ's wedding and my ugly feet won't make small children cry.
*We are entering the fruit season in Cha and it is AMAZING. Peaches, figs, grapes and soon pomegranates are all over and i can't eat them fast enough!
*This years wine production starts in about 3 weeks and i am so excited to go out picking grapes and follow the process from start to finish!
*Along with most of the guides and business folks of Cha, i am taking a workshop in tourism, italian and spanish given by an italian NGO. it is four days a week and is actually really fun! It is great that i get to brush up on my spanish before i return to the states where i am sure i will need it!

Thats about it for now. I go to Praia next week for COS conference, which, in non-Peace Corps terms, means i learn how to leave the country withouth drowning in all the paperwork i have to do. But it is the last time my group will be together so i am sure we'll have a good time! Adios!

Wars, Vampires and everything in between

Oi, Nhos, tudo dreto???

Things have been pretty calm lately and with only about 4 months left to go i am just living life and trying to enjoy everything!!!!! Here are a few more things that have been happening.

We had the 2nd annual women's day event in march. Again, the turnout was great, over 200 women from the island. We had been having some issues raising money this year though so Sarah, Andrea and I were far from calm the weeks before the event. Everything turned out ok, except for a crappy microphone problem. Last year we held the event in a zone with no electricity and had to arrange a generator so we could have amplification. WEll that generator failed about 1/4 of the way through the programming. SOOOOOO, this year, we hold the event in a site with electricity so we don't have to deal with that crap and guess what happens....the night before we are getting things ready in the community center and someone informs us that on the following day, the day of our event, the day we need lights, the county is trimming trees and will be cutting the power so they can go about doing this safely. OF FREAKIN COURSE! So we rush around, secure a generator for the next day and think everything will be ok. what happens, the generator comes but with no gas. We have to delay the start of the event. Gas arrives. the microphone goes out during the opening statements of the first guest speaker. OF FREAKIN COURSE.

Both of the toenails are completely off now and look a lot better than when the nail was just flapping around. Only problem is that now i am a little worried that there is one more that will go before this ordeal is over. Word to the wise, don't hike in shoes that are too big.

It has been windy as hell on the volcano. When i first moved up there i asked someone why they don't grow the wine grapes like the vineyards in the states and they told me because the wind is too bad, it would ruin the plants. at that time i thought they were exagerating, but the month of march and even still, i feel like sometimes the wind will blow the house away (and it's made of solid cement!)

After 3 months i FINALLY finished WAR AND PEACE. Really a great book, but hard to stay with for 1, 389 pages. I had to take breaks and read books in between that had nothing to do with dead people in russia. So what did i read...the TWIGHLIGHT series. I know, i know it is terrible. the writing is terrible and the books are written for 13 year old girls, but i LOVED them (and may i say i am not the only Peace Corps Cape Verde volunteer addictied). As soon as i would get a new book i would finish it in about 6 hours. I know the movies are being made so i might be having to see those when i get back to the states! (don't worry, i am embarrassed for myself!)

That's about it for now, the municipal festa of Sao Filipe starts in about 2 weeks so that means lots of parties....people like to celebrate here and I have no problems joining in!!

Fungus

I just wanted to give everyone a little heads up to not worry, I DO NOT have a toenail fungus. Wow, i don't think i have ever gotten so much response from a blog entry!! The reason they are falling off is that I did a hike to Mosteiros in shoes that were too big and my feet kept jamming against the shoe and the trauma has caused them to die. Bummer cause my feet are looking pretty ugly right now!! Hopefully they grow back by October or i will be wearing closed toed shoes in BZ's wedding!!!!!!!!!