Oh the holidays...

So I have been getting crap from my mother about having not posted a blog in so long so here we go. What have i been up too?? Well I have been at war with ants. The little sons of bitches are invading my house. It doesn´t matter how well I clean up or how much poison i spray in their little holes; if there is no speck of food to be found they attack the sponge that i wash the dishes with or the spoon i used to stir the broth with, that has been thoughroughly cleaned, but i guess still has the residue of leftovers. They got into all of my dried food a while back and I had to throw out my milk and flour. What else...we had a massive flour shortage last month...you couldn´t find flour in any market for three weeks, unless you were willing to participate in what seemed like a drug deal. You had to ask the assistant at one of the markets for flour. He would repeat that there was no flour to be found...but if you gave him the wink he would tell you to ask the cashier. The cashier would also tell you, no we doñ´t have any, but if you gave him the wink, he would look at the assistant you had already spoken too, who would give the cashier the head nod and then finally the cashier would quietly ring you up some flour. But that wasn´t the end of it, once you had paid for everything and had your bags in hand, you had to give them to the assistant who would take them in a back room and secretly put in your kilo of flour. It was crazy!!! Humm...more about what I have been doing. Does anyone know the record for how many of solitaire you can play without winning?? I am at 25 and i must have played at least 10 games before i started counting. I of course, have been reading a lot when i am not losing at solitaire. I am reading MobY Dick right now. It is fantasic, i recommend you all go out and pick up a copy! I don´t know why they have high school kids read it, i definately was not ready for it then and it is way to long to be a required reading, but when it is read for fun and in your own time, it is genius! Sticking with the classics, i also just finished Madame Bovary and hated it!! If classics aren´t your thing and you liked the movie MOmento...go get the book Dermophoria by Craig Clevenger. It is the most entertaining novel i have read. Other news. Thanksgiving was excellent. The volunteers of Fogo got together and made dinner. We had a blast and i have pictures to prove it! Our thanksgiving dinner coincided with a huge Saint Day festival in the town where we were so there was basically three days of non-stop partying. You know those Catholics and their saints (well and their drinking too!). I think we will get together for Christmas in Cha (the volcano) and maybe do new years here.
Ok, ok, i know none of that has anything to do with actual work; and since i get the question "do you actually do anything over there" I guess i can tell you a little about that too. I have started english classes 4 times a week. They are with the high school kids and it is more like english tutoring because i am definately not cut out to stand at the chalkboard and teach! I also am helping out with an NGO based out of the states that deals with domestic violence in Fogo. They have me translating documents from Portuguese to English which is quite amusing since I haven´t learned Portuguese!! All of us first year volunteers are meeting on the main island for some more training next week, so most of my stuff will be put on hold until after the new year. I also hope to get a youth group going once i get back. All things in the works....see i do do things!!

Ok, you all satisfied now!! Oh by the way...I am getting a puppy!!! One of the volunteers from Fogo just took a vacation on Mayo (another island) and somehow asked for a puppy and was given two, so she is bringing both of them back and they should get here saturday!! Oh god, what am i getting myself into!! You think I can train her to eat ants??? Anyways, if anyone has a good name for a girl puppy let me know!! I tend to like names that deal with alcholic beverages!!

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.

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

Well we have been in the “rainy season” for over a month and yesterday is the first day there has been rain here in São Felipe (now to be referred to as Bila because it’s easier for me to type and that is how all the locals refer to it). The rain has been hard and constant since before lunch yesterday which meant that every hour since the rain started, you can find me mop in hand, forcing water down drains so that my house doesn’t flood!! Most houses here are built with what is known as a “kintal”, which is an open space inside your house (it is where I do my laundry!), but also means that it basically rains inside your house. This first rain has also allowed me to see the flaws in my large home…there is a hole somewhere in the base of the wall that connects my bedroom to the kintal. So guess what?? When it rains hard and water backs up in my kintal, it seeps through the hole into my bedroom!! Thankfully, this was a wall I didn’t have anything up against so none of my stuff got water logged or damaged. The rain, however annoying for my drainage problems, has been great. Starting with the fact that because of the rain, for the first time it wasn’t excruciatingly hot today!! Also, it means that the crops get some much needed nourishment because right now, in most places the corn is little more than a sprout coming out of the ground, when it should be well past my knees. The rain makes me happy but it also makes me miss Arizona (surprise) and the awesome monsoons. I love rain, but there is nothing like some good thunder and lightning!

p.s. day after rain...what do you get when you combine two days of constant rain with the extreme heat that comes the day after the rain...IT´S HUMID AS HELL HERE!!!

The Sounds of Mourning

I wake up Sunday to the sound of women wailing; a sound, in this culture, which only means one thing. The old man who lives across from me, who I have seen every morning since I arrived here being pushed around his house in his wheelchair, has died. The wailing is constant throughout the day, visitors coming and going, joining in this ritual of mourning. For seven days as more family and friends arrive to pay respects and keep constant vigil, the wailing will continue, each arrival kicking up a new round of grief.
This is not the first time I have heard wailing since coming to Cape Verde. With every death or anniversary of death comes the wailing of widows, daughters, family and friends. At first I thought it was heart breaking; distressing to hear these public cries of loss, but as the wailing continues, it seems to me more of an obligation than a true emotion. It is a tradition, a way that people let the community know that one of their own has gone, but the forced structure of the wailing is something I cannot comprehend. In the US, mourning and loss is such a personal thing; sadness and tears are normal, but not in this public, group manner that has time constraints. After the seventh day, the wailing will stop until the first anniversary of death, and every year after, as family comes home in recognition of the death, the wailing will commence again.

My life in Fogo

Sorry for the long delay in blog entries folks, but every time I sit down to write something, I feel like I have nothing to say; which is definitely not true because so many things have changed since the last entry. So I will try to hammer out everything new because, frankly, dinner is in the oven and will take a while so there is nothing better to do. First of all, you have seen the pictures of Fogo, my beautiful volcanic island and some randoms of some of the other volunteers and me, so I hope I have satisfied one of your hungers…

…Now for the other. I have been in São Felipe now for almost 3 weeks and am still trying to settle in and feel “at home” here. Although I was nervous about living by myself, I shouldn’t have been because I think I have only spent 4 nights by myself in those three weeks. My house, since it is in the major town, tends to be the transit house. The volunteers that live in the rural areas have to come in to buy produce and use the internet, so they end up staying the night because transport around the island is shifty. I think that once the school year gets under way things will settle down. Luckily I enjoy the company and the two volunteers that live in the volcano are real foodies so whenever they are here they make me a superb meal as their fee for staying. Speaking of cooking, I have learned that cooking from scratch takes quite awhile, and when dinner preparation takes more than an hour and it is only me, I tend to have a lot of food left over. I am trying to adapt recipes for one, but the guessing of measurements can sometimes lead to disaster. But I have found I love to cook and experiment with all of the recipes I have, and even the hour of preparation passes the time and is fun because I turn on my music and dance around while I chop. The main produce that goes into everything that I make (partially because it is all I can get here) is garlic, green pepper, tomato and onion…yes I said onion. I willingly put onion in everything now. I even put raw onion in my tuna salad sandwiches. For those of you who don’t know, my disgust for onion in the states was one of the great hatreds of this world, but I guess my palate is changing. I also have willingly bought and cooked fish and I make myself a cup of tea before I go to bed so I guess already Peace Corps has changed me for the better. Let’s see, other food…I eat a lot of beans because there is not a whole lot of other protein that I like to fumble with. I do get chicken and of course fish and I make my own tortillas and pizza dough so I have already had a Mexican night and an Italian night!! I do make everything spicy because all I brought with me is crushed red pepper and the wonderful dried peppers of Jim Nelson (which before too long I will be needing a refill of!). Other types of spices are hard to find here so the Italian spices are in the mail (hopefully soon) and if anyone has anything that I have to have feel free to send it!

I have not been doing much in the way of “work” because as a community development volunteer, part of my initial job description is to integrate into the community and assess its needs. So, there is no daily 9-5 work schedule set up for me as of yet. I have been in contact with the two main institutions that I will be working with; the Centro de Juventude (youth center) and the OMCV, which is the national woman’s organization in Cape Verde. One of the projects the OMCV is doing right now is working with the youth of Fogo, holding information sessions on HIV/AIDS and related health topics. I have already attended a three day seminar and am excited to see how I can help with this project even more. So, since I don’t go into work all day, what do I do?? Well, Sunday and Monday, were basically spent washing my clothes. Man that takes a long time!!! And along with the duration of the activity, it is a massive arm work out as well! The ringing out of the clothes is the hardest part, especially the sheets and towels. I also spend a lot of time just walking around the town so that people get used to seeing me. But the walking here is crazy because my town 1) is hot as hell, and coming from Arizona I am qualified to say that…I literally think I sweat out about a gallon of water a day. I wish that I had brought more airy dresses, shorts and comfortable shirts because that is literally all that I wear. And my house isn’t much better for the heat, there is no ventilation so I sweat my ass off inside too, especially in the kitchen!! Ok, so not only is it hot here, but 2)the town of São Felipe is all hill. Every time I leave my house for something I have to go DOWN to the center of town, and getting back UP is unlike any exercise I have ever done. I know this might sound like an exaggeration, but as soon as I have my first visitor from the states you will see that it’s not. It’s hard, and it’s hot so maybe soon I will actually be in good shape!

Ok, dinner is done so that is all for now…I promise to try and be better with the entries!
Oh and if you wanted to know, dinner is a casserole with chicken, potatoes, peas and cream of mushroom soup (homemade of course)!

It´s been a while...sorry

More photos for everyone!!
Sorry they are really out of order.

This is what Fogo looks like!!

This is my house!! I live on the bottom floor and there is a family that lives above me. The grandma makes really good doughnuts!!

My living room...

More of the beaches of fogo.

The new group going to Fogo...Sean, Me, Andrea and Dave

Sarah and I on our last day together...how sad.

The lava canals in Fogo!! This island is so diverse and has some really cool things to look at.

More lava canals.

The black sand beaches.

All of the new volunteers after Swear-in.

Ok, Ok, I am finally going to get up a little something since it has been a while!! I promise to write more but write now I am just going to put up a hodge podge of pictures for everyone to see!

Also so everyone knows, I have a new address where I would love to get letters or care packages!! And especially if any of you have time, I need recipes, so send me your favorite dish because I am cooking a lot and feel like I am going to need some variety!!

Lauren Dotson

C.P. 87

Sao Felipe, Fogo

Rebublica de Cabo Verde