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!!!!!!!!!

I'm a loser

Sorry sorry sorry, i know it has REALLY been a long time since the last one but what can i say? I don't have a lot of time now but i will give you all a run down of what has been going on:

- We are organizing the 2nd annual Women's Day for the women on our island. There should be about 2oo or more people at this event.

- I have been helping out in the winery when the need me to do something and i am getting really good at filling bottles and gluing on labels...i have a whole photo montage to show when i get the pics uploaded (who knows when that will be but stay tuned)

- We just had a big shin-dig for my birthday up in Cha; there were about 20 people there, 5 of them being my peace corps buddies from the island. We killed a pig that i would estimate weighed about 100 lbs, drank 30 liters of wine and then slept outside under the stars. it really was a birthday to remember!

- I have some strange ailments at the moment, like both of my big toenails are falling off and my lip has become chapped and split open from the dry wind that has arrived in Cha. they tell me now that i am really belong in Cha because apparently this happens in the winter to lots of people(the lip thing not the toenail).

So that is just a little sampling of what is happening here. Time is really flying now.

Wednesday 6:40 pm: Boston Logan International Airport

Waiting for the flight to Cape Verde is different this time around; I know what I am going back to. When the group of 29 of us traveled the first time, there was so much excitement and adventure in the unknown. There is no unknown this time. I know where I am going and I know what I am doing there. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to go back, but after visiting I now know I am ready to come home and start with the future. As my returned Peace Corps friend tells me, “it’s a trap”, and I am sure once I am back America will wear on my nerves again, but right now America is the unknown adventure and I am itching to see where I end up. Plus, I have a little anxiety about returning to Fogo because I know I will miss my little Katxupa. For those of you who don’t know, my dog, Katxupa, was hit by a car and killed while I was in the US. It was no ones fault, just the life of a Cape Verdean dog, but when I land and she is not there, the realization of not having my bed buddy and constant friend is going to hit me hard.
Anyways, I am in the home stretch of this two year stint and am just excited to live and get some work done in Chã. It is so hard for me to believe that it is already Christmas and New Years again. The time really does fly.

The past three weeks in the US have been a whirl wind of different cities and visiting with different friends. For those of you I didn’t get to see this time around, don’t worry I’ll be back soon! For those of you I did see, it was so so so so so great to hang out. Thanks for arranging your schedules to see me; I had a blast!!!

Thursday 6:20 pm;Fogo

I made it!!! Got in around noon this time, a little jet lagged and a lot happy to be off the plane! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Oh how I LOVE a good bloody mary!

So i am back in the good ol' USofA. My three week vacation is full of great things to do and visits with the people i love, but man, i cannot get behind the pace of the country!! I have finally gotten some rest and relaxation the past two days after a weekend of "installment 1" of Bethzaida's bachelorette party! It is not as strange as I would have thought to be back here, but there are some things that I am having a hard time adjusting to.
1. The amount of meat and strange spices i am eating is doing crazy things to my intestinal tract (sorry for being so forthcoming!). I am having more "problems" here than when i first went to africa! I think my body misses plain rice and beans!
2. Wow we use a lot of water and electricity! I had the hardest time taking my first shower here. The faucet made it impossible to turn the water off and on between shampooing and rinsing and I couldn't handle it.

I am so excited to be seeing everyone and have love, love, loved watching college football and basketball. Next on the agenda is my big bro's wedding on saturday (yay!!!) and then sacramento for Thanksgiving. I am so happy to be home for my favorite holiday!!
For now, i am just enjoying drinking some good beer and bloody marys and enjoying the company of mom and dad and good friends!!! I hope that i get to see all of you, but if not, know that i am in the home stretch... a little more than half a year and I'll be back in the country for good (well, we'll see about that, but at least for a little while!!).

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all and you'll be hearing from me soon, back in africa and happy about my lack of water and electricity!!!

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.

A COS Christmas

I have found a holiday i like better than christmas...well i don't like christmas too much so i guess it's not hard to do! I have properly named this new holiday "A COS christmas" (COS=close of service). Don't get me wrong, i really do miss the volunteers who left, but getting first crack at their stuff is awesome,especially since i am more or less the same size as two of the girls who left. My wardrobe has been replenished, i got new pots and pans and great leftover american food products. The one downfall to my new holiday is that with the influx of new clothes, i neglected washing my old ones; i mean why wash clothes when there are clean ones around. So now i am getting a little low and fear that it will now take more than 1 or 2 days to wash everything...is it wasteful just to throw all dirty clothes away and buy new ones???
The rainy season has officially begun. I forgot how beautiful this island is when it turns green. It is hard for me to believe it is the same place and not some exotic hawaiian rain forest island. I took a drive around the island saturday (no i was not the one driving) and tried to remember what it looked like just two months before; brown and dry. The rain seems to be constant this year and everyone thinks this will be a good agricultural year. Good news in a world where the price of grains has skyrocketed and another hit to Cape Verdean corn could be disaster. The one downfall to rain (well this may just be me talking) is that now instead of just being hot, it is humid. I think everyone knows how i feel about heat...we are not friends.
In other news, I think festa season is finally over. After the two dispididas and last weekends municipal festival in Mosteiros, I haven't spent too much time in my own town and i think i am just about danced out. I look forward to spending the next few weekends relaxing.
By the way, they never shut down the airport...the new news is there is no exact date for closure so it might be just in time for the newbies, who swear in mid-September, to get to take the boat. but who knows, maybe it will never close!