Reflections

It is the end of the second week of training, and as I sit here on Sunday morning recalling the events of my week, I am amazed by all that I have seen and done in such a short amount of time. Our training schedule keeps us pretty busy, so there is very little time to get bored.

On Thursday, we went to Cidade Velha, which is the oldest city in the islands. Cidade Velha was discovered and claimed by the Portuguese. In this small town on the ocean, there is a fort overlooking the water. The fort at Cidade Velha is really cool. I’ll try to include some pictures here so that you can get an idea of what it looks like and what an amazing view it has. Cidade Velha is an extremely important historical site not only because it was a military base, but also because of the slave trade. We learned that nearly all people living in the Americas with African decent probably have ancestors who stayed on Cape Verde while in transit from the continent of Africa to the Americas. In Cidade Velha there still remains the plaza where slaves were bought, sold, and tortured by the Portuguese. The “trading” spire with original shackles is in the middle of the plaza too. It was very sad to imagine the millions of slaves trafficked through Cape Verde.

Well, after Cidade Velha, we returned to San Domingos for lunch and then Jessica and I turned right around and went to Praia to visit ISE, the college where we will be teaching. The college was amazing. There is a lot energy there and a lot of excitement about becoming the University of Cape Verde (which hopefully will happen soon). In the college there is a computer lab with internet specifically for the teachers (sweet), a college library and our department has its own library just for English reading materials. We were just given 1500 books from a local church, so things are a little disorganized, but the prospect of having so many reading options is really exciting. Most Cape Verdans do not read. I live with educated people and there is not one book in my home here in San Domingos. They do not even have children’s books! This culture is very interested in watching televison, particularly telenovelas. At 9 o’clock each night, the entire town shuts down while “America” is on. This is basically a soap opera filmed in Brazil about America. It is insanely popular; everyone in Cape Verde watches this show every single night. So, it is a huge challenge for us as teachers to actually get people interested in reading for pleasure.

After our trip to ISE and a quick stop to the internet café to post my last three blogs, we headed back home. Friday was fairly uneventful until the evening rolled around. On Friday night there was a special performer in town, “Juka.” We headed down toward the center of town and EVERYONE in San Domingos was there, and I mean everyone. Mothers, fathers, children, all of the volunteers, etc. It was great! The music was good and everyone danced and had a fun time. It was the first time in 2 years that San Domingos has had a performer come and play for the town! It was very cool to see how the parents and children interact here. Everything is community oriented, so all of the moms were dancing with the kids and it was a great site to see. It makes me realize why this town is so safe and such a great place to live. Everyone looks out for everyone else, which is a good and bad thing. Word travels EXTREMELY fast here! No one does anything in this town without all of the moms knowing all of the details. It’s kinda crazy.

On Saturday morning, after a late night the community event, we headed out to Assomada to “shadow a volunteer.” Nick, David, Tina, and I signed up to go to Assomada (a town just about 40 minutes north of here). Assomada is in a valley between the two major mountain ranges on this island. It also is bordered by a canyon that runs out toward the ocean. Assomada is a very cool place, except that it is not on the water. It has a huge high school and the major technical school on the island. Toby, the second year volunteer in Assomada, was asked to show us around and give us a sense of his daily life. Toby is about to be done with his service and he is a teacher, so he isn’t really busy right now. Toby teaches mechanics at the technical school, which is a really neat school built by the Luxemborg foundation. The Luxemborg foundation funds many, many building projects in Cape Verde, which is nice to have a private donor build really nice classrooms and provide the necessary equipment for such a school. We did a quick tour of Toby’s school, then hiked up a short way to the top of a mountain ridge. From there we has a birds view of the entire city of Assomada. It was amazing. We could also see the ocean from there and on a clearer day, we could have seen the island of Fogo.

It was market day in Assomada on Saturday, so we got to visit the market and check out all of the food. We found out that at the market, you can get a plate of rice, beans, and a chicken or beef for $100 escudos. That is about 1 dollar for a huge lunch plate! You can also get a great homemade sandwich with chorizo for $60 escudo! Everything is soooo cheap here. In the market, they also have the fish and meat sections. These are basically slaughter room with blood on the floor! I thought for sure that my friend David was going to puke when he saw goat heads lying on the floor next to us. He immediately turned around and walked out of the room! It was pretty gross. And after that wonderful experience, we went to eat lunch, yum. Our lunch was really, really good. I ordered tuna steak, which was amazing. This was a pretty nice restaurant and our meals were less than 4 dollars each!

After lunch, we headed to one of the most impressive sites I’ve seen to date. The oldest tree in the country exists there. It is a bubai (not sure about spelling) tree. This kind of tree is found often on the continent of Africa, imagine the trees in Lion King. This tree is massive. We hiked to it, then spent some time hanging out in the shade. Toby told us that people climb the tree too, so Nick and I decided to see if we could do it! It was so much fun. We made it to the top, and then we could see all of the valley. It was quite an adventure. The tricky part was getting back down from the tree! A little scary, but I made it. I have pictures of this, so I’ll try to get them posted too!

That’s about all that has happened in the last couple of days. OH! This morning I went to church with my sister and at the end of the service, the priest was making announcements and I heard him say something about the Peace Corps. I couldn’t exactly understand him, then all of the sudden he started speaking in English to the 4 or 5 volunteers at church. He said the town was so happy to have us and he thanked us for our commitment to help Cape Verde. It was a really awesome experience, then everyone (about 250 people or more) began clapping to show their appreciation. I was so moved. I have had lots of people ask me why I am in Cape Verde and when I tell them I’m with the Peace Corps, they always thank me profusely for volunteering. I met a man in town two days ago who spoke English very well. He said that he learned English from a volunteer years ago. He then went on to thank me for being a teacher! It was great. Often in the states people are not really aware of how much the people of other countries appreciate the Peace Corps. Unlike any other foreign aid organization, Peace Corps lives among people and works with people toward sustainability. This is very rare, so the people here really are so thankful for us. It would be hard to forget why I came here.

I am worn out today because we never really have time to rest. Today I am using the day to write, read, and study a bit. We are moving out of basic language study and into more speaking to our peers, so I want to be really on top of my Kriolu for Monday! I hope all is well in the states. I haven’t really heard any news at all. I’m not complaining, it’s really nice to be out of touch with things. BUT, I wouldn’t mind some updates on things like the tour de France and the situation with the supreme court (who is going to be appointed to replace Sandra Day O’Connor?). Any tid bits would be great. Txou, ti logu.