Ofoto Album

Hey y'all... I finally got some pictures put in an album on Ofoto. Here is the address:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=764913528205&page=1&sort_order=0

Check them out, they're mostly of Praia, but I'll get some more posted soon.

Devastation

I experienced my first moment of PURE devastation today. I went running this morning, on my usual route, but I decided to take my IPOD along with me. I have been running the same path for a little while now and feel as if it is safe enough to take my most valuable possession. I was right, nothing happened to me or my IPOD while I was running this morning. What did happen is that my IPOD froze. This has happened before, so I read online about how to reset the system and this works fine every time... until today. Today, when I returned from my run, I reset the device. This afternoon, I grabbed it to take with me on some errands and EVERYTHING had been erased. All of my music is GONE.

Now I know that this is just a material possession. I know I should not be "devastated" by this event. But I am. Music is that thing that keeps me connected to friends and family. It is the thing that makes me remember certain places and times. My friend Brock just emailed to say that he got an Ipod. He told was writing about how nice it was to hear songs that make us laugh and remember the good times in our past. It is so true. Nowadays, being so far from home, my music is even more important than ever.

Well, here comes the plea. If you have any music at all that you can burn onto CD, please do. Send it all to me, anything you can. If you can burn things as "data" music, you can get more on a disc too. I'd really, really appreciate this. Think of this as my very own "save the music" campaign :). Okay, I know this is different, but I'm desperate...... You can send me music to my address here (another reminder of my address):
Casey Maugh, PCV
A/C Corpo da Paz
C.P. 373 - Praia
Republic of Cape Verde
POR AVION (please put this at the bottom and write "via Portugal")

Last Night

Last night we had an attempted break-in at our home. Now, we live on a pretty busy street and across from a not-so-great neighborhood, but generally things are pretty calm. This isn't of too much concern for me, but my rommate is freaking out. She heard noises last night, got up and saw that our window had been broken (just a little bit, in the corner). It appears as if the person just broke the corner to get to the latch and open the window. I'm not exactly sure what their plan was after this because we have bars on all of the windows. The person could have stuck his/her hand in and touched our countertop, or possibly stolen our kitchen utensils that are sitting in the window sill. Other than that, there really is no way to do much. So, the safety and security guy is coming to our home this morning to check things out. My roommate is talking of moving (again for the 4th time since she moved to Praia a year ago), but I am pretty content where we are. We're close to work and close to the market. I really think moving is the last resort, but I also understand her concerns. So anyway, this was my first brush with the mean streets of Praia.... we'll see what happens. Txau, ti logo.

Dr. Jack

I don't know if you remember my talking about the temporary PC medical officer, Dr. Jack... he gave us a thorough lesson on condom use and STD's. As you can see my these images, he was really into his presentation. Click on the first image, his face is priceless.

Good bye training, hello PC volunteer

Pictures of Praia

Badja and Bugs

You'll recalll from a previous post my talking about dancing with a bug in my skirt. This is me, trying to both dance and remove the pest!

My house in Sao Domingos

This is a picture of my home when I lived in Sao Domingos. It is the large yellow home with the excellent veranda. I definitely got hooked up with a great home!

Archways

This is a view from our dining room into our foyer and our front door. Don't you just love the archway!!!

Click on the image to make it bigger

The city of Assomada

Here is what Assomada looks like from above.

Assomada

This is a picture from Assomada (a city north of here). I wrote about this trip some time ago. This is the same trip as the pictures from the big tree. We hiked to the top of a peak and this is the view. The people in the picture are: Tina, David, Nick, and Me.

Kintal, for real

This is a real kintal. I wrote in another picture about these spaces in the home. Our Kintal in S.D. was HUGE. The rest of the house centered around this space.

The Veranda

The best part about my house were the HUGE porches (or in Cape Verde, Veranda). This was were we spent most of our time as a family. We always ate dinner on the porches and spent time reading and talking there.

My friend David

This is a picture of my friend David and me in Praia at the beach.

Kintal

Most Cape Verdean homes have a Kintal, or a space with an opened roof. This space is generally used for hanging clothes to dry and such. Men also will shave in this area and dependent on the Kintal, people bucket bathe in this space. We, however, do not have a kintal, so we are using our spare bedroom to hang our laundry, as you can see here.

Living Room

Our living room is really, really great, but it's hard to tell from these shots. We have a nice big window and a door that we can open to let air in (and bugs). We were lucky enough to be given a couch and two nice, comfy chairs. We had to cover the chairs and couch because they are a little on the "used" side, but they work just fine for us.

Remember, click on the image to see this stuff in its grander form...

Bathroom

This is a fuzzy picture of our bathroom. You can see the tub/shower (most people don't have a tub) and the sink, the toilet is around the corner. We also have a half-bath on the other side of the apartment.... sweet

Two pictures of our dining room

These pictures are of our largest space in the house, the dining room. You'll see the dining room table we have, but other than that it's just a big empty room that connects all of the other rooms to each other. We are planning on getting some sort of couch/bed for this room for guests.
Click on the images to make them bigger

View from our porch

If you are standing on my porch, this is the view you get of the other apartment buildings, the gate that keeps us safe and the Shell station across the way!

Kitchen

This is the kitchen. It is my favorite room in the house not only because I love to cook, but also because this room centrally located and open with lots of light....

Remember, you can click on the images to make them bigger!!!

Cheap Food and Beer

Last night I went with a few friends to a local restaurant/bar called Benfica (which is a very famous Portuguese soccer team, for those of you not up on your European soccer). So, I have been to this place several times because they have pretty good food, and my friends Nick and David claim they have the best hamburgers in town. At any rate, I am telling you about this because I wanted a way to communicate the price of things in Cape Verde. I ordered a cheeseburger and drank 2 beers while I was there. The total cost of my meal was 400$00 escudos. This is equivalent to about $3.60 in US dollars. Now, I can’t think of any place in the states where you can get a cheeseburger with everything on it and 2 beers for that price. Granted, we aren’t exactly making the same amount that we would in the states, so it’s all fairly relative. BUT, when you ALL come visit me, you’ll be super rich here because you are only visitors!!!! Pretty cool. This is even more incentive for you to all book tickets to come to Cape Verde. The other motivating factor is, of course, me. And finally, I have seen some pretty cheap tickets out of Boston ($400)! Okay, I’m trying to upload more pictures, so maybe some will come through. Txau, ti logo.

my apartment building

This is my apartment building! We live on the first floor through the black gate in the front. It's a pretty nice spot, except we are on a major road, so it's pretty noise and REALLY, REALLY dusty. We are constantly sweeping and mopping. It's definitely a project to keep up with the cleaning on a daily basis, but it keeps us in good shape!!!!

Oops, you'll have to turn your head to see this one. I'll get the others straightened out, but I'm not changing this one beacuse it takes FOREVER to upload these things.

Me in the Biggest Tree in Cape Verde

I wrote about this long ago. My friend Nick and I decided to climb this tree! It was pretty high and pretty scary to get back down.










IF YOU CLICK ON THE IMAGE, IT GETS BIGGER

New Info

Hi y'all (especially Holly),

Here is my new information so that you can all send me packages and letters. I love both, so please send me something from home. My former roommate Jill sent a wonderful package of goodies and it got here in 7 days, can you believe it????

My address is the same:

Casey Maugh, PCV
A/C Corpo da Paz
C.P. 373 - Praia
Republic of Cape Verde
Por Avion (Air Mail)
(you should write route through Boston and via Portugal on the letter/package so it will get here quicker)

My phone number is: 011 238 262 8346 (you just dial all of these numbers and it'll get you to me)

I'd love to hear from anyone who'd like to call. It can be expensive, so check with the phone co. first. My mom also has found calling cards that work well. A friend just told me that at Sam's Club and Cosco you can get AT&T calling cards that will call Cape Verde too, so that might be an option.

Me and a friend

This kid is a family friend. This is also a picture of me about 15 pounds lighter than when I got here!

Elliott

Elliott, sweet Elliott, you hard hearted harbinger of haggis.

This blog entry is dedicated to a fellow trainee and volunteer, Elliott. The above is a reference to the film “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” which is my favorite film of all time. If you haven’t seen this cult classic, then please turn off your computer right away and head to Blockbuster (isn’t that the only video store still open) and rent it immediately. In fact, you should probably just purchase the film for your personal collection because it is so good.

Back to Elliott… Today I received an email from a fellow, recently sworn in, volunteer. In his email, Elliott told our group that he had decided to ET (early terminate). There are many jokes about who will be the first volunteer in a given group to leave early, but no one really wants to see anyone go home. Elliott just happened to be pretty high on my list of “people who might ET.” In fact, Elliott was probably pretty high on everyone’s list to ET. In general conversation about this subject, his name usually came up first or second. It’s sad, but it’s true. And mostly, it’s just unfortunate.

Let me tell you a little bit about Elliott. Elliott is an amazingly bright person. He graduated from MIT before joining the Peace Corps. He was brought to Cape Verde as an IT (information technology) guy. He was placed in Assomada, a city near here (I’ve written about it in previous posts). Elliott has one of the darkest senses of humor ever! He is all about “keepin’ it real” and “tellin’ it like it is.” Ellie (as we lovingly call him) was always himself, which got him into some trouble with the Peace Corps staff. Elliott was a constant source of entertainment as he always had a rap lyric ready to throw out at the most inappropriate situation. Elliott made you laugh because he was honest when no one else could or would be. Elliott is the kind of guy who you would expect to have a knife in his pocket at any given time (and he does). Elliott acted tough, but really he’s a good guy. I’ll miss Elliott, and I’ll miss listening to rap music with him. I’ll miss his smile and his wicked/deranged sense of humor. Most importantly, I’ll miss the way his hair grew at different lengths all over his head. Elliott had a rough go of it during training, and now he most regrets that he swore in when he knew his heart wasn’t in it. The best thing about Ellie is that he sent us all an email and went out with dignity. He didn’t just leave without a word. He left with more words than we needed, but they will help us understand why he left when he did and where he’s headed next.

Elliott will surely be missed.

My mission statement

I know I am posting a lot (again). SORRY. I promise to space things out from now on. I have internet access daily, so my blog will be updated much more frequently. If there is too much here for you to read, just read this entry. It is the most important and will tell you what I’m thinking about these days.

On our final day of pre-service training, we were asked to write a mission statement for our service in the Peace Corps. We were then asked to share them with the group (if we wanted) and I did. Mine receive a huge round of applause and people even said that they thought mine should be used by everyone. Here it is:


My Mission Statement by Casey Maugh

Preamble:
Mission statements often set lofty ambitions for people who do not ever fully realize those ideals. I want this mission statement to set lofty goals for an idealist. I’ve gotten pretty far in life looking on the bright side and staying positive, and I do not plan to change. My mission statement for my service in the Peace Corps and my time in Cape Verde is as follows:

I desire to aid in the development of a beautiful, successful, growing country. I plan to do that by dedicating my efforts to projects that promote sustainability (in-service training, advising students at ISE, helping people fund their advanced education, and more). I want to leave this country better than I greeted it. I want to develop friendships and relationships that will last longer than my 2 years of service. I want to always feel as if I have a place in Cape Verde and in the empowerment and education of its people. I want to fully integrate into my community and learn to love that which in the beginning I considered “foreign.” I want to never lost my optimism that Cape Verde will one day not need me here!

My first faculty meeting

Monday morning, 10 am ish, the day after I moved to Praia, we had our first faculty meeting.

Now I know what you are all envisioning… all of the teachers sitting around with the department chair, discussing pressing issues concerning students/schedules/etc. Things are a little different in Cape Verde. Here’s how it went:

First, we all arrived fashionably late for our meeting (well, I was there on time). The “chair” of our department is actually a French teacher (our department is the department of linguas strangeiras – French and English), so he wasn’t there because he doesn’t speak English and has little to do with the English staff. So we met as a faculty. There were 6 Americans (current and former PC volunteers) and two other men who have long taught for the department; one man from Senegal who is leaving this month to study in France and another man who is Cape Verdean but spent much of his time in England who is on sabbatical this semeseter. This is IT!!!! So, we are down to 6 Americans teaching English at ISE! WOW. Okay, this is an interesting issue. We are trying to create English teachers for Cape Verde, but the people teaching are not Cape Verdean – none of them!! This is crazy. Our goal has to be to get Cape Verdeans to teach themselves. The problem is no Cape Verdeans have Master’s degrees in English! They have to leave the country to get one and then will not likely return!!!!!! This is frustrating to say the least.

Next, we all are meeting to discuss our teaching schedules. There is not a person in charge of such a task in our department, we all sit around together and talk about what we want to teach and when it can be taught. We spent about 2 hours discussing the in’s and out’s of the schedule. We learned that we need at least 3 more teachers to cover the classes we have. AND, we are not admitting any 1st year students this term because we don’t have teachers to teach them! I am teaching a condensed Comp I class (I am meeting with them twice a week, four hours total). The second semester these students will have a condensed Comp II class with Dianne to catch them up. This happened because last year their teacher left mid-way through the first semester and there was no one left to teach. (teachers have frequently abandoned their students mid-semester, which causes all kinds of problems).

Side note: Another problem in Cape Verde is that most students at ISE (especially those in their 3, 4, and 5th years) are also teaching at the high schools while attending ISE. This means that classes can either be taught in the morning or in the afternoon, but students can’t do both. They come to school from 7:30-1:30 and then have to get to their schools by 2 to teach until 6 or vice versa. This is quite different from students who work their schedules around an outside job. We only offer one section of each class and all students in a given year take all classes together. This means that they must take the classes offered at the times they are offered. They also have obligations to the high schools and teach 22 hours a week there. They have no time for homework and for lesson planning. They likely have families and other obligations. It is a tragic scene that will take some adjusting to get used to.

Finally, after the schedule was somewhat set, we started switching classes around. People were trading classes, trading times, etc. It got confusing! Jessica and I just sat there with our mouths open as this all transpired. It is a lot to take in, and I feel a lot of responsibility for my job and for the health of our department. I know that it will be a tough year, but I am really excited about the students and about their commitment to school. Of the teachers in our faculty meeting, three have stayed around after their PC service to keep teaching at ISE. That’s a pretty good sign! Txau. Ti logo.

My new apartment

I sure hope I can get some pictures posted in the near future. I really, really want to get something put up on the web to show you my homestay life and training experience as well as my new home in Praia. So, I haven’t forgotten about this, it’s just a little difficult to get this to all work right.

Now on to my new home!!!!! I am soooooo pleased with my apartment in Praia. It is absolutely beautiful. I live on the bottom floor of a three story apartment complex. My place has Spanish (terracotta) tiles throughout the whole place. It is painted a light yellow color with bright yellow accents. Our kitchen is lovely. We have an open floor plan, so everything kind of flows from one room to the next.

When you enter the place, there is a foyer of sorts with the kitchen off to the left. The kitchen then flows into a dining room/sitting room (this space is huge). Then there is a big opening with two steps down into a living room with big windows and door to a porch. Next to the dining room, we have a half bath and then a full bathroom on the other side of the house. We each have spacious bedrooms (Dianne’s is much more spacious than mine) and a room in between our rooms that we are using as a closet/ laundry room.

Okay, so Dianne’s room is huge. It has two massive windows, a ceiling fan, and built in cabinets and dressers. Her room also has two wall mounted lamps! It’s pretty sweet. Dianne, who is 67 years old, completely deserves this room. She recently moved into the place, so I don’t feel as if she has really claimed anything except the room. And, as she says, the room will be mine one day!!!

My room has none of the above and a pretty sorry excuse for a light. My window opens up to the neighbors front door, so her maid looks into my room when she comes and goes. BUT, I can deal with that. I love the place. It is close to our work (only 3 bus stops or a about a 20 minute walk). It is in a nice little zona (neighborhood) called Terra Branka. We are near the main road, so everything is close by. No complaints from me.

OH! And I forgot to mention that we have INTERNET access. Well, we have 20 hours a month of dial up service. That’s just enough to upload blogs and have outlook send and receive my mail. I will probably generally go to either school or the Peace Corps office to use the faster internet for free. BUT, it’s great to have so many options.

So, it might not be the Peace Corps you or I envisioned, but I couldn’t ask for a better life. I am happy and healthy, so things are great. My roommate Dianne is an amazing woman with soooo much life experience. She has lived in the states, Japan for 10 years, Switzerland for a year, and was married to a man from England. She has taught all different age levels, has a master’s degree in psychology, and has raised 2 children. She has so many good stories and loves to listen as much as she loves to talk. I think we are going to get along just fine! Okay, gotta run. Txau. Ti logo.

The festa

We have been told since the beginning of training that Sao Domingos is safe and that no one gets hurt. I recall writing on my blog that I was told “you can walk down the street naked in Sao Domingos with dollar bills taped to your body and you won’t be harmed.” Well, this is TRUE, except during the Sao Nicolau festa on September 9th and 10th.

Each town in Cape Verde has it’s own festa. These festa are basically a time when everyone in town goes to a 5 hour long mass service, then walks through the streets together, and finally hangs out for two days eating food and drinking. These festas are religious and are usually in honor of a saint. People spend most summer days traveling from festa to festa enjoying what the city has to offer (my family went to several of these while I was staying with them).

The Sao Nicolau festa was my first. People were out on the streets dancing and talking. There was more food than you could imagine. The local youth basketball court was turned into a dance hall. It was great. Well, it was great until about 1 in the morning on Friday. We had just been sworn in and many of us left town to go to Praia. Those of us left congregated at a volunteer’s house. I only went for a little bit and then decided to go home at 10 because I was tired and there wasn’t much going on. Unfortunately, the other volunteers (both new and old) decided to head downtown. At about 12:30 a third year volunteer and a new volunteer were walking down the street and held up at knife point by 3 men. Luckily these volunteers had nothing with them, so they were only harassed a bit and left alone. About 30 minutes later, 6 people from our group (including one Cape Verdean) heard of the incident and decided to call it a night. On the way to the area where they were staying, the same 3 men grabbed my friend, Jessica (who will be teaching at ISE with me) and threw her to the ground trying to get her purse. She would not give up the purse, so two of the men began kicking her as hard as they possibly could. These were two very large, strong men and Jessica is 5 feet tall!!! Not a fair fight. Needless to say, Jessica did not give up her purse. My friend Deanna (a third year volunteer who also works at ISE) hit one of the men on the back with an umbrella. This did not deter the men at all, but gave enough time for Jessica to get up and run toward her home. My other 5 friends thought everything was good, but the men began gathering large rocks and came toward the others. They decided not to run because they didn’t want to get hit in the back of the head with rocks. Another friend, Jay (and the only male in the group), has held down and robbed. He had $100 US dollars on him (which a friend had just paid him back with). They took the money, dropped him to the ground and then, because these guys were so great, they dropped a 30 pound rock on his face.

The story basically ends there. My friends were very near their homes (within 500 feet) and ran inside to seek shelter. We are supposed to call the Peace Corps immediately when things like this happen, but the homestay mothers didn’t want to do that. They thought that this would mean they were bad parents and wouldn’t be allowed to have volunteers next year!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH…… My friends eventually convinced them that they must call the safety and security advisor for the PC!

My friend Jessica is now suffering from a form of post-traumatic stress. She is jumpy and doesn’t want to be alone. She just moved into her apartment in Praia and it has been tough to be in a big city and a strange place.

I’ve heard that this is the worst thing that has happened to volunteers. I hope nothing like this happens again. It has been awful for all of us. No worries though, I feel safe and at home here in Praia. I am being cautious and staying in after dark unless I’m with friends. This has been a bit of a reality check for all of the volunteers!!!

Okay, enough of that. Txau. Ti logo.

swearing in

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. On Friday, September 9th, I was sworn in as a volunteer. It is kind of a crazy process. We were asked to sign a piece of paper before our swearing in that had the pledge we would be taking on it. This paper said something to the effect of…. “I, Casey Maugh, swear to defend the US against all enemies both foreign and domestic. I promise to uphold the constitution. I promise to fight against all evil if it isn’t US evil. I promise not to bomb other countries or my own. I promise to never become an ex-pat……..” Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, BUT not much. We basically are now a part of the US military (or so it feels).

Alright, other than the ridiculous pledge, the ceremony was really nice. The president of the government office in Sao Domingos (basically the town mayor), the Minister of Education, Matthew (our country director), Paulina (our training coordinator), Maraila, and Mike (the last two are fellow trainees) spoke at our ceremony. Most of, well about 85% of the festivities were held in Portuguese or Kriolu, which meant that we understood about 1/5 of what was going on at any given time. BUT, the swearing in, the defense of our countries freedoms and spread of all that is good, was in ENGLISH (thank goodness).

After the ceremony, we had tons of food and some good conversation with our homestay families and new friends. And, about 2 hours later, nearly half of the newly sworn-in volunteers headed to Praia and left for good! It was bittersweet. We had a nice day, but in the end, most of the people I’ve grown to love had to go! Now, the Peace Corps could have worked this out a little bit better. They could have scheduled flights for two or three days later to give us a little time to absorb the fact that we are all about to leave one another for 2 years, but NOOOOOO. It sucked, but it’s over. In fact, most people were glad they left our safe town of Sao Domingos when they did because…….

Tune into my next blog to see what horrible thing occurred.

Last week of Training

This is the final week of PST. I will soon be moving out of my homestay house and into an apartment in Praia. I recently learned that I will be living with a retiree. The woman’s name is Dianne and she is about 60 years old. She is a professor at ISE, like me and she apparently goes to bed early, like me. I have only met her two times, very briefly. She seems like a very nice lady, and everyone seems to really think she’s great. I have a few reservations. One, she’s 60! I think you can imagine the kinds of things going through my mind at this point. I mean, I’m a pretty relaxed person with a pretty boring lifestyle, but even I might want to stay out late or have drinks with friends at the house and I can’t really imagine spending a lot of time with this person. I don’t want to have to feel like I am sneaking in or out of my house when I come and go. I am, of course, imagining the worst here, so bear with me. Second, we work at the same place. Some of you know that I have had some not so great experiences in the past living with people I work with. I, of course, have also has some pretty amazing roomies who were also co-workers (Kathleen and Jill W.). Third, this woman has been living alone in this apartment for a year. I will be moving into a home that she has already created and expected to feel like I live there! But the flipside is that in a year, she’ll be gone and I’ll either get a new roommate or I’ll get to live alone! SWEET! All in all, I have really little impression of this woman and I believe this will be a great experience. It will be nice to have someone with more life experience around when I need it. And, my friend Nick suggested that it might be nice to have a “mother” figure around when I am homesick or sick or need some advice.

At this point, I haven’t actually spoken with Dianne. She hasn’t called me to arrange my moving in and I have no way to call her, seeing as though I have no telephone. I also have the unfortunate job of moving all of my things down to Praia on my own! When we came here, the Peace Corps moved all of our things for us, now we are expected to find a car and get our things moved! They are just throwing us to the wolves the second we get sworn in as volunteers.

Speaking of being sworn in, we will officially become volunteers on Friday afternoon. The ambassador will come to San Domingos and formally make us volunteers! It’s a pretty big deal. Just today I was told that the PST director was going to recommend me without hesitation to become a volunteer with the Peace Corps! I am very excited. I also found out that my Portuguese proficiency exam went very well. I was rated an Intermediate “HIGH” Portuguese speaker, which means that I am at the highest expected level at this point. We have minimum proficiencies and I exceeded those! I haven’t found out about my Krioulu exam yet, but I will very soon. Things are better than ever! I hope to hear from everyone really soon! I’d like to know what is going on elsewhere. Okay, txau, ti logo.

Okay, I'm in Praia

Alright everyone, I promise to get to posting now that I am in my new apartment. I'll write more really soon. I'd love to hear about what's going on with each of you too. I miss you all. Txau.