oh, the saga continues

My Peace Corps boss came to me today with another "problem"! Apparently, my new apartment in Mindelo is no more. We are back to not having a house and I am moving in 1 week. I know that everything will work out, but seriously! My boss told me today that the contract on the house was signed and the furniture was being delivered to the house when the landlord told the guy coordinating the move, that he didn't want to rent the house any longer. GREAT. So, we're back to square one. I'll keep you posted on what is going to happen. Maybe I'll just live on the street! Who knows at this point. It's always something around here.

My last week at training

I've been participating in training the new volunteers for 8 weeks now. This will be my last week! I'm pretty excited to be finished and pretty sad to know that come this weekend, I'll not see these new friends for about 6 months. It's similar to my leaving last year, but this year, I have felt like a mentor with these kiddos! I'm older than all but 2 of them and have been here a year longer than all of them. That, in itself, means that I've spent the past eight weeks answering questions, telling stories, giving examples, setting examples, and generally enjoying my time getting to know everyone. I can honestly say that I'll really be sad to leave. BUT, as you all know, I'm moving, so I'm not TOO sad! I'm really excited for what is to come.

I'm working on a proposal for the Minister of Education this week that will, if approved, grant funding for my in-service training project. This project will have me travel to all of the high schools in the northern islands to give teaching workshops and do classroom observations. I'm really hopeful that it will go through!

Oh, one last thing. I heard today that my new house is beautiful. The guy who went to check out the house, told me that it is great. He said that a musician used to live there and it is very clean and very nice. I'm pretty excited to get there and get things set up! Okay, Max is begging me to get out of here. We just had a nice, long run and he's ready to get home for dinner (me too)!

cape verdean men are... prissy

I have been working toward this realization for quite some time now. The other night, I had to get my dog to come into the house after he got into a "tiff" with some other dogs. There were about 15 men at the bar near my house watching this all go down. When the dogs started figthing, the guard across the street jumped onto a nearby porch, another guy ran away quickly, leaving me standing there trying to get my dog to act right. Eventually, I got it straightened out, but all the men just stood by and tried to give me commentary on what I "should" do! It was ridiculous.

Then, to further my general impression that Cape Verdean men are prissy, I was in a car yesterday with all of the staff from Peace Corps who help with training, and one of the men began talking about how he grooms himself. All of the other guys got in on this and agreed that Cape Verdean men, even those who work in the farms like to be "pretty." Cape Verdean men have a reputation for being extremely machismo, which is absolutely true; however, they also at the same time are not like the overblown, testosterone driven males in America. It's just different. Cape Verdean men never fight with their hands, instead they are notorious for throwing rocks at each other!!!!!!! Crazy. I have seen one too many rock throwing fights in my year here.

This is just a general observation, of course, all men here are not like this, but MANY, MANY are!

Missing DOG!

Okay, so I know I just got Max, but I have already lost him. He's been doing well, except the other night he had a minor meltdown. I think he is starting to realize that he former owners are not going to return for him. I believe that he may have gone looking for him. Their house is not too far from mine, so I walked there today in hopes that he might be around. NO LUCK.

I really hope that I haven't lost the dog for good. He and I were getting to understand each other! I am off to try to do a more thorough search for him. I'll keep you posted on the dog search.

packing

I have only been in Cape Verde for one year! In that time, I have moved from Sao Domingos, to my first house, to the house I am currently living in. Each move, as all moves do, requires cleaning out and throwing out extraneous things. This time, I am moving to another island, so I am having to throw out just about everything. It's amazing how much stuff I have accumulated since the last move. Peace Corps paperwork and manuals alone take up a suitcase! I have just about gotten it down to a manageable amount of things for the move. I, of course, have Max, my clothes, some kitchen stuff, and my electronics. I will have to put the kitchen stuff on a boat and send it to Mindelo, and I am trying to figure out if Max can go on the plane or if he and I also must go on the 17 hour boat ride!!!! I have to work all of this out in the next 2 weeks.

Well, my dog is begging me to take pictures of him to show everyone, but unfortunately, my battery charger blew out and all my batteries are dead, so I have to buy some. It's quite a process, but I'm working on it.

On another note, the new folks found out where they are headed for the next two years. It was a pretty cool activity. We wrote their names and sites along with a proverbs on pieces of paper, then stuffed them into balloons. We threw all of the balloons at them, had them each take one and they popped a balloon, read the proverb and then announced the site to the person. It was great because they were the ones telling each other where they were going. They really liked it and we had a great time! There are some very cool people moving near me, so I'm happy. At the same time, two of the girls that I'm pretty close with will be far away, but they are both on islands that I have never visited, so it's a great excuse to visit them!

It's Sunday and I'm returning home to pack some more! I promise to get on top of the pictures!

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride! :)

My very good friend (from graduate school) Steph is marrying another one of my very good friends, Chris next fall. Yesterday, I got a package in the mail with my birthday gift from Steph. She wrote a lovely card and in the card asked me to be in her wedding! I am sooooo touched. I can't wait to share this special time with two wonderful people!

things are looking up

Yesterday my plumbing was fixed (at least temporarily)! I was soooo relieved when the guys showed up to tear up my washroom and bathroom, and after about 2 hours pumping out the "dirty" water and refinishing the flooring, things were back to normal. I am just happy that I don't have to mop up sewage from my floor any longer!

On to other things....

I just returned from training today. The trainees are settling into their normal routines, which mainly consist of attending training, complaining about everything, being bored, going to a bar after school and having a few drinks before returning home to their families. It really is similar to what was going on last year with our group. They are a good group of folks! This Saturday, they will find out where they are going to be for the next two years. I know they are all really, really anxious to find out where they will be headed. I remember just about a year ago when we found out. It is bittersweet to know that you will be headed to a different island than all of your friends. Some people will be headed to islands that are fairly isolated from the rest of the group. Some of these trainees will be sad to have to leave one another. But, I'm looking forward to moving and to finding out who will be living near me for the next year. I think that it'll be great to be living on a different island and to get to know a whole new group of people for my last year here.

I am beginning to think about packing for my move, which is quite a daunting task. I have dishes and kitchen stuff that I bought when I moved to Praia that I want to take with me; however, I'm not sure how much of it I will be able to take with me. With the dog, my things, and the house stuff, it's going to be a challenge. I'm planning on sending things on a boat and I might even go on the boat as well, but I'm not really looking forward to an 18 hour boat ride to my new home! We'll see what happens with that.

I must run to my house and make sure nothing else has gone wrong! I'll post pictures as soon as my camera decides to work properly. Without a pin drive and a crazy-acting camera, it's been quite a challenge to get things posted online! I guess a new digital camera will have to be my next big purchase!

Long time, no post!

Everyone! I am very sorry about the lengthy delay in posting. I will promise to be more on top of my writing. I have had a heck of a week, so I am now getting around to writing a bit. I'm sure that last thing you want to do is hear about it all, but that's what this blog is for, so here it is.

The lights are BACK! Finally, the power in Praia is on and consistently so. We have only lost power during the day a couple of times for several hours at a time, but that beats now power for 36-48 hours at a time. I'm extremely happy to be in the land of the lights again.

The lights are amazing, but the plumbing problem that has since developed is far from spectacular. And now that I have lights, I can actually watch as sewage rises from the drainage hole in the bathroom and floods the floor. It's extremely disgusting and I am in a constant state of cleaning it up. My former roommate made me aware of this, what was then a small problem, the day before she left. It had apparently been happening for several weeks, but I never witnessed the problem. The day before her leaving, she told me about it. Now, when you use the bathroom, any sinks in the house, or take a shower, the bathroom floor floods with the water! I called my landlord. He came to see me about it a week later. He is supposed to be coming tomorrow with a plumber to address the problem. I am just happy I will be moving from the house in 3 weeks. It's disgusting and I nearly throw up everytime I have to clean up the mess.

On a much happier note, my new dog MAX is wonderful. Max came to live with me on Monday evening, just hours after Dianne, my former roommate, left the country. I was happy to see Dianne leave and happier to see Max enter my life. Max has made me sooo happy. He is the coolest dog (except for the Jakes in my life). He is a mutt. He is cute. I promise to post a picture of him very soon. He has two different color eyes and a coat of three different colors. I took him on the Hiace up to Sao Domingos yesterday to see some friends there. He loved sticking his head out the window and checking everything out. And though he weights about 50+ pounds, he really wanted to sit on my lap! He can sit and is very obedient. He loves to play outside and will run the streets without supervision. He's a big fan of following me anywhere and everywhere that I go. He is a sweetheart and seems to get along with everyone. He's playful at times and lazy at times, which to me, makes the perfect combination. The guard across the street from my house has taken to him and so now Max sleeps on the bench across the street at night to keep the guard company. Then he comes inside for sleep and food and hangs out inside when I'm around. He's sleeping here as I type, being a good boy!

Well, that's about it from me. I'm still working with the new trainees, which has proven to be very taxing. I say that not because of the trainees themselves, but because of the staff that I work with. I am now pledging to stay as far away from the inner-workings of Peace Corps as I possibly can. It's not worth it. On the other hand, the trainees are cool and they have repeatedly told me how much they appreciate my spending my summer with them! I think that's about it from here. I promise to write more on a regular basis, Josh!

and then the rain came

And boy did it rain. It's August 1st and we finally have REAL rain. As I type this, it's still raining. At about 4:30 this morning, I shot out of bed because of an unfamiliar sound. It was pounding rain. I quickly realized that my drying clothes, were now completely, hopelessly wet. I decided to get up and take care of moving them around, then looked outside to see the city flooded. Because there is rarely ever rain in Cape Verde, the streets are not prepared for the downpours that happen in August. Currently, the streets are completely full and the cars are trying to navigate the mess. It's quite a scene. But, at least we have the rain.