It's finally over!

World AIDS day is on Friday, December 1st! If there is any way you can get involved with your local community, then please do! This is a really important day in Africa because, as most of you know, the AIDS rate here is far higher than most of the rest of the world, outside of India!

As I wrote before, the Peace Corps volunteers here on Sao Vicente coordinated a contest with the local cultural center and the office for childrens affairs. We asked all of the students in the 5 local high schools to submit one idea about AIDS that could be made into a one act play!

Last night, we had our ceremony to announce the 4 finalists and 1 overall winner. The ceremony went perfectly. We had two of our local partners speak, then we showed two short movies about AIDS and finally announced the winners. We had the winning student read her submission to the audience. It was a very special night. We were able to give the winner a big prize. She will have her school tuition paid next year as well as her uniforms and books. This a big cost for Cape Verdeans since education is only free until 7th grade. We also had books donated from a local book store and the Mormon church provides tote bags with 3 notebooks, pens, pencils, a ruler, colored pencils, and more! They provided enough bags for each student who submitted an idea! It was great to be able to give everyone something for participating.

The school directors (principals) all showed up, as well as the finalists' teachers, the parents of the students, and all the participants. We also had the news media there and our story will be on TV tonight! We don't have a television, but we are getting some friends to tape it so that we can watch it later. I have teach during the news hour, so I won't even be able to catch it!

It was a rewarding experience to see it all come together in the end. I am thankful it is over. I am even more thankful that it was a success. And I am even more thankful that AIDS awareness happened in a new and creative way!

Some pictures of me!

I just got a bunch of pictures from my friend Tiffany, so I thought I'd post some so that you can all see ME!

Beautiful picture

My student Michel made this collage after the ISE festa! I think it is just beautiful. It includes all of the students. At the bottom, is the English department soccer team. We, unfortunately, did not win the ISE tournament, but they had fun playing! Remember, if you click on it, you can see it better!

Nuno's birthday

My student, Nuno, had his 28th birthday party on Sunday. So, after staying awake for 2 days (Thanksgiving festivities), I had yet another obligation! It was a really nice party at his family's house. He was a great host, as were his parents. They killed a pig and we had wonderful pork skewer and such. We sat outside underneath the tree in his front yard and played cards and oril (a local game kind of like mancala). My student Simon played me in Mancala 3 times and managed to completely destroy any notions I had about being good at oril! He is a great player.

There was music and some dancing, as well as the presentation of the cake. His mother brought out a beautiful cake and then it disappeared! I never even got any. The boys from the class decided to play a little joke on Nuno, so they bought eggs and flour and decided to make a bolu de cabeca. This literally translates as a cake of the head. So, you can imagine what happened. As he was posing for pictures and we were singing to him, they smashed the eggs on his head and then dumped flour on him. It was funny. The funniest part about it was that two of the guys put their eggs in their pockets earlier in the day and they each managed to lean on the egg, which broke in their pants. I think that was karma, for sure!

The day ended about 6 with me being too tired to continue. Luckily, the party was winding down, so I didn't feel too bad leaving. Another student, Arcadio gave us a ride. Apparently, Elizabeth had arranged for him to stop by his house so they could try some of his "good" grogue. In my opinion, there is no such thing as good grogue. The rum here is soooo bad. So, we did that. I didn't partake! I learned that Arcadio is a music composer. He played some music for us of his work and we got to see his name in the liner notes! That was pretty great. I have such interesting students; I learn new things about them all the time!

Thanksgiving on Saturday

Since it would have been difficult to coordinate a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we decided to invite all of the volunteers to our home on Saturday. It was a great day. Everyone contributed something wonderful to eat. We had a turkey that Elizabeth made. It was the best turkey I've ever had! It was marinated for a long time and cooked to perfection. It was a rather small bird, but it fed us all and we are still enjoying leftovers. I made some lemon chicken and little lemon icebox pies (you can see them if you click on the first picture). I didn't have a pie plate, so I just made little individuals in little cupcake papers. Our friends made: mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, baked beans, potato salad, squash, collard greens, salad, twice-baked potatoes, apple pie, pumpkin pie, spice cake, chocoloate cake, chocolate mousse, and deviled eggs! It was a great time and the food was excellent. We have some wonderful chefs in the group, so it all went wonderfully!

Agriculture in Cape Verde

Last Friday, I got to go to a few special places with the Delegate for Agriculture in Sao Vicente. The Delegate is a very young woman with with a lot of wonderful knowledge about the situation with water and planting on this island. Elizabeth and I met up with her in the morning, and she took us for a ride to the water treatment area in Mindelo. It's not too far from our neighborhood! At this treatment facility they treat all the grey and black water from the houses in Mindelo. She told us that they have one of the few oxygen/sun treatment programs. What that means is that the dirty/yucky water from people is run into a series of big holes in the ground. These pools are pumped with oxygen and the sun does its work to break down the waste. There are a series of 7 or 8 pools. The water starts in one of these and stays there for 5 days then is moved to the next pool, then the next and so on. By the time the water gets to the final pool, it is ready to be used on crops. This is an amazing system because it is relatively cheap and makes sense for a place with no water. They have the potential to use desalinization but the system is very expensive to run and maintain, even though they have it! That's a frustrating thing, but the system they are using works relatively well. The major problem is that the farmers outside of the cities can't afford to get the water carried to their farms.

The most successful farming area is the area near the treatment plant... of course. They have a pipeline that runs 7 kilometers to deposit water in holding tanks. The water is then used for drip irrigation of the crops. We went to this farming area and learned that there are 98 associations who have access to plots of this land and the water. The local government gives out the land to deserving farmers or groups, but the land cannot be worked by companies! This way the local people have access to good land and good water and a good system for money making.

Our next stop was to drive past the island's dump! It was awful. They burn all of the trash that comes in from the city. They do not have another way to dispose of it, and the current method is harmful to the environment. All of the metal and glass gets pushed off to the side and just sits there. In Cape Verde, luckily, there is little excess packaging, but that is changing, which will eventually create a HUGE problem for trash management. Also, the glass bottles are widely used rather than cans, but there is no one recycling or collecting them, so they end up at the dump and just take up space. A recycling facility would be really wonderful, but we haven't gotten there yet. That's a minor priority compared to finding water and educating the population.

Finally, we drove out to Calhau to a cheese making cooperation. There is a coop building there where women bring their goat's milk to make cheese. The women then send the cheese into Mindelo to be sold at the stores! I have only eaten it and purchased it in a store, so this was a real treat. It was great to get to meet one of the women and hear her talk about the process and the project. This too is a center built by the local government for these women to develop their small enterprise!

It was a wonderful way to spend a morning. I learned so much! I am waiting to get a call to visit the biologist who works at that water treatment facility. They have a wonderful greenhouse where they grow seedlings to use in the city and sell to individuals. I want to explore that more and spend some time learning about planting in Cape Verde.

Pictures from the ISE festa

ISE's 7th Anniversary

Last night was ISE’s 7th anniversary. The festivities began at about 5:30 in the evening. They included a huge sound system in our little courtyard area where student sang and performed various types of music. One of my students from the English department sang my favorite Cape Verdean song, which was wonderful. There is a great band made up of students from ISE. They played most of the time. After they played, a duo of “hip hop” performers came on, crotch grabbing and all! Then the final act was a heavy metal band that played knockin’ on heavens door! Kind of strange to hear such music here!

While the music was happening, Elizabeth and I were dancing with our students, have a good old time. Our students told us to come with them! They had that look in their eye that they were getting into trouble, so Elizabeth and I happily followed. We left the courtyard and we all huddled in a big group (our 25 students and us). They broke out a bottle of ponche and passed it around for everyone to drink. Ponche is a sort of liquor. This particular ponche was made with grogue (the sugarcane rum that Cape Verde is well know for), honey, lemons, cinnamon, and cloves. Ponche de mel is my favorite, so I was happy for the little pull on the bottle. Then the small amount we had ran dry, so they decided to take us on an educational field trip to a little shop around the corner where they sell some special mixture of ponche de mel! We had a great time with them as they explained how to choose the right kind and how they make this particular ponche. Very good. Very educational, indeed!

We returned to the party after purchasing and drinking more. We danced and danced and then it was time for arroz con tudo (rice with everything). The rice was excellent and filling and a boost for more dancing. At the end of the party, everyone decided to go to the beach, so I tagged along. They brought guitars and we sang songs and just sat on the beach enjoying the cool night weather. I got a ride home from one of my students with a car.

Looking back on a night like that, I realize how blessed I am to have such wonderful students and friends here in Cape Verde.

First interview

I had a phone interview with the Department Chair at the University of Southern Mississippi on Tuesday! It was an hour long interview/conversation! I truly enjoyed the experience and am hoping for an on-campus interview in January! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

flip flops

I recently had to go to the hospital for an X ray on my broken pinky toe. I noticed something very interesting while I was there. All of the nurses and orderlies were wearing flip flops. They had on their blue scrubs with the same blue flip flops, which makes me think they are standard issue! This was very interesting to me considering the fact that the hospitals here are pretty bare and pretty dirty. The folks who work there deal with all kinds of crazy things and they presumably have to move heavy bodies and deal with bodily fluids. Flip flops just don’t seem like the right choice for hospital employees. The doctors don’t wear flip flops, which is also strange since everyone else does.

In our hospitals and doctors offices in the states our nurses and doctors wear specially made shoes for back support and such. They are very particular about their shoes because they are standing on their feet all day and doing strenuous work (sometimes). Things are different here, in so many ways…

mount cara from afar

Here is a picture of the mountain from far away, you can see the nose! Also, if you look back to the "Harbor in Mindelo" post with the pictures from the harbor with all the boats, you will see Mount cara in the backgroud, giving you a sense of how high it is.

I almost died yesterday

After I broke my toe on halloween, my Grandaddy emailed me to tell me that I need to find myself a "keeper." He said that I was always getting into something and need someone to look after me. Well, he is completely RIGHT.

Yesterday, I went hiking. The hike was to one of the highest points on the island, the nose of Mount Cara (mount face). It was a great hike, but by far the most dangerous one I've been on. For those of you who know me, you know that I have hiked all over the US and the world. I thought that hiking in Peru was the scariest, but now that has been topped. We began our ascent at 6:30am. The sun was coming up over the city. As you can see in the photos, the harbor of Mindelo is beautiful from that height. We hiked about 3 hours to the "top" or the nose of the mountain. The terrain was mostly all loose gravel and about 3 foot ledges with 200 foot drops. So, we were carefully making our way around and up the mountain. I was with a group of 8

others who are very good hikers. They were lots of fun. We made it to the summit where we relaxed and hung out. I was the first to the top, so I was named the winner and the best "cabrita" (which means little girl goat). I went up to the peak with no problems. The top was great and there is a message bottle there where you write down your name and the date you made it up! I got to write first, which was the big honor!

The trip back down, like many descents, can be more daunting. Looking down toward the bottom makes you realize how far up you are! Well, when we were about an hour away from the bottom, we were walking on a narrow ledge. There was a big rock wall on one side that we were holding on to as we crossed about a 1 foot path. The person in front of me stepped out, then I stepped in the same place. Unfortunately for me, the gravel gave way and I fell. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room to slide, so I slid, dug my fingernails in and like on the cartoons, I finally stopped just short of falling 200 feet to my death. My legs were hanging off the side of the rock, I was only held by my fingers. The man behind me, Ceasar, got to me when I stopped. He jerked me up by my arm and I am now here to type about this. Well, barely. I can't move my arm, the one that he jerked. I have about a million cuts and scrapes and bruises on my legs, arms, head, etc. BUT, I am alive.

That was the closest to death I have ever come. Seriously. I am not joking. I couldn't sleep last night because I kept replaying the scene in my head. I almost died. I am so thankful that I didn't. I am blessed....

shoes

Oh happy day! I may not have written about my buying a pair of cheap sandals, wearing them once and having them break. Well, I took them to get repaired. After a couple of days of this, I got them, all fixed. The guy who repaired them put them in a bag and I headed to the media center to do some work. Naturally, because I can be absent-minded, I forgot the bag at the media center! Great. So, I returned the following morning and no one seemed to know about it. I returned for several days and talked to several different employees. No one had any information. That was about 4 weeks ago. Today, I ran into the center to do a little work in the air conditioning (it is still about 1 million degrees here, I think it's getting hotter), and the guy who works there came right up to me to tell me he had my bag!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH! So, I got my shoes back. Now I can wear them for the second time. This time they are repaired and should be better! What a life I lead here in the underdeveloped world! I swear, I'm not helping with development, I'm just becoming Cape Verdean and being so laid back about things that I forget my head!

And, since I wrote this blog posting, I wore my new, newly repaired, newly found shoes down the street to a school. On the 200 yard walk back, one of the shoes began to come apart on a different spot. I guess it’s back to the repair guy again! I can’t give up on these shoes, now they have a story to tell!

movie night

As a continuation of our conversation night with our students, we held our first English movie night. It was quite a production, let me tell you. It began with a friend loaning me a projector. Well, I hooked up my computer and nothing happened. I spent the better part of my Sunday pleading with the computer and projector to communicate with one another. I did everything I knew how to do, but NOTHING. So, I called two of my students to get them involved in this mess. They came over and knew less than I did. In fact, one of them said, “well, you’re just supposed to hook it up and it’s supposed to work.” Yes, thank you for the highly technical advice! So, then we commissioned another student to bring her DVD player. Her husband came and we got it working, then all the sudden, the cable that connected the player to the projector decided to start causing problems. Then, we commissioned yet another student to bring his DVD player. Of course, we forgot to mention the kind of cable needed, and he brought the wrong thing. Really we just needed the cable anyway! So, then he went back home (luckily he lives in the neighborhood) and returned to save the day with the correct wire! We were in business finally!

We showed the movie Crash! We figured it would be a good film for discussion. It certainly was. Our students thought it was powerful and great. They had lots of interesting things to say about it. They also had lots of questions about it. The major idea that came out of the film from their point of view was that violence is everywhere. They also commented on the fact that they idealize America. We talked about how people have these ideas about what America is and that life in America is “easy.” Cape Verdeans have this image of the states as some great wonderland. We talked about racism in America and the class system. They agreed that they really don’t have an idea about what America is “really” like. I thought it was a wonderful way to start a discussion!

Any suggestions for our next film night????

My plants

My dear wonderful plants are just growing and growing. I am certain that the veggies I’ve planted and replanted will again need more space when they begin producing their fruit. The cucumbers have had a little difficulty, as they seem to have acquired a fungus of some sort. I have tried to use a bit of warm soapy water to rid them of this affliction. That did nothing but make it worse. Then I heard from someone that I should rub the bad spots with alcohol, so I did that. That just made the leaves die. So, now I’m leaving it to nature. They seem to be surviving and even some of the cucumber plants are thriving.

Luckily, the remainder of my garden is fine. No bugs, fungus, or problems as of yet. Many of my little guys are in need of replanting to bigger pots. I am working on that project, but I must buy more soil. Soil, good soil, is somewhat expensive when you’re working with such a small budget, so I am working on that project.

I’ve immensely enjoyed gardening so far. I sit in my sunroom often and read and work on my computer and talk to my plants! They seem to like it, and I definitely enjoy the quite time with them. Gardening has proven to be rewarding and relaxing. I’m posting some photos here, so that you can see how big their getting and how many things I’ve gotten started!

my house...finally

click on the photos...

to make them bigger

Santo Antao Pics

Here are 3 great shots from Santo Antao.

Brian - this is what you have to look foward to when you come visit! Everyone else, just look what you're missing.

Monte Verde

These are good photos from the top of Monte Verde. The view from up there is amazing. What a beautiful island. In the first picture Elizabeth caught me looking away!

My undies on display

Elizabeth decided to take a snapshot of our colorful clothesline! She just couldn't resist a photo of my underwear on display for our neighbors!

The harbor in Mindelo

These images are of the harbor in Mindelo! Pretty nice huh? All of the sailboats are coming through this time of year, so the water is filled with beautiful yachts!

pictures of the mindelo crew

The first is of Elizabeth and me in our office! The second is Elizabeth, David, me, and Darrell at dinner the other night.

MANDA

I just got a post on my blog from AMANDA. Amanda, if you read this, send me an email to my address: caseymaugh AT gmail DOT com. Anyone else who reads this can also send me email at that address as well! But, Manda, I can’t get an email out to you, so you email me first! Okay?

Conversation Night

On Sunday night, we invited our students over for our first “Conversation Night.” Elizabeth came up with idea to have a night where people could come to our home and practice their English. Our first event went pretty well. We didn’t really know what or who to expect, so we didn’t really plan for the event. Next time, I think we’ll talk a little more about topics to discuss! We weren’t exactly prepared. Well, it didn’t matter much because our student Otelindo came through with his guitar! He managed to play a bunch of song with English lyrics and we all sang along with him. It was great. Elizabeth had recently received a song book that contained lyrics of a lot of popular songs to use in the TEFL classroom. Otelindo knew a lot of those songs, so everyone gathered around the lyric book and just sang and sang! It was fun. We had students start dancing at the end (which is not surprising in Cape Verde).

After a couple of hours we invited everyone to come to watch a film with us at a local center. The film was about Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was interesting, although I didn’t understand a lot of what was said. Brazilian Portuguese is quite different from the Portuguese of Portugal, so that was a little difficult. Elizabeth purchased the film, so I am watch it with the subtitles on next time, which will help tremendously. My reading skills are much better than my listening skills!

Halloween

Today is Halloween, so happy Halloween! In Mindelo, Halloween is for adults. There are no little kids dressed up in costumes going from door to door for a chance at candy to rot out their teeth! Instead, Mindelo, because there is a holiday on November 1st, heads out and parties all night long. So that on All Saint’s Day, everyone is hung over and tired. I intend to go out tonight with a big group of my new students. They are having a party at one of the clubs, and I have been invited. Everyone dresses either in all black or all white (witches and ghosts). It is a fairly new tradition, and I am happy to participate in it! I’ll fill you in on how it goes.

Okay, so Halloween has come and gone. Going out with my students was really fun minus the two “bad” things that happened. First, I was standing in the road waiting for some friends and waiting to get into the club when a guy walked into me! He had on big boots of some sort. He giant feet ran into my flip flopped feet, which meant that his boots won! He broke my baby toe! It’s disgusting now. It’s complete black and blue and it hurts a lot.
Second, I lost my house key. That wouldn’t have been so dramatic, except I got home at 5:30 and Elizabeth was asleep. There was no waking her up. She sleeps like a rock and can’t hear all that well, so I didn’t even try. Not to mention the fact that I was the idiot who lost the key, so why should she have to wake up for me. So, after trying some pretty feeble ways of getting into the house, I looked up and noticed that I could probably break into my house through an open window. Now, we live on the second floor, so this included me scaling the side of the house, getting onto a ledge and then jumping up into the window! It was a little insane, but I was tired, my toe was broken and I just wanted to get to bed.
So, Halloween was great! No really. I got to dance with my students, hang out in town and see everyone walking around. It was all-in-all excellent, regardless of the toe and key mishaps. You know, it’s always something around here.

My first visitor

On February 22nd, I will have my first visitor! Brian, my friend since high school will be visiting me. I cannot tell you how absolutely excited I am. I will get to show off my town to someone special to me. I will also get to spend time with Brian, which is a huge deal. You see, I haven’t seen Brian for nearly 10 years. We have been in touch with one another but I have not actually laid eyes on him for about a decade. It’s crazy that we finally get to reunite in Africa! But, I couldn’t be happier about this visit. It will be so nice to have someone that I care about come see me.
So, now you all must decide whether you want to come to Cape Verde. Time is running short. I’ll be leaving here in just a little over 9 months! I’d welcome anyone who wants to come. The ticket is reasonably priced and you won’t spend much money while you’re here. It’s pretty cheap in these parts! Well, I expect you to consider the invitation, seriously. When else are you going to have the chance to stay in Africa, for free, with me? Okay, well if you don’t come, then just make it up to me by sending care packages! The second year is much more lonely than the first! I know it seems impossible, but all I want is a HUG from someone! Just some comfort and love! It gets hard to be so far away from everything that is familiar.

Darrell's back!

There are four volunteers living in the city of Mindelo. Darrell, one of us, had to return to America just a month after getting here. His grandmother died, so he headed back to the states for a 15 day trip. Tonight, we had a dinner to celebrate his return. It was great to have our family together again. When you live in a city filled with people speaking a different language and living in a different cultural reality, it’s nice to know that there are other Americans around to share with. So, being with Darrell tonight along with Elizabeth and David made our foursome complete. Our family felt solid and everything was right in the world tonight.

Darrell also brought back some MUSIC! I am so excited. He gave me copies of the new Outkast, John Mayer, John Legend, Lupe Fiasco, and Jamie Cullum. All are excellent. I already have them on my computer and headed onto my Ipod! I can’t tell you how sweet it is to have new tunes to rock! Ooooooh Sooooo Good. After dinner, we headed to the theatre to check out a play. Unfortunately there were more people there than I have seen in one place in this country! We tried to get tickets earlier in the day, but the theatre was closed, so we risked just going without. We figured that the theatre would be as it normally is…empty. Apparently Saturday night is the night to be out and about and check out the latest cultural event. Well, needless to say, I’m back at home on a Saturday night typing about my life on this computer! I’m pretty lame, but I’m okay with that!

Tomorrow night we will have another chance to check it out. We also have our first English conversation group meeting tomorrow at 5pm. Our conversation group is a chance for people to spend time speaking in English. We will show films some weeks and have readings. This week is our first, so we are just planning to have some talking points and maybe get a debate going. I’ll let you know how it goes.

A job!

The University of Southern Mississippi is hiring a new faculty member for the Fall of 2007. I just found out about this excellent opportunity and decided to apply. The job is a tenure-track position as the Director of their newly opened Speaking Center. The position entails running the center as well as teaching a little. I am super excited that I found out about this job, and as of yesterday, I completed my part of the application. I am having my letters of recommendation sent by three fabulous folks that I have worked with in the past! I can’t tell you how much I hope I get this job. I know that I am in Africa and so I may not be the easiest candidate to interview and such, but I will do everything I can to get this job. Working in Hattiesburg, the city of my birth will be great. Living close to my family and friend will be wonderful and something I haven’t done in a LONG time. Please pray, think good thoughts, send me energy, whatever you do to job… please do that! I am positive that I have a great shot at this position. I am well qualified and really want it, so that should play in my favor! Wish me well