Pictures of my city

Here are some photos of Mindelo.

Waiting...

I mentioned in a previous blog that all of the volutneers planned to go to Praia for a meeting, but that we were instead stuck in Mindelo. And when 12 PC volutneers are gathered together in the same house waiting for word from PC about what we are to do, there is only one thing that we CAN do... have a three day party! Here are some photos to show you the series of events.

1.) we showed up at the house to find 3 of our friends waiting on the doorstep eating, playing guitar, and drinking.

2.) we cook dinner and the dancing begins.

3.) later in the night Steve gets the lifejacket out. We were supposed to go on the boat, so we all had our lifejackets ready. Without a boat trip, Steve needed to get at least some use out of his jacket.

4.)Night one ended with a friend getting a little sick in my bed. As you can see, Steve and Tiffany decided to cheer her on. I think that puke and rally is meant for the same person rather than having your friends rally while you puke!

On the stoop

One day I was hanging out with Darrell outside of his apartment complex. He and David have an incredibly great neighborhood community who hang out together on Friday afternoons and play soccer and just talk and play music. I definitely do not have such a community in my area, so it's nice to feel a part of theirs.

AIDS contest

Here are some photos from the World AIDS day project that we did here in Mindelo! You can see the ceremony, the contestants, the winners, and then David, Darrell, and myself with two of our friends from the area, Christina and Katerine. Christina is a former PC volunteer who is now living in Mindelo working on her dissertation. Katerine is from Austria. She just moved back there but she was volunteering here for a while.

Sunday hike to the volcano

Last Sunday we went hiking to an old volcano and then on to a beach. The crater of the volcano was really cool. You could go down into it and there was just sand in the bottom. All of the volcanic rock was really neat and made it look like we were on the moon. The area was barren with no greenery anywhere. You can see in the pictures the volcano from a distance. Then the inside of the volcano, the crater.

After the volcano, we hiked out toward the water where we found some really amazing shells, which you can see in one of the pictures. The waves were crashing on the rocks and it was dawn when we got there. The light was just coming through the clouds and higlighted some rock formations, which you can also see. We encountered this really cool rock formation too! It's the orangish rock that you can see here. The five of us rested in a cave-like area for a while. Then we found some tide pools with different corals. We also came across a lot of beds of sea salt! I gathered some up and am drying it out. Cape Verde's islands produce a ton of salt, so you can buy sea salt in any store. They usually have a bucket of it that you can get some from for your cooking.

After our hiking was over, we went to two different restaurants. The first was Serenata, and we just had a beer and relaxed. We will definitely be going back there for dinner and to listen to some live music. I told my friends that when Brian comes, we will go back. The second place we visited was this cute little place with moray eel! We had some fried eel and another drink and just enjoyed the day. The moray was amazing. I've had it in Cape Verde many times and it is always wonderful.

Some of my friends

These are just a couple of pictures of me and my friends. One is with a work colleague Aldina! She's great; her family invited me to have Christmas dinner with them, which was wonderful. The other is of me and Olivia, the daughter of my Cape Verdean aunt here in Sao Vicente. Olivia does not have use of her lower limbs, so she is a very special child. She is amazing and we always play Barbies together! The other picture is of my friend Carlos (Caio). He is a great person who I have grown very close to since moving here. He is from the island of Brava and promises to take me to visit his island this summer! I can't wait. Brava is the smallest island and has tons of beautiful flowers! I think the photos are in reverse order, but you'll figure it out!

Santa Luzia de terra

I recently received these pictures from my friend Ceasar (the one who saved my life). They are of our hike to Santa Luzia de Terra. I believe I wrote about picking up the Almonds and cracking them open. I ended up making my first batch of jam out of their fruit.

In the images, you will see our group, a picture of me climbing up the side of a rock just for fun, me about 150 feet up in the top of the almond tree trying to knock the ripe ones out, and pictures of us trying to crack open the almonds for a snack!

That was a great day hike, I am really lucky to have such a great group of friends to do things with on Sunday mornings. It's been amazing seeing this island from places that people never go!

Oh, the name of the place we hiked is Santa Luzia de Terra because there is an islet in Cape Verde called Santa Luzia, so this is distinguished by being called the Santa Luzia "of the land"

Plastic Christmas Tree

The students at the college to train primary school teachers, made this cool plastic Christmas tree! I couldn't resist posting it!

New Year's Eve!

On New Year's Eve the usual crowd from Santo Antao came over on the boat to spend a few days in our great city. In Mindelo everyone heads out on the streets at midnight and jumps into the ocean just as the fireworks begin marking the new year. I was not foolish enough nor exciting enough to jump into the water, but the crazy people from the other island couldn't resist the Mindelo tradition. The unfortunate part is that everyone enters the water in the most filthy part of the beach. This part of the beach is known as "dog's beach" because that's where the dogs wait for the fisherman to come in with their catch.

After the swimming and celebrating, we headed home to get ready for a night out at a local club. On New Year's eve, all of the clubs charge a lot of money for all you can eat/drink parties. So, we indulged and went to a local club to dance. We had a fun time. You will see us all in the photos and you will notice a Cape Verdean woman dancing with a glass on her head. It was impressive. She is a local prostitute who shows up at the local hang outs to pick up Portuguese tourists. And she's got serious skills with balancing things on her head.

At about dawn, we headed home and slept off our entrance into 2007. It was a great new year.

Sorry..

I recently received a post on my blog from my cat, Jackson. Apparently I have been really neglecting my blog if my cat, who I just discovered can READ, is upset with me. Also, several friends have commented on my neglect, so I will attempt to make up for all the time away. I have lots of new pictures to share and stories to tell!

You will see some pictures of me on this posting. Two are of me and my friend Darrell. He is another Peace Corps volutneer here in Mindelo! I just thought I'd give him a little shout on my blog. He's been having to make some hard decisions lately, so I've spent a lot of time with him in the past weeks. The other photos are just pictures of yours truly! My mom always tells me to post pictures of myself, so she can see that I am alive and well... I am. One of the photos was taken for my MOM (the first one I think). It is a picture me wearing the shirt she sent me for Christmas. Thanks Mom... I love you.

As for my not writing, things have been crazy over the holidays and then afterward as well. I believe I wrote about there not being any flights leaving the islands because of the brumaseca winds from the Sahara. Well, we were supposed to be headed to Praia for a meeting with all of the volunteers, but because of the winds, we were asked to go to Praia on the boat! There are 12 volunteers from our island and the island next door, so we purchased our boat tickets with great dreams of partying on the boat for 20 hours. Unfortunately, the conference was cancelled and we didn't get to enjoy the boat ride. So, everyone stayed in town and we all partied for 3 days! It was a good substitute for the boat trip!

Happy New Year

Happy 2007! I am sorry it's been a while since I last posted, but around New Year's my life was filled with houseguests and parties. I have a lot of new pictures to post now that I have a new digital camera, but of course, my pin drive is at the photo shop! I had some pictures developed and they kept my pin drive to do the work, so I will run over there and try to get it back. Things seem to always take longer than expected around here, but I'm used to it.

The latest news is that I will be flying to the states on January 30th. I have my job interview on February 1st and 2nd and then will get to spend a very little bit of time with the family before heading back here to finish out the semester and begin a new semester. I am hopeful that all will go well with the flights. I just learned today that no flights have left the island in 3 days because the winds from the Sahara have placed a huge dust cloud over the islands making flying an impossibility. So the entire city looks like it's in a big fog (for days now). We are supposed to head to Praia for a conference this next week but things aren't looking so great for that. Let's just hope that the dust has lifted by the 30th! Okay, pictures are on the way.

a christmas eve well spent

This morning, on the Eve of Christmas Eve, I was invited to deliver clothing to some people in need. My student Sandra is a teacher at the Basic English School here in Mindelo. The Basic English School is run by a Nazarene Church, Bom Pastor. At this school, young kids take English in their free time, which is pretty cool!

Sandra and another one of my students, Auxiliadora collected clothing and taught the kids “We wish you a Merry Christmas” in English. Before giving out the clothes, the television crew came and filmed us singing our Christmas carol and a few other songs. The kids spent some time exchanging their own gifts too.

We went to what Sandra had described as a “very poor” part of the city. She said the houses were made of “lata,” which means metal cans. So, I was expecting poverty, but not like what I saw. The houses were about 15X15 and houses families of people. The house was made of metal and pieced together by nails and wire. I was devastated when I got there. I know that people out in the countryside are poor, but they have the land to live off of. These people are living in the city and have nothing. They were running up to us from all sides trying to get things. They were kind and gracious, but so very sad. No one had shoes. It was like a lost group of people. They were out of town by just enough to be forgotten. There is not water there, no electricity, nothing.

Thankfully, Cape Verde doesn’t have a winter. If we did, there would be no way for these people to survive. Cape Verde often times seems to have just enough money to make things look pretty on the outside. Even the poorest people here are able to dress nicely and cover up their poverty. However when you go to people’s homes like these, it makes you realize how much we don’t see on a daily basis.

Later in the day, I was invited to two different Christmas Eve dinners. So, needless to say, I was completely stuffed when I finally got home at 2 am! People eat very, very late here to welcome in Christmas Day. I was so fortunate to spend my time with two great families!

Then, the next morning, I woke up alone for the 2nd year in a row on Christmas. It was sad, but not as sad as last year! My Christmas day was spent with Dave and Darrell, the two other PC volunteers. We cooked a dinner and shared a little time together. Then I just spent some time alone! It was a relaxing day.

INTERVIEW

HELLO! I have an interview with the University of Southern Mississippi! YEAH! I just spoke with their Department Chair. We scheduled the 1st and 2nd of February for the interview! I am SOOOO excited. Please wish me luck. Send me good vibes and prayers!

Santa Luzia de terra

On Sunday, I got to hike to a new spot on the island! The place is in a valley behind the town of Calhau. We hiked over a ridge and started to head up the valley. On the way, it was sprinkling! It was crazy that just a few minutes up and out of town, we felt raindrops. Further up the valley, we encountered greenery! There were some big trees, Mangoes and such. There was a HUGE almond tree! That's right, an almond tree. So, we collected a ton of them. I didn't know that almonds look like figs when they are on the tree. Then you can eat the sweet outside and get to the shell. Then you can crack the shell and eat the almond!

So, we sat and used rocks to beat the almond shells open (very hunter-gatherer of us). And we hit the ripe ones out of the trees with sticks. I got them all home and decided to make "doce" out of the outer part. Doce means jam, basically. So, I boiled the fruit, got the sweet part, then cooked it down with sugar and added fresh lemon and orange juices. It tastes wonderful! It was my first time making any sort of jam. It's great. I have more to make and give away as Christmas gifts! I am sooo excited.

Well, my friend Ceasar (the one who saved my life), took some pictures. Once he gets them to me, I'll post them! Since my camera was stolen, I am pretty bummed that I can't get great photos anymore! Boo! :(

seriously, seriously

This is an installment in the completely insane life of Casey Maugh. It's always something. Never anything major, but always something completely unexpected and annoying. This time it was a break in. A man came into our house this morning at about 4:30. I went to bed early and Elizabeth was still up and on the phone, so I didn't think to shut the back door on the porch, neither did Elizabeth. We always lock that door at night, but of course, last night we didn't.

Elizabeth woke up at about 5 when she heard a noise and saw a flashlight. She thought it was me and that the power was out or something. Then she went to the bathroom, then woke me up. She asked me if I were walking around. I said no! Then she said, I think our computers are gone. GREAT! A man had entered the house, stolen Elizabeth's computer which was in the living room. Then he started to search the house. The drawers to my desk had been removed and the contents carefully inspected. Elizabeth's purse was in the office and money had been taken, but the kind thief left everything else. Unfortunately, Elizabeth's camera was also in her purse, so that's gone. We looked around the house to see if anything else was missing. We talked for a while, then I went to my room and realized that my ipod and camera were gone. That means the man came into my room and took those things! OHMYGOSH! Then I was completely freaked out, seriously freaked. I was fortunate enough to have been watching a film in my room last night and placed the computer underneath my bed, so the guy was apparently not brave enough to take that!

What a horrible way to wake up in the morning. We just feel so violated. I am now fearful that he knows there is another computer in the house and will return. I am hopeful that he's not that bold, but he did steal things from right next to me when I was sleeping! We will certainly be more vigilant about the doors and windows from now on. Unfortunately, this is the same time of year that my wallet was stolen last year. Near Christmas time, crimes really, really rise. People get desperate for money for the holidays and do crazy things. Let's just hope that things calm down in my life here in Cape Verde. I've never had such excitement in my life before. And to be honest, I don't like it.

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!