New House??

I don't know if I'll have time to write before I head to Dakar, so I thought I'd write a little this morning (it's Saturday at 8am). Yesterday the medical officer for the PC came to our home to do a "site visit." During this visit we walked through our home and around the outside of our home. The medical officer asked us about the multiple break-ins that have occurred and asked us to descibe them to her. We talked a lot about safety and our neighborhood because recently a man was shot just behind our home (it was related to theft). Anyway, both my direct supervisor and the medical officer agreed that we will need to move. Our house, though it is comfortable and pretty, is located in an increasingly dangerous part of town. In Praia, neighborhoods can change rapidly and that is what has happened where we live. In fact, our next door neighbor his having a wall built around her home!!!! Housing is not easy to find in Praia, especially in safe neighborhoods, so it may take some time to relocate us. It seems that the excitement never stops here in Praia... I hope all is safer in the states.

We've lost a good man!

Okay, noone died, but my friend Sarin has decided to terminate his service early. Sarin is a great guy, and I'm going to miss his frat boy ways (Sarin went to UNH as an undergrad so Kathleen and Bri know what kinda crazy kid he is)!

Sarin came in as part of my group and will be the fifth member to leave us early! Sarin has been living on this island (Santiago) in a town called Calheta. He was living with another volunteer, Adam and working for the youth center there. It really, really sucks when people from this island leave because that's one less friend around for hanging out and going to parties. I completely understand all of his reasons for leaving. He plans to try to get to Cambodia to visit his extended family and try to do some volunteer work there if possible. I know he'll do good things! This is definitely a memorable 6 month mark. Today it has ben exactly 6 months since I left Mississippi! I sure hope noone else decides to leave, it's harder on those of us who stay in some ways! The people who leave return to normalcy and convenience. Those of us who stay just miss those who left (and are a little jealous too). Well, school begins tomorrow and then I'm headed back to Dakar on Monday! I hope all is well as you all try to keep up those new years resolutions! I'll write more soon. Txau.

battle of the broken foot

It looks like my foot problems will not be over soon. The last attempt at "fixing" my broken foot did not exactly work out as planned. I will be returning to Dakar, Senegal next week to have my case reevaluated. This basically means that I will have the orthotic insert reformed for my foot. The doctor in Dakar believes this is just a matter of the insert not properly fitting me, so the podiatrist will refit it. I really, really hope this works. I was extremely disappointed when I realized that the last attempt at correcting the problem had failed. It is very difficult to deal with constant pain and with not being able to run. I hope everyone will keep me in their thoughts as I continue to deal (both physically and mentally) with this broken foot.

It's the small things...

Just about every day I am amazed by some small thing in Cape Verde. Some days I see a beautiful child sitting on the bus or a pack of dogs up to no good. Well, on the eve of Christmas eve, I spent my day in the market. December 30th was an election day here in Cape Verde (which is a strange day to have an election). I was in the market and people were playing drums and all of the women were clapping and dancing. It was amazing. The spirit of the election was everywhere. In the evening after the election, cars were driving through the city, honking horns and waving flags of the winning party. Then there was a concert in the streets. It was sweet (but I didn't get to go to the concert because volunteers can't participate in political events).

It was a wonderful day. I decided to shop for some cheap clothes in the streets where I saw tons of people out and about preparing for the New Year's festivities (which last 3 days in Cape Verde). I was fortunate enough to buy some cute new things for about $10.00 (clothes are really cheap). I also bought some freshly hulled lima beans on the street, which turned out to be magnificent. I also saw a young boy walking with 2 live chickens in his hands. The chickens were calmly hanging upside down and the boy was broadly smiling at me while I watched him. It was awesome, in a weird sort of way. Things are just sooo different here, and I love it.

It's hard to express my daily life. Every single day I smile because I've seen something amazingly different; I mean, there is a goat living on a roof near my home, on the ROOF. It's all amazing. Next week I will have been here 6 months! I can't believe how time flies. A half of a year and I wouldn't change this experience for the world. Things are great. Life is great. Cape Verde is great. BUT, I miss my friend and family! Txau...ti logo

Pictures of my family in Sao Domingos

Ami Soldadi Abo

Today is Christmas, so I would like to take up a little web space filling you in on the holidays in Cape Verde. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Christmas spirit is decidedly different in Cape Verde. The commercialism is not present, the Christmas carols aren’t really very popular, and it’s about 85 degrees outside today! At any rate, things are actually quite good aside from the fact that I miss my family and friends TERRIBLY. It’s really, really hard to be far away during the holidays… it’s just not the same.

Basically, this holiday season has been filled with familiar faces, which has been nice. I was fortunate enough to spend Christmas Eve day in Sao Domingos with my host family. I helped them prepare for Christmas dinner. We made cakes and ice cream and pudding! I really enjoyed just hanging out with my mom, grandmother, sisters, and nephew for the afternoon. After returning from Sao Domingos, I was invited to Christmas Eve dinner at Vanda’s house (that’s my PC friend Jacob’s girlfriend). In CV the Christmas Eve dinner is held at about midnight! The family gathers and eats really decadent foods and desserts. Vanda’s house was lovely and the food was out of this world. I was lucky to spend this time with her family. It touched me deeply to be invited to participate as part of their family. Unfortunately, I had to return to my empty house (my roommate is away), and I woke up Christmas morning alone for the first time in my life. You see, when I was younger my brothers and I would sleep in the same bedroom on Christmas Eve and as I got older, we always woke each other up on Christmas morning to open presents. It is ritual that I miss. I didn’t know how much I’d miss it until this morning when I woke up at my house without anyone to share in the excitement of Christmas. BUT, I did have wrapped presents from my Mom that I saved until this morning. I sat on my bed and had my own Christmas morning! It was a pretty sad sight, but alas, I am sacrificing a lot to be here doing what I’m doing!

After having my own personal Christmas, I headed over to Jessica’s house to make a Christmas lunch, Southern Style! I fixed Jambalaya, collard greens, and mashed sweet potatoes! It was awesome… It was also wonderful to get to cook for other people and share a little bit of time with my fellow Americans and a couple of Cape Verdeans. At about 2 I headed back to Sao Domingos for more eating! I hung out with my host family and some of their extended family in the afternoon/evening. I also went to see a friend, Zuka, who lives in Sao Domingos, but he wasn’t home, so I ended up watching TV with his dad and drinking a beer! Oh well, it was an adventure and added to the weirdness of this Christmas season…

Well, that’s about it. The title of this post means that I miss y’all. It’s been really tough to be away this year. I hope all is well. Boas Festas, feliz natal, feliz novo ano.

more pictures

My fam in Sao Domingos! I just found out that my host mom is PREGNANT! WOW. She's 45, not married, barely has a boyfriend, and is 2 months along. But, she's really happy and despite my reservations, it's really nice to see her sooooo cheerful.

Jessica's 30th Birthday

This past Saturday was Jessica's 30th birthday. I did not get any photos of Jessica, but I did get a few others, so here they are. The two with me in them are: Sarin and Jonah, Adi and Jay, a Cape Verdean friend Odayer, Jacob and his girlfriend Vanda, Jay and Christie (Christie is from Harvard here on fellowship studying Cape Verde), Jacob and me, my student Esmael and me.

Two cameras were stolen at the party, so these may be some of the few photos that remain!

Speaking of stealing things... our house was "broken" into the other night. Our screen was cut and through the bars on our windows, our nice curtains were stolen. The thief was kind enough to leave the wooden curtain rod, however..... Will the stealing ever end??? Hopefully the desperation of Christmas will be over soon and people will go back to not stealing things!

Creole Poetry

A little while back a guy came to ISE looking for a job. His name is Imez, he's Cape Verdean, he's 27, and he studied in the states. I have spent a little bit of time with Imez since our first meeting and he's a wonderful person. After spending a little time with this man, he told me he was a poet and that he had published several volumes of poetry. His most recent work is entirely in Criola! This is amazing because there is very little work existent in Creole. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that the language is not "formal" meaning there are no agreed upon spellings or ways to write things. SO, Imez moved from the US back to Cape Verde just a little over a month ago, and night before last he presented his new book at ISE. He read some poetry, his cousin (and my neighbor from Sao Domingos) played the guitar and sang some of his work. He also invited a professor from ISE to speak about the importance of the Creole language. I bought his book and am impressed by this poetry (even though my Creole is not perfect, I get the gist). I am soooo happy to have met someone who is giving back to his country. This is the kind of thing that I hope happens more and more. Cape Verdeans need to return to their country after studying elsewhere and work at places like ISE. We don't currently have a job for Imez, but I really, really hope that next year we can hire him. We need to see Peace Corps people replaced by well educated Cape Verdeans. I am so excited to see this kind of shift happening. I am also thankful that Creole is being recognized as a beautiful, wonderful, unique lanugage that needs to be made more formal and readable. I just thought I'd share my recent excellent experience! I hope all is well.... it's almost Christmas time! Feliz Natal.

New Computers, Bad Feet, Christmas presents, and stolen Sunglasses

First things first... Today I received a package with a computer in it from my wonderful mother. As you know, I killed the old computer that my father graciously gave to me just before coming to Cape Verde. My mother has given me her laptop to use for the remainder of the time I'm here. So, what a wonderful thing! It will be so nice to again have a computer at my home.

Second, my foot is not better. It has been exactly a month since my return from Dakar and my foot has been hurting consistently for about 3 weeks. I spoke with the doctor here today and she is in contact with the doctor in Dakar and with the doctors in DC to see what the next step is. It looks like they want me to return to Dakar to have my orthotic refitted. It may be a simple matter of the orthotic being out of place and causing pain in my foot. I sure hope that's what it is! At this point, I am getting a little nervous about the whole situation. This has been going on for a long time, and I just want it to get better. It is difficult to live here in CV and not be able to get around easily.

Third, I recently received wonderful boxes of Chirstmas presents from friends and family! It was sooooo nice to have things to open and some of the presents were even wrapped giving me things to open on Christmas day. I am planning on spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Sao Domingos with my family there. OH! Another Christmas surprise.... my host mom is pregnant. She is two months along (45, unmarried, and caring for 3 children already)! She is very, very excited about the whole thing.

Finally, I've decided to alternate good news and bad news in this post, as you may have noticed. Last week I received several packages at one time and had to go to the post office to get them. I carried them onto the bus, which was a pain and while fussing with all of the packages, someone unzipped my bag and stole my sunglasses!!!!!!!!!! How annoying. My sunglasses were really nice and I purchased them especially for my life in CV! I am sooooo sick of people stealing stuff. In fact, this past Saturday was Jessica's 30th b'day party at her home and someone stole her digital camera as well as another persons digital camera! Absolutely disgusting! This time of year is particularly awful....

Well, that's all for now. I want to end on a positive note, so I'll just say that my brother and Holly will be married on March 25th in Destin, FL. It should be a small, intimate ceremony and sounds like it will be tons of fun.... Txau, ti logo!

Christmas Spectacular!

On Saturday night the English Language Institute in Praia had a Christmas show (The Annual Christmas SPECTACULAR). ELI is a place where Cape Verdeans go to learn English. Children beginning at about age 3 begin learning English there and adults take classes at night to work on their English. Well, my friend Adi, a former Peace Corps volunteer, works at ELI, teaching the teenagers (who by this time in their lives are very proficient at English). I was invited to attend this wonderful event where the Christmas spirit was in the air. It definitely helped make things feel a little more "Christmassy" around here. The show only lasted about 20 minutes, but the children performed all of the Christmas classics. Then at the end of the show the adult students from ELI sang with the kids, "We wish you a Merry Christmas" which was a great way to end the show! It was just lovely!!! Merry Christmas Everyone. Feliz Natal!

random pictures!

Our group

I meant to publish this picture some time ago! It is a shot of our entire group of trainees (minus Sarah, who came two weeks later).

We have since lost 4 people: Elliott (behind me in the picture to your left), Kay (right of me, green shirt), Todd (second guy from the right), and Rebecca (kneeling beneath me in a yellow shirt)

Amanda and Joey!

I also wanted to post a quick message about my other best friend from high school, Amanda. This past Saturday, she and Joey, were married! I just wish I could have been there for the wedding. I truly am so sorry I missed it and will be home soon (March 25th) to celebrate with them. Okay, just wanted to make public my most recent good pieces of news!

It's a GIRL!

Kathryn, one of my best friends from high school, and her husband, Patrick, recently had their first child. On October 26th, Aislyn Lee Leary was born! I am including a picture of here! She's adorable and I'm soooo happy for Kathryn and Patrick. They will soon be moving from the Coast to Jackson, MS, which is good for them, but sad too! Congrats Kathryn and Patrick!

I rule...

Every year I get this HILARIOUS email from some random friend. Since I was feeling really down about having my wallet stolen (see previous email for the complete story) I decided to try to track down this website for a good laugh. Please check it out if you want a good laugh. I always am in tear when I read this thing. Check it out: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

When you get to the bottom of the page, you'll see Crappy Art #2. Click there for more fun!!!

I thought bad things came in threes....

If it's true that bad things come in threes, then I should be in the clear after the broken foot, the broken computer, and the broken IPOD. BUT NO! Last night, while dining at a local restraunt, my wallet was stolen!!!!! I was sitting at table with my friend Adi. We had just sat down and I set my wallet on the table (BIG MISTAKE, I KNOW, I KNOW). We were seated outside and a man approached the railing of the restraunt, leaned over, grabbed the wallet and ran off into an alley. It's Christmas time so crime is high in Cape Verde, especially in big cities like Praia. I am just sooo upset because I've never had anything like this happen to me. I've never had anything stolen from me. I lost my ID card, my bank card, and about 25 dollars (which may not seem like much to you people in America, but trust me, it's a lot to a volunteer).

Needless to say, I'll be much more careful in the future. I couldn't sleep at all last night because I kept dreaming about the incident. I also have been scaring myself often, every little noise or strange look gets me nervous. I hate feeling this way. I am just thankful that I wasn't harmed physically in the process.

I went to the bank and stood in line for about an hour and a half in an effort to get a new bank card and some money. I wish he would have taken the money and left all of the other things so that I wouldn't have to go through all of this!!! Well, this is turning out to be a terrible Christmas away from home. I miss you all soooooo much. I'm off to fill out an incident report to let the people in charge know what happened!

Txau, ti logo.

My students

kittens!!!!

the kittens!

So it's been a couple of weeks since I took four kittens into my home. At this point I am ready for them to find a new home. They are super cute, but they are becoming increasingly active! They recently decided to destroy my room and wake me up in the middle of the night with their playing, so I kicked them out of my room. Now they have taken residence in our spare bedroom. We, of course, had to move everything out of that room because they were tearing things up. My roommate is being extremely patient with this whole process, but I think her patience and mine are wearing thin. I think they will have a home very soon in Principal with Claudia, one of my fellow volunteers. Keep your fingers crossed that they find a good home really soon! I really want to post the pictures I have but for some reason every time I try to put them up, the darn thing freezes! AHHHH.... computers.

And just as soon as I get rid of the cats, I'll be petsitting for a couple of friends who will be spending Christmas in South Africa. They have a very cute little dog, Chloe, who will be staying with me for a couple of weeks over the break. It will be nice to have a house trained animal around!!!! Well, I seem to be innundated with pets, none of which I am keeping... thank goodness.

Okay that's all for now. Txau, ti logo.