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

The view from my roof!

Pretty sweet view huh?

World AIDS day project

I’m happy to report that my friend David approached me with a great idea for a project. World AIDS day is December 1st, and we wanted to do something. David told me that he had been thinking of doing a contest amongst the high school students to get them to write an idea for a short play. We would then have them judged and choose a winner whose idea would be turned into a script and performed at the March Theatre Month in Mindelo! So, we got it going. With the help of my roommate Elizabeth and the Cultural Centre of Mindelo and the Delegation for Youth in Mindelo, we have written a letter to the high school directors asking for their help with our project! It’s very exciting. David and I met with 2 directors this morning who were receptive and very helpful. We’ll meet the other 3 on Monday and get together with the teachers to have them talk with their students about our idea.

This is such a great project for World AIDS day. We have been promised funding my the Cultural Centre of Mindelo to produce the entire play. The Delegation for youth is helping us with the materials and planning and their director, Jandier has helped us with phone calls and contacts! It’s been spectacular to see this project come together in just under a week! Everyone in Mindelo is so helpful and excited to support our ideas. I can’t believe how nice it is to be able to have an idea realized with relatively little effort. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Santo Antoa

This past weekend was Allison’s birthday party! It was in Paul on the island of Santo Antao, so I took the 45 minute boat ride across the ocean to get there. Then took an hour long car ride to Paul! I got there on Saturday morning, and then we waited around forever for folks to show up. You see, the party was not at Ali’s house, rather it was out in the ribera (a ravine). The people we were waiting didn’t show, so we went on to the location. The Camara (local townhall) has a beautiful party spot up there. They have a swimming pool, which they filled for us. There is a grill area, bathrooms, soccer fields, camping areas and a dancing space. It is super sweet. Ali killed a pig for the event, so there was plenty of meat to grill and other food was prepared for us! There were about 150 people there. It was quite a party! It started at about 2 in the afternoon, and people just trickled in until about 9:00 when we headed for the house. We decided to head into the slowly filling pool after dark. It wasn't completely filled, so we got to do a little slip-n-sliding in the bottom of the pool. It was really fun.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst after the pool part started. The birthday girl got in a fight with a guy who stole a bag of the pork meat. Then he retaliated by unplugging the lights that he brought. At that exact moment, a woman was walking down some stairs, the lights went out, she fell about 8 feet onto her face. Her teeth were knocked out! And a woman who is 7 months pregnant slipped in the pool at that moment as well. Then, I got out to get my clothes and someone had stolen them, as well a couple of other people’s clothes! GREAT! BUT, I wasn’t hurt, so I was the least affected by the light drama!

The party was a great success and it was really fun to meet new people. I got to see my newest thesis advisee as well. He is a professor at the high school in Paul and he left ISE without completing his thesis in 1999. So, now that I am in Mindelo he can have me as an advisor. I’m happy to help!

Oh! My plants are doing so beautifully. I just transferred cucumbers, squash, and zucchini to larger planters! They are getting huge and close to flowering. I’m super excited. All of my other plants have come up. I now have about 30 different cups of baby plants that are getting strong. They are loving my sun room! I am soooo thrilled with them.

Crazy = No shoes

I had a startling revelation the other day as I was walking through the central part of Mindelo. I realized that any adult without shoes in the city is definitely crazy. This might seem obvious in the states. If someone were walking around without shoes, they’d have to be crazy. But, in Praia, people walk without shoes on occasionally and in the more rural parts of the islands it’s much more common to see adults who are shoeless. However, in Mindelo, a city of class and charm, no shoes equals some sort of mental problem. So, I have learned to look at people’s feet. That way I can avoid the shoeless folks!

My first class

Last night was my very first class in Mindelo! I met my students and got to know a little about them. They all seem quite wonderful and quite interesting. They remind me of my students in Praia in many ways. They have an enthusiasm for their education, and they are willing to try new things! I am teaching them a class called “Syllabus Design and Materials Evaluation.” Seeing as I am not an education specialist and know next to nothing about the theory of creating a syllabus or evaluating materials and textbooks and creating lesson plans, I am learning with my students. I am just one or two steps ahead of them. I certainly never expected to be teaching such a class. I was hoping to teach British Literature or something within my realm of knowledge, but I will accept this challenge!

Each year when school starts, I feel a certain sense of peace. I love school. I have always loved school. I love teaching, and now I feel like I am back in my groove. I’m happy to be able to help my students! I’ll certainly learn a lot this year. I can’t wait until my next class (even though it is from 8 until 10 pm)! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Yoga

Yoga!

At 5:45am, I headed out to a local park for yoga with my roommate Elizabeth. Her yoga class was great! There were 8 people there, which made for a nice group. Everyone there was new to the practice of yoga, but they were taking all the odd/awkward poses in stride. The atmosphere was excellent. The plaza is nice and flat and overlooks a very nice part of the city. There were a few raindrops when we began, but nothing much came of that. It was overcast and a nice breeze was blowing. I imagine it’s going to get a lot cooler here and more and more overcast as winter sets in on these Northern islands.

As we were practicing our yoga, people began strolling through, looking to see what we were up to. It wasn’t apparent that they had ever seen such a display. In fact, an old man with three dogs, came along and decided to watch for a while. Unfortunately, he had his hand-held radio with him that was blaring static for a bit. Then he realized after about 3 minutes that he wasn’t getting reception and tuned into an upbeat song that really threw off my balance!! But, it was fine to have people take note of something new and different. I am thankful to have the chance to have a good yoga teacher and a great space to do yoga.

Seedlings

I have now planted tons of different veggies and flowers! I have parsley, mint, marjoram, chives, tomatoes, marigolds, evening primrose, calendula, cucumbers, zucchini, and zinnias! And the best part is that things are sprouting. The cucumbers are the most aggressive. I just planted them on Saturday and as of Tuesday morning, there are about 20 sprouts that are each 1 inch high. Now, that’s power growth! I can’t believe them. They are incredible. My sunroom is just the perfect warm spot for the little guys to grow and flourish. I am now working on getting larger pots for them, which might be tricky, but I’ll see what I can do. On our roof there are wonderful old basins and things to grow in, but our landlord is a little picky about our using things, even though they aren’t in use! So, I’ll have to be resourceful. Maybe I can get someone to donate old buckets and such to me! We’ll see…

My house

I am posting a bunch of pictures of the inside of my house! We live on the top floor of a two story house. Our house is incredibly big. We have two rooms that don't use; we just keep them locked so that they don't get dirty. They serve as guest rooms when we actually have some guests. We did have two female volunteers from Benin stay in one of the rooms. They got in touch with us on a visit of our tiny little island! We met them for dinner and found out that while traveling in Mauratania, they were mugged and had everything stolen. We offered them a place to stay and some meals to help them out! They were really cool. But, that is beside the point.

Back to our house. We have great bedrooms. They each have huge built in closets with tons of storage space, as well as nice sized built in shelving with sliding doors on the front. These are great because we don't have any furniture to store our things in! Other than that, there is just a bed and a fan in my room, which you can see in the picture.

The other pictures include, our living room, which only has one small table, a trunk, and some nice big windows. Our kitchen is very big and we even have a breakfast nook with a little table and stools donated from ISE. We have two verandas where we can hang our clothes to dry. We also, as you will see in the pictures, have a sunroom. It's beautiful and my little growing plants are loving the greenhouse effect in there. The other room in the pictures is our study.

The study/ office is an interesting space. Originally, we had no furniture in there, so we just sat on the floor with our computers. Yesterday, we got a desk from our neighbor. He asked two young guys to carry it up and put it where we wanted. They couldn't get it through our office door, so they tried to turn it sideways and the glass top fell out of it! There were about a million pieces of glass everywhere. I mangaed to get cuts on my hands and legs from the clean up. The funny part of the story is that when the glass broke, the two guys bolted! They got out of our house before we knew what happened. We were left to clean up the mess and then we were left with a desk in our hallway. So, I took the door handle off, which created a little more space. Then I removed some blocks of wood from the bottom of the desk, which was just enough to get the desk inside the room. It is a very nice desk and we can each sit on either side of it and work from our computers! It's a wonderful addition to our home.

Elizabeth!

Here is a photo of my dear roommate Elizabeth! She is a great roomie. She is teaching yoga three days a week at 6am, so lucky for me I get to take free yoga lessons from her! I am so excited. We start this week, so I'll keep you posted on the classes and how they go. Things are starting to pick up here and now that a real schedule is starting, I'm feeling more at home here on this new island.

gardening

It’s been a difficult transition from Praia to Mindelo! I didn’t realize how hard it really would be, but on Monday, my classes will start and another semester will be underway. I’ll be teaching on Monday nights from 6-8pm and Thursday nights from 8-10pm. This is not the most desirable schedule, but I suppose I’ll survive. I was supposed to teach on Friday nights from 7-9pm, but I refused for obvious reasons! I just couldn’t imagine teaching every Friday evening. That would be awful.

Well, I am now gardening. My mom recently sent me a ton of different types of seeds. I have a beautiful sun room that works perfectly as a greenhouse. I have already planted some herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and several different flowers. So far, only the marjoram has peeked out of its soil, but I am patiently waiting. Any advice on gardening is welcome! I don’t have the greenest thumb, but I now have great space for this project, so I’m trying it out.

I am also creating a compost area on my roof. Hopefully my compost will be great for my little plants once they start taking root. I’m off to the gardening store this morning to check things out and see if they have anything I might need. Wish me and my little plants the best! They are making me happy! I am talking to them and tending to them with care! As of today, I have three little sprouts... one parsley, one marjoram, and one mint!

Monte Verde

On Sunday morning at 7:30, my roommate, Elizabeth and I got up and hiked a nearby mountain! It was great. I had been there before when I visited Sao Vicente in June. But, when I went before we didn’t do much hiking. So this time I was determined to hike to the top. Since I had a person willing to try it out, we went! There is a road that leads to the top of the mountain, but I was not very excited about hiking all the way to the top on a cobblestone road. That is hard on the feet and the knees and really not very fun. So, I decided that I was going to find the trails used by the farmers to get up and down. The first trail we took led us up the steep side of the mountain, bypassing many winding switchbacks on the main road. We hit the road after a bit of hiking on this nice path, then walked the road for a couple hundred feet. Luckily, we saw a man with a shovel coming down above us. I asked him where the trail led and he said that it would take us near the top, putting us back out on the road. He came all the way down and we met him and started up! It was great. That second part of the hike began at the “pink floyd” graffiti on the wall (easy to remember for next time). It was a pretty good uphill and then led along some fairly serious drop-offs. Elizabeth wasn’t too excited about the sheer edges we were passing, but she made it just fine!

We made it to the top in no time! We traversed some of the farmed land and made it up to a small house. Back in June I met Joana and Julio, an older couple who have a weekend home at the top of Monte Verde. It was great to see them! Joana welcomed us in and gave us a little snack and something to drink. It was a nice relaxing time at the top. Elizabeth got to ask Julio lots of questions about the agriculture there (which she is very interested in… it’s her area of study). Joana gave us a little taste of her homemade “cider” which was really nice. It was cold at the top! I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt I packed! At about noon we headed down the mountain. We ended up at the bottom and looked back up at what we had done! It was a great morning hike. Anyone who comes to visit will surely get to hit that trail. SO, that’s an invitation to all of you people who want to come to paradise! I leave here in 10 months, so you better get a move on visiting!!!!!! I’d love to have anyone come to see me! I miss everyone!

Not for individual sale

You know how in the states, anything that comes packaged inside of another package has a label “not for individual sale”? Well, that label is on products here as well, but there is no one enforcing that rule. I’m pretty sure that the law doesn’t exist in Cape Verde. So, you can open up a package of anything and just buy 1 of them. For example, if you want to buy yogurt, which comes in packs of 4 cups, but you only need 2, then you just tear the two you want out of the package. If you want a cigarette, but not the whole pack, you just as for 1 cigarette. If you want eggs, you just tell them how many you want and they are put in a plastic bag for you. Anything that is sold, can be broken down and sold off for its parts! Pretty crazy, huh?

Along these same lines, there are no copyright laws. I may have written about this before. In this country, students just make copies of entire books if they are required to read them. There is no buying books! I have seen libraries that just have photocopied books available for check out. Similarly, when you go to the video store to rent a DVD, everything is a burned copy! There are NO original films. Basically, every video store in town has the same movies because they are all burned from the same, single, original DVD in the country! It’s kind of strange, but when you live in a country where luxury items like books and DVDs are so rare, it’s the response!

yellow fin tuna

This morning, I walked down to the fish market to get some fresh fish for dinner tonight. Going to the fish market is amazing. All the fishermen are coming in off of their skiffs and hauling huge tuna. These little boats are weighed down with the largest fish you can imagine. Then the men bring them into the market and begin cutting them. They cut out the long strip of meat on the sides of the fish and hand it over to the women. The women take the fish to the other side of the market and sell it or put it in buckets and carry it on their heads around town. There are also young boys who will clean the fish for you before taking it home! It’s just wonderful.

In Praia, the fish market was far away from the port. In Mindelo, they are one. It is excellent to watch the process. There is no big fishing industry here. There is no processing plant. It is just men and women working together to get the fish prepared to be sold. I heard from a Capeverdean that the waters around the islands are one of the only places in the world that is not over-fished. This is apparently because the Cape Verde government has not sold off the rights to the water for commercial fishing. Most other nations have done this so that they can make money off the taxes and export of the fish. But, Cape Verde has learned from other nations that if they sell their waters, they will, in the end, have no fish and their people will have no work. It is, in my opinion, the right decision. Cape Verdeans rely on the fishing they do for the people here.

Bread Factory

I live about 200 yards from a bread factory. This means that every morning and every evening, I get to enjoy the delicious smells of baking bread! The factory near our home is great. They have extremely cheap bread. It is open everyday, all day, so we can run in and get warm, fresh out of the oven bread anytime. They have the regular, standard breads, but they also have a whole wheat bread that is unbelievable!

I also live another block from a vegetable market and the fish market. The women always have great produce, just like in Praia. But, the majority of the produce is grown in a little town near Mindelo, Calhau. I wrote about this town before because of its amazing beach. They also grow lots of veggies there, which means they are not importing the produce from Portugal, which is always better. I am in love with the fact that I don’t have to go far to get everything I need. I have a banana lady now. I have a vegetable lady. And dependent on the kind of fish I prefer, I have many choices of fish!

Calhau Again

I have been back to the awesome beach at Calhau two more times since I last wrote. It is amazing there. I would like to take some photos, but I fear that if I carry my camera there, it will get sandy or wet! I certainly don’t want to risk it!

Anyway, the waves at Calhau are huge. I was out battling them and playing in them when three really huge waves came up and took me for a ride. I didn’t know what was up or down! I managed to get a bunch of water inside my ear when I was flipped over. So, today I woke up with what appears to be an inner-ear infection! Great. I thought salt water was supposed to be healing. I guess it’s not so healing when you get it stuck in your ear and it won’t come out! I’m sure I’ll be fine. I am just taking it easy right now, while my ear drum is all stopped up. Any home-remedies would be great. The doctor here wants me on antibiotics, but she knows that I hate medicine, so she told me to give it some time and see if it resolves itself. She’s a good lady!