Txiga!

Hello to all!

Oh my goodness it has been a long week. Seriously, it feels like I´ve been here for months, which means I´m very much missing all of you. I´m going to make this short and to the point because time is limited.

We had a lovely staging in Boston and I got to spend lots of time with Jenny, including a trip to the newest Harry Potter movie (which I didn´t love, btw). Friday night we were off (2 hours late) and we landed Saturday morning to be met by dozens of Peace Corps Cape Verde (PC/CV) staff and volunteers. It was such a warm welcome! We spent all day Saturday and Sunday in intense training sessions and meetings re. health, homestay, and even language (already!). Monday was more of the same until we moved in with our host families on Monday night.

So far, so good! I didn´t react very well to the malaria pills and have been having really bad chest pains, but other than that there isn´t much to complain about. I live with just one woman, Fatinha, in a 2 bedroom house with a small dining room, tinier kitchen, and a bathroom with no light. There is running water every Sunday morning, so the rest of the week we use what we´ve put into the cistern. Fatinha is very very sweet, but talks a million miles a minute! It took me awhile to catch on, but slowly but surely I´m starting to get it. So far we´ve only been learning Kriolu, which is both easy and difficult. Spanish DEFINITELY helps, since much of it is based off of Portuguese (and even has a little Spanish influence). But...definitely a challenge.

I thought it might be lonely in my little house, but I was wrong! If I´ve been home for 5 minutes, you can bet that one of my many cousins or second cousins has come by to see if I want to play cards or build friendship bracelets or eat something. And I can´t walk down the street without 3-4 people shouting ´Txiga!´ which means, ´Come over!´ Gil Bispo (where I´m located with 4 other volunteers) is a quaint little village up in the mountains. Fortunately, it´s much cooler than Praia, because there is no air conditioning. Electricity fails a lot and there is no internet, so we´re in the nearby town of Assomada trying to use internet for as long as possible.

Twice a week we have ´center days´ where we meet with all the PC/CV staff and volunteers to go over rules and medical and safety issues. The rest of the week is spent in language classes. We´ve been split into groups of 3-4 volunteers so that we can attend class close to home, but they will soon be changed based on levels of progression.

There have already been some emotional and physical ups and downs, but so far so good! I´m going to stop this here, but I will add more information on al of this later. I´ve been journaling every night so that I don´t forget anything.

Love and hugs from CV!!!

P.S. On Saturday we took a trip to the coast and OMG the beach was amazing!!

"Life is calling......how far will you go?"

These words have adorned the wall of my dorm or apartment since the beginning of sophomore year. On my way back to Wash U after the summer, I tore an ad for the Peace Corps out of an in-flight magazine and have had it up ever since. The ad features a little hut surrounded by a rain forest and mountains - complete isolation, but boy what a view! As my departure date draws near, I'm remembering this inspirational poster and how I've wanted to do this for so long.

So much has changed, even just in the past 2 months. It's been tough to keep my balance. And now, here I am about to embark on a crazy adventure with absolutely NO CLUE what's in store for me! Each day slips by faster than the last, and I'm down to one more week here with family and friends.

So...in light of this terrifying realization, I'm trying to get back to the original purpose of all of this: to serve people in need (no matter how small my contribution my seem), to challenge myself to grow and learn to survive on my own in a foreign environment, to share myself with a new group of people, and to open myself up to receive their culture and what they have to share.

It sounds pretty idealistic, but what's a girl to do in this crazy world? Gotta start somewhere...life is calling!