A Week in the Life: Saturday, April 21st

7:30am – I wake up, eat breakfast, tidy up my room, and prep for the rest of the day.

9:30am – I give 30 minutes of class which consists of hangman, reading comprehension, and yelling at some girls for painting their nails ("Falta de respeito!”)

10:00am – I head to a professor meeting at the Centro de Juventude.  Almost no one is there yet and it’s pretty hot, so I go to buy some fresh water at the loja next door.  I come back and it’s still pretty empty.  I sit down to jot down a to-do list and realize I’ve forgotten a pen, so I run to another loja to buy a pen.

10:40am – The directora of our school finally arrives and we start.  I try to think of it as a good chance to practice my Portuguese listening comprehension skills, but the theme (Varios subsistemas num unico sistema) just isn’t interesting, even when it’s in your native language.  People here have a strange need to define every single term in their powerpoint presentations.  In this case, the Ministry of Education guy is lecturing to a group of 30 professors and decides to give us the entire history of the CV education system, define words like “subsystem,” and explain the difference between primary and secondary education.  Buddy…I think we’ve got that all down by now.  I kind of regretted yelling at my students for painting their nails because I wanted to be doing the same thing.

 

the cultural center / youth center where we had our meeting 

and where (hopefully) I'll soon be giving adult classes! 

1pm – The meeting finally ends (half an hour later than my classes would have ended) and I talk to two of my fellow professors about going to our meeting about Camp Saninclau in Fajã.  They both go home to change, but tell me to come get them when I find a car.  I run home and get my things, find a car, and go to find them.  One is at his restaurant with some of the other professors, so while waiting for the other, we all stand around chatting and have some beers.  I appreciate being treated like “one of the guys,” but it’s also 1:30 pm and I’m hungry and anxious to get to our meeting.  Finally our other colleague shows up and we head out to find our car which is now gone.  We manage to find another pretty quickly and are on our way!

2:30pm – The meeting starts and goes really well!  Everyone is energetic and full of ideas.  6 of our 7 PCVs are there and there are 5 host country nationals there to help, too.  We cover everything we need to talk about and set dates for further meetings and for handing out donation requests, etc.

4:30pm – After a delicious lunch of dirty rice, I head to Canto de Fajã to visit Txilite’s family.  He’s coming back to Tarrafal with me, but I wanted to go visit his mom and grandmother’s house because I don’t get out there very much anymore and last time I saw them they called me an ingrata!  Personal relationships are very important here and require a lot of nurturing.  I catch a boleia from Fajã de Baixo to Canto and walk the rest of the half hour to their house, which is way out in the middle of nowhere.  People there seem to know me by now, although I still have trouble placing peoples’ faces.  When I reach the chafariz (water source), Txilite’s mom, Lina, is there with her donkey to panha agua.  I offer to help her, but of course she tells me no and sends me on my way.  I get to the house and Bia (Lina’s mother) insists that I come in and tra carga (take off my backpack).  We chat for awhile with one of her neighbors that is there.  Then, I watch a game show for a few minutes with Iverson, Txilite’s little brother.  It’s a kind of cool show where they have students from around Cape Verde go to Praia to compete in a whole range of middle school level questions.  After awhile, Lina comes back and I join Txilite for lunch.  I’m not hungry since I’ve just eaten, so Lina insists that I take some modje capote (traditional goat stew) home with me.  She sends me enough for 4 people, saying then I won’t have to cook dinner.  They also send along a giant sweet potato that’s been cooked over the open fire – soooo sabe!

 

Txilite's family's house in Canto de Fajã

6pm – It’s time to leave so we can catch a car back to Tarrafal.  We stop for a few minutes at the house of the mother of one of my teacher colleagues.  He and his family are there for the weekend.  We don’t have time to stay for dinner, so they send me on my way with a papaya.  I love going to Canto de Fajã :) It saves me days of cooking and grocery shopping.

6:30pm – We reach the road and wait for a car.  We get lucky and one of my students is on her way back from the airport with her mom, so they give us a boleia back to Tarrafal.  I can’t believe my luck – I never get this many free rides!

7pm – We have plans to go to a birthday party, but not until after 10pm, so we decide to relax and watch a movie (Transformers 3 – my selection of Portuguese-subtitled films has come from my students and is VERY limited).

Lume d'Lenha - probably the tastiest food in Tflaw, owned by our colleague; this is where the festa d'ano (birthday party) was held

9pm – I do some yoga and shower and get ready for the party.  We decide to leave around 10:30 to da volta around town before actually heading there.

11pm - There is still no one at the festa and we’re hungry and bored, so we continue walking around town.  Unfortunately, there are students at nearly every bar and we like to avoid drinking around them, so we end up back at the restaurant that’s hosting the party and wait for people to show up.

12:30am – People are finally showing up.  There is music and food and drink and good conversation.  We dance and enjoy ourselves for awhile, but by 2AM we’re pretty tired and both Txilite and Alexandra are not feeling well.  We try to say our goodbyes, but they insist that we must stay to canta parabens (sing Happy Birthday) and eat some cake.

2:30am – The cake finally comes out, so we sing and kiss the birthday girl and then sneak out before they can find another reason to make us stay.

For your listening pleasure, I present: "Chop My Money" - currently the most popular song in Cape Verde (although performed by Akon, who is Senegalese)

A Week in the Life: Friday, April 20th

7:30am – I wake up, eat breakfast, catch up on e-mail and the news, and edit some pictures to prep for printing later today.

9:00am – I head out to do my errands.  It’s one of those days where it’s a good thing that I’m in no rush because everyone I see is someone I know and they all want to talk.  First, it’s the boy who works at the casa de irmas next door.  We talk about vacation and then he comments on how Alexandra and I speak good Creole.  Somehow he also knows I speak Spanish and is impressed that I know 3 languages! I tell him only mais ou menos, that I’ve still got a long way to go.  I laugh internally at his admiration, thinking  to myself that most Cape Verdeans are bilingual and could be quadralingual by the end of high school if they took their English and French classes seriously.

 

the main street in town, where the police station and post office are located

Next, it’s my student sitting outside a loja flirting with some girls.  I go talk to him in English so he can show off his impressive skillz.  Then Vanusa, my friend/neighbor who works at the post office, calls out to me from across the street, so I retrace my steps and talk to her outside her office for a bit.  We talk (again) about how I’ve hardly seen her since returning from vacation and about her plans for her birthday party next weekend.  We decide we’ll have to find time to hang out this weekend.  As I continue on my way (I still haven’t made it to my first stop), Tânia and her kids call me from up the street, so I backtrack once again to go chat with them.  They ask me how Alexandra is doing (she’s been sick) and Raquel (the 1 ½-year-old) takes my hand and we continue on our way. I soon say my goodbyes and go into Boutique Brasil to get some photos printed. The owner tells me I have no problems with Creole anymore and talks about how Creole is easy because it has no grammar.  Then we talk about Carnaval and some teacher-related festivities because they appear in my photos.

 

the ladies who sell fruits and veggies in our mercado

After printing my photos, I head to a loja where Alexandra has been working with the owner to learn English.  I try a couple phrases with her and she expresses to me how happy she is to be learning and how she hopes she won’t lose business from English-speaking customers anymore.  I promise to come by regularly to practice with her and continue on my way to the market.  I go to take out money and get asked for 20 escudos from the guy that sits outside the ATM every day.  Fortunately, I can honestly say that I have no coins.  Then I run into some British tourists that are wandering around the city for the morning. They came on a big cruise ship and say they’ll have an afternoon outing to somewhere in the interior of the island.  I continue on to the market where it seems to be the busiest time of day.  The market ladies try to convince me to buy some doce de tomate and even let me open one of the jars and stick my finger into it to try it.  I tell them I’d like to, but the jars are too big for my colleague and I to finish before they go bad.   When they sell some smaller jars, I’ll buy some.  I walk away with a bag full of lettuce (yay!) and some fresh beets.  On the way out, a fisherman friend stops to ask me about my vacation (he saw us on the boat) and I ask him about his work today.  He tells me they caught lots of cachorinhos and we debate the taste and health benefits of that and cavala, my personal favorite.

 

a view of the port and fish market from the boat we took to São Vicente

I run to a couple more lojas to pick up bread and eggs and fresh goat cheese driven in from Cachaço.  I talk to a couple of teachers about their plans for this weekend and it seems that many won’t be going to the activity/party.  At first I’m a little bummed, but I decide to think of it as a good opportunity to meet some teachers I don’t know as well and enjoy some good Cape Verdean food and music.  Last stop is the post office (again) where I mail a few cards home and talk to one of the irmas from the religious center next door. 

11am – I arrive home and unpack my groceries.  Then, it’s time for an intense bathroom and room cleaning!  I’ve discovered that cleaning both once every 2 weeks or so saves me a lot of time in the long run.  Plus with all the wind we get in our part of the city, the dust piles up quickly.  Once again I’m amazed at how just a little soap and elbow grease can take the dirt and grime out of everything!

12:30pm – I decide to go for a run despite the fact that it’s about 90 degrees out.  I know I’m not going to be in the mood when I get done with class at 6pm and if I go now, I can just chill out all evening.  I do my now-normal run on the hot dusty road that runs along the coast and again really regret not wearing sunscreen.  My mouth is dry by the time I’m out of Tarrafal, but I figure I’ll just chug a liter of water when I get home.  On the way back, it’s unbearably hot, so I decide to stop and take a dip in the ocean before heading home.  Then I do some stretching on the beach while waiting for my clothes to dry, which doesn’t take long.  On the way home, I run into 3 of my 9^th grade students who are enjoying a panca (a free period/when the professor doesn’t show up).  They walk me home and come up to chat with me for awhile.

 

Trail-mates!  My running trail also happens to be where a lot of people let their livestock run around.

2pm – I finally think I have some time to catch my breath, so I make some lunch and sit down at my computer thinking about watching some more WEEDS. But…this is Cape Verde and nothing ever goes quite like you plan, which can be both great and frustrating.  The doorbell rings and it is Tânia and her family.  Her husband needs help with his English homework, so I sit down and try to explain some really complicated grammar structures to someone who’s had literally 3 days of English class!  The exercises they’ve been given are not particularly well thought-through given how much time they have and what experience they’re coming in with.  We get through a couple of exercises, all while Tânia and her kids look at pictures and ask us questions, which doesn’t make the learning go any faster.

3pm – I tell my guests that I really need to go toma banho now because I have class in an hour and I’m covered in sand and salt (not to mention incredibly sunburned).  They leave and I take a quick shower and make sure all my materials are ready for class.

4pm – I go over to school to teach my classes.  We’re supposed to be making the recycled wallets, but true to form none of my students bring juice or milk boxes to make them out of, so we can’t.  Fortunately, I suspected this might happen, so I’d prepared material to do if necessary.  It’s a bummer because I worked really hard prepping for the activity and my friend Sedny even came by to help us.  But…such is life when working with high schoolers that are not particularly on the responsible side…

6pm – Finally I come home and decide that now it’s actually my time to relax. 

7pm – Alexandra gets home and we chat for awhile and then make dinner.  One of her students’ family gets big barrels from America every once in awhile and they sent her home with some good ol’ boxed mac n’ cheese, so we decide to treat ourselves to a night of vegging out and enjoying some boxed deliciousness.  We also roast some beets and make a yummy beet and goat cheese salad as a side.

9pm – Alexandra and I decide to relax and watch Mad Men before bed.  While watching, we make some bracelets out of embroidery thread to give to Julio and Rodrigo, since they made us some really awesome bracelets out of recycled beer caps.

10pm – I shut my door, go on a mosquito-killing spree and decide to watch WEEDS until falling asleep.  Another average (but wonderful) day come and gone.

A Week in the Life: Thursday, April 19th

7:20am – I wake up to the sound of children playing in the school yard before their first class and decide that since the bells will start ringing soon, there’s probably no point in trying to go back to sleep.  I have breakfast while catching up on e-mails and reading the news.

8:30am – I get up, clean my room, make my bed, and make a CD for one of my students.  Then I make a To Do list for all my errands.

9am – I head out on the town to get some errands done, stopping into a few Chinese lojas to try to get ahold of some materials for our wallet project.  I pass by the youth center to print my planificações for this trimester (since the internet café was having problems).  I stop in and ask the director about his vacation and reiterate how much we loved Santo Antão (but assure him that São Nicolau is mas sabe).  Then, I pop by the papeleria to buy an envelope but it’s much bigger than necessary for the card I’m sending so I decide to wait and print some pictures before taking it to the post office.
 

 students playing outside the school

10am - I come home to put together planificações, finish preparing for today’s classes, and make sure all the recycled wallet materials are ready for tomorrow.  Then I make some coffee and an Earth Day playlist to take to class while we make wallets. 

12 noon – I eat lunch and prepare to go to class.

1pm – My day of class begins.  Today I teach three turmas – 2 turmas of 9^th grade level 3 and one of 10^th grade level 2.  We do a modified version of the “Protecting Our Planet” lesson I taught my level 4s yesterday.  Turns out it will line up nicely with the grammar units in all my levels.

4pm – I’m done with classes, so I decide to stop by the tailor’s to see if he’s finished the skirt I asked him to make me well over a month ago.  He says corpo ka ta bom (body isn’t well, i.e. he’s been sick) which I can almost gusrantee is an excuse but I let it go and tell him to feel better and I’ll come back in a few days.  I come home to relax for the rest of the evening and our neighbor Tânia stops by to ask us about helping her husband with the English homework he has to do for the formação in Vila.  I tell her to have him stop by anytime and I’ll give him a hand.  Alexandra shows us the pictures she took last weekend at the festa we went to in Estancia d’Bras.  We stayed with Tânia in her famiy’s house there Saturday night.  We talk about doing another weekend together at her mom’s house in Praia Branca.

5pm – I take down my laundry and go through some pictures I want to get printed tomorrow.  Then I make some delicious goiaba iced tea

6pm – I feel like I should be doing something more productive, but am pretty worn out so I eat some dinner and relax.

 

Alexandra and I with Tânia's friends and family in Estancia d'Bras last weekend

7:15pm – I contemplate just going to bed and watching WEEDS until I fall asleep, but then the doorbell rings and it’s Tânia’s kids.  Their uncle is out of town and their mom is going to gimnástica* so they need a place to hang out instead of staying in their home alone (they’re 10, 7, and 1 ½ ).  I groan a bit internally, knowing that my evening of relaxation is long gone.  Then I remind myself that I really have nothing to do and they are the sweetest, most well-behaved kids, so I decide to think of it as a nice way to spend a couple hours and practice my creole.  I offer them some juice and we talk about the photos on our refrigerator (for about the 9^th time – and the photos haven’t changed).  Then Julio informs me that he brought materials so that we can color together.  I debate prepping my lessons for tomorrow while they play, but instead I decide to just be a kid again and color with them.  While they start coloring, I answer the doorbell.  It’s my neighbor and dear friend, Vanusa, who I haven’t seen in a few days.  We talk through the window (she just came by to tell me she missed us and wanted to see how we were).  I promise to invite her along the next time I go running and also to drop by her house after school tomorrow.  Julio, Rodrigo, Raquel, and I pass a fun hour and a half just chatting and coloring, talking about grades and school children and fishing and Julio’s potential trip to Italy this summer to live with his father.  Alexandra comes home and we cut and casca some sugar cane to suck on.

Tânia and her kids

8:45pm – Tânia comes to get the kids after gimnástica.  We end the night with a new picture on our wall-of-fame (drawn by Rodrigo) and a promise from Julio that he’ll give us the picture he’s working on when he’s done, too.  I give them the picture I drew and everyone goes home happy.

9pm – I finish prepping tomorrow’s recycled wallets lesson plan and make a list of errands to run in the morning

9:30pm – I eat a snack and climb into bed to Gchat and watch WEEDS until I fall asleep.  I need a few more nights of a solid 8 hours so that I can recuperate.

*we used to go to gimnastica almost every day. Since vacation I haven’t been, because recently every time I go my shins and knees hurt badly later from the impact.  My running is taking the place of the aerobics.

I leave you with another of my favorite songs:  "Maná" by Mayra Andrade

A Week in the Life: Wednesday, April 18th

6am – I wake up early and exhausted to have breakfast with Txilite before he goes to work.  I hang around with Jarrod for awhile enjoy the extra time I have since I woke up so early.

7:30am – I head down the hill to await a car back to Tarrafal while enjoying the fresh mountain air and greeting the school kids on their way to jardim or escola primaria.  Suddenly I feel like my island is big because I realize I don’t know any of the guys hanging around where the cars stop, but then my neighbor pulls up in his hiace and reality sets in.  I am pleasantly surprised when I hear the guys practicing English and I realize they are coming for their formação.  The Cape Verdean Ministry of Transport is hosting a class for all the hiace and hilux drivers on the island.  They’ll learn basic English, French, and Portuguese to help out with tourism, as well as other basic geography information and such.  I realize my chances of getting a car home are decreasing by the second when one by one all the hiaces and hiluxes on the island stop in front of me and their drivers get out to go to class.  Then I see Txilite’s brother who is on his way to work and I talk to him for awhile while he waits for his boss to show up with the keys.  Once she arrives, he shows me his new office (he used to work with Averie at the micro-credit organization).  I wait some more, thinking a car will never come but knowing I have all day so it doesn’t really matter.
 

8:15am – I see a friend of Averie and Mi-Mi’s who is heading to Praia Branca (located after Tarrafal on the main road that goes through our island) for work.  He offers me a boleia (free ride), and I’m on my way home!  I spend the ride listening to him and his colleagues tell jokes and talk about a new form of dancing (something about the girl standing behind the man?) and notice how green our island is after just one week of rain!  As we get closer to Tarrafal, I marvel at how my zona is still completely barren and 15 degrees hotter than the rest of the island…

 the drive into Tarrafal
 

9am – I arrive home, unpack, and put my laundry in a bucket to soak.

9:30am – It’s time to lesson plan, and I write up a reading comprehension with a pretty picture: “Earth Day, Every Day!”  I’ve decided to start this trimester with a unit on Protecting Our Planet.  I make some vocab flashcards, along with ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ signs out of recycled materials.  Afterwards, I e-mail our Ed Program Director about getting leave to travel home in August.  Then I catch up on the news (American soldiers caught doing unfortunate things and elephants terrorizing a tribe in Mozambique – what am I getting myself into?)

 recycled classroom materials
 

11:30am – I attempt to take a nap and instead watch a few episodes of WEEDS.  Finally I get up and decide there are more important things to do.  I debate having another cup of coffee but decide my stomach is already grouchy enough

12 noon - I search for literature on juicebox wallets, a recycling project created by an RPCV, and practice making some to ensure I know how to teach my kids on Friday for an Earth Day project

1pm – Laundry time!  Today it’s a much shorter process since I don’t have too much - just enough to justify the use of the water

2pm – I finish doing laundry and clean up, eat lunch, watch an episode of WEEDS while wondering how I’ll manage to stay awake for the rest of the day

 

this is what doing laundry looks like here

3:30pm – I decide it’s time to get my you-know-what in gear, debate showering but decide to wait til after my run, get dressed and head over to school early so I can chat in the teachers’ lounge while getting ahead on tomorrow’s lesson plans.  I greet all my excited students on the way over as they enjoy their one 20-minute break.  In the teachers’ lounge, I chat with professors about various students and their abysmal grades last semester and get caught up on everyone’s ferias (holidays).

4:10pm – I teach my two 10^th grade level 4 classes (Lesson 61: Protecting Our Planet).  We start with a hot potato game so that everyone has a chance to tell me about their vacation and has to speak English right from the start.  After doing some vocabulary and reading comprehension, I end with an announcement about making recycled wallets during their next class.  They seem really excited (albeit annoyed that I gave them new material on the first day back from vacation)!

6pm – I come home and change quickly to go out for a 40-minute run along the road to Baixo de Rocha.  On the way back, I enjoy an incredible view of the sun setting over the water.   Once in town, I run into some students who all ask me what I’m doing and leave me with a “Força, Teacher!” or “Corragem!" 

7pm – I return home and make dinner with my lovely roomie – grão de bico com atum, and we discuss highs and lows of the day and issues in our classes and how to (maybe) resolve them.

 grão de bico com atum - basically chick peas, veggies, and gourmet
canned tuna from the factory here in Tarrafal

7:30pm – We eat dinner while watching Anthony Bordain’s “No Reservations” episode in Mozambique.  We both  get really excited about next year and all the delicious food we’ll get to eat!

8:30pm –  I do the dishes, clean my room, and take a hot bucket bath because the cool breeze made me chilly.  Then I  make some tea and curl up in bed.

9:30pm – I get online to catch up on e-mails/facebook and Gchat with some friends.  Then I Skype with mom and dad about a plane ticket home and proceed to buy one!

11pm – It’s bedtime. I haven’t been sleeping well, so I’m hoping to sleep in until late tomorrow and then run a bunch of errands before class at 1.

A Week in the Life: Tuesday, April 17th

A fellow PCV did a series of posts describing a typical week in her life as a PCV, and I thought it was a great idea!  A lot of people have asked me about my day-to-day routine, so I thought it'd be just as easy to just describe one week of my life to give an idea of how I spend my time.

I was trying to think of a good week to do it, one that would show my "typical" week, but then I realized that I don't really HAVE typical weeks here.  There are things that happen weekly on certain days, but other than that my life isn't really that routine.  So, last Tuesday I decided to start recording the minute, mundane details of my life to share with you.  WARNING: It's pretty long and some of it may be extremely boring or not make a lot of sense.  But, if you have time, I hope you enjoy!  I'll put up a new post each day until I'm done.


Tuesday, April 17th

7:30am – I wake up and eat breakfast.

8:15am – I go to our 8 o’clock teachers’ meetings to prepare for the 3^rd trimester.  I realize I’m not late enough, as only about 5 professors are there, so I go to the internet café next door to print my 3rd trimester plan for each class.  I wait for about half an hour while they try to fix the printer (although all it actually needs is a new toner cartridge) and leave with only 1 of 6 pages printed.

 the câmara municipal

9:30am – We sit through hours of well-meaning professors complaining about how bad our 7^th and 9^th grade turmas are, but come up with no solutions.  Then we spend an hour debating how long it’s reasonable to wait before returning graded tests.  The conclusion is 15 days, which was already in the rule books.

12 noon – We break off into coordination meetings where we spend half an hour discussing our colleague’s wife’s birthday party that will take place this weekend and when our next meeting will be.

12:30pm – Alexandra and I go to the local câmara with another professor to speak to the president about getting funding for the summer camp we’re planning.  He tells us they will support us, but gives no details as to what kind of support (money, goods, moral?) or how much.

1pm – We return for the last bit of the teacher meetings which includes signing out and telling the directora that yes we will be going to the Dia de Professores party this weekend.

my new running route

 the mountainscape on the way out

1:15pm – I decide to go for a run during the hottest part of the day.  The road I’ve started running on runs along the beach.  It’s not exactly a nice road – very dry, dusty, rocky, and hot, but on the way out you are facing a pretty stunning view on the mountains and on the way back (once look past the ugly rocks) you enjoy a nice view of the glistening sea.  Pretty soon I regret not wearing sunscreen, but enjoy a refreshing dip in the ocean on the way back.  I stop to pick up our pork bucket from some neighbors on the way home.  While São Nicolau doesn’t seem to have any sort of recycling infrastructure, they’re pretty good about not being wasteful, and that means that all your food waste should be going to someone’s pig!

 the view of the water on the way into town - you should see it at sunset!

 the pork bucket

2pm – I make lunch, wash dishes, sweep the floor, and check e-mails.  Then I shower and prepare to go to Vila de Ribeira Brava for the night!  Txilite has been working in Vila building the new dormitories for high school students.  It’s great that he’s working every day (that means income!), but it means I don’t see him much because by the time he leaves him home in Canto de Fajã (a half hour walk followed by a half hour drive from Vila), goes to work, and comes back, there aren’t enough hours left for a visit.  He’s been coming to Tarrafal after work on Saturdays and staying through Sunday, but I’ve usually got stuff to do on Sundays and have been feeling like I owe him a little effort on my part.  Fortunately, the PCVs in Vila are awesome and said I could come stay there whenever, which means I also get to hang out with them when I go.  A nice little evening getaway!

 the mini-market downtown where most of the cars wait for people to transport

3:45pm – I head downtown to take out money and buy some bread and bananas for tomorrow’s breakfast before catching a car to Vila.  On the way there, I get slightly weirded out when I notice that the guy sitting next to me is playing with a piece of my hair (no longer attached to my head, obviously).  I ask the conductor to stop in Fajã on the way so that I can leave a package in the loja for Averie, another PCV, to pick up (Fajã has no post office so they get their packages sent to us.  As always, I marvel at the immense beauty of my island and am amazed at how such a small piece of land can have such diverse landscapes.  

Vila as seen from the road on the way to Fajã

4:45pm – I arrive in Vila and stop by a loja to pick up the keys to Ja and Alex’s house since Ja went out to do some errands and Alex is gone.  Afterwards, I sit on the bench outside waiting for Txilite to finish work across the street.

5pm – We head to Ja and Alex’s and hang out there for awhile.  I play around on Ja’s backpacking guitar (that is soon to be mine!) and watch Txilite attempt a magic trick with cards and fail numerous times before getting it right.  Then he teaches me to play biska, a very popular Cape Verdean card game.  I lose multiple times but am sure I’ll improve if we keep playing.

6pm – We decide to make pizza for dinner, so we head to the lojas to get all the ingredients.  I get caught talking to a loja owner (who’s not quite all there, mentally-speaking) in English about his trips to America.  I tell him I need to get going, but assure him I’ll return soon to speak more English with him.

7pm – We start making our pizza.  Turns out we’re a pretty good team: Txilite rolls the dough and I make the sauce.  I talk to Ja about Camp Saninclau and our upcoming meeting and how Vila’s câmara is coming up with every excuse not to help us out this year.  We watch some cheesy Cape Verdean and Angolan zouk music videos and enjoy the delicious fruits of our labor.  We decide that next time we should probably make only half a recipe of dough since we can’t even finish one of the four pizzas we made.

10pm – Txilite has work at 7am and Ja and I start classes tomorrow so we call it an early night.

Check out my current favorite zouk song, "Coisa Doida".