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