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 3rd 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 7th and 9th 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".
Check out my current favorite zouk song, "Coisa Doida".
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