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.