A Week in the Life: Monday, April 23rd

 

10am – I wake up and have some coffee with Mi-Mi.  We talk about how awful we feel and whether or not we need more sleep before heading back to the festivities.  We decide we’ll just deal and get ready to leave.  On our way up the hill, we grab a car to save some energy but as soon as we’re inside, we see that the teachers are walking down the hill.  They’re going on a passeio to visit a water source and some strawberry fields right behind Mi-Mi’s house.  We hop out and follow them right back to where we just came from.

 sumfana

 all the cooks making delicious food!

 catxupa - DELICIOUS!!

The rest of the afternoon consists of talking, attempting not to fall asleep, and eating A LOT: rice, corn, tomatoes, beets, really delicious pulled pork, sumfana (sort of like a mix between meatloaf and blood sausage but made with goat innards - surprisingly delicious!), fried fish, boiled veggies, catxupa (Cape Verde’s national dish – a sort of bean/corn soup), xerém  (ground corn mush – sort of like a mix between grits, mashed potatoes, and just plain cooked corn), fruit salad, homemade ice cream, pudding, kus-kus (a cornbread-like dish that is pretty dry and has much less flavor, but for some reason I’ve grown to really love), and best of all spit (deliciously seasoned pork “kabobs”).

 

3pm – We start the cultural part of the day with a tocatina, some poetry readings, and joke-telling (which I actually understood!)  This goes on for a few hours with everyone showing off their talents.  At the end they also convince me to sing, so I go up there and sing “Sodade” by Cesaria Evora, which is probably the most well-known morna ever written and has a particularly strong connection with São Nicolau.  Before I sing, I thank them all on behalf of Peace Corps for opening their hearts and sharing their culture with us.  People really seemed to love it.  Everyone was on their feet and clapping and singing along and one guy came up and gave me a flower in the middle of the song.  As I was finishing, they brought out the cake.  We sang “parabens” to ourselves.

6pm – The cake has been cut and I’m ready to go home.  Fortunately, so is everyone else, so we pile 37 teachers into a small bus (probably made for about 25 people) and head back to Tarrafal.

7pm – I arrive home, check in on Alexandra who’d left early because she was feeling sick, make myself a cup of tea and some hot water for a bucket bath and begin my night of recuperation (i.e. listening to music and watching TV until I fall asleep).

The best part is, normally Monday is my busiest teaching day.  I have all my turmas (5) back-to-back.  Lucky for me our holiday fell on a Monday!

All in all, a pretty fantastic week, I’d have to say :)