Calor, Cus cus, and Cola

The sun is heating up and life here in Tarrafal is getting a little bit hotter too!  The other day I came home at 6:30pm (when the sun was setting) and it was 90 degrees in my room.  Not too comfortable.  I recently decided to invest in a fan, which is allowing me to sleep at night despite the invasion of mosquitoes and heat.

As usual, I feel like a lot has happened, but I haven’t been very good about updating, so I’ll just talk about a few highlights.

First things first, we’re almost done with the last trimester!  The kids have been mentally on vacation for weeks now, so it’s nice to not have more important material to give them.  We’ve had our PGIs (Prova Geral Interno) these past few weeks, which is a longer, comprehensive test that the students take at the end of each ciclo (7^th and 8^th grade = 1^st ciclo, 9^th and 10^th grade = 2^nd ciclo, etc.)  PGI period means less class, but more grading and being frustrated that these kids don’t study!!  Seriously. I printed out a review sheet with exercises EXACTLY like what they’d have on the exam and offered them extra credit if they turned it in.  I think I had 3 out of 63 students do it.  And unfortunately their grades reflect the same lack of responsibility.  But…enough complaining because at the end of the day I’m really gonna miss these kids and I can’t believe my year with them is over!

In more personal news, I have finally managed to successfully make the two most standard Cape Verdean dishes: catchupa and cus cus.  Catchupa was a pretty easy feat.  Alexandra and I arranged with our neighbor and good friend Tânia to have a catchupa-making day so we could cook over the open fire they have behind their house.  The process isn’t difficult, but it takes most of the day to cook.  We started at 1 and didn’t eat dinner til almost 7!  The result was delicious, however, and I think Alexandra and I could manage to make it on our own at home if we tried.

catchupa

Cus cus has been a slightly more complicated saga.  If it weren’t for Txilite’s mom, Lina, I don’t even think I’d bother!  Cus cus is a pretty bland, cornbread-like dish that Cape Verdeans make for pretty much every occasion.  I honestly didn’t think it was that great until I tried the kind Lina makes.  It’s delicious!  I’m still not sure whether it’s delicious on its own accord, or whether my taste buds have become less judgmental after almost a year here.  Whatever the case may be, I’ve been determined to learn how to make it.  You’d think it was simple, because the taste and appearance is so simple, but it turns out to be almost impossibly complicated to get the right consistency.  If it’s too dry, it’s hard, crunchy, and really just not worth eating.  If it’s too moist, sometimes it won’t even come out of the pot.  The process goes like this:

1.  Mix flour, sugar, and water in a bowl. You can also add: yogurt for flavor, instant potato flakes for fluffiness, chocolate/raisins/oatmeal/anything for extra flavor and crunch!
2.  Put the mixture in a cucuzeira (a pot specially designed for cus cus) to cook.  Basically this is a tall pot that has a bottom half that is slightly smaller than the upper half.  A steamer plate (a piece of metal with holes in it) sits on the lip created by the bottom half being smaller.  You put water in the bottom half and lay a towel inside the top half on top of the steamer plate.  The mixture goes inside the towel.
3.  Let cook for 25 minutes.
4.  Take it out and eat with butter or in milk!

My first attempt was pretty much a disaster. I was using farinha de mandioca (manioc flour), which is the secret to Lina’s delicious version.  Unfortunately, I made 3 mistakes: 1) I didn’t use any corn flour (it should be about 1/3 or ½ corn flour and the rest manioc flour. 2) the manioc flour I used was not finely ground, so it was even drier.  3) I didn’t put enough water.  Ended up being good sprinkled in cereal, but didn’t stay together to be worth eating by itself.

cus cus - chocolate and normal

 The second time around, I used a finer flour, but it was still a little dry.  The third time around was pretty good – I made two: one normal, one with chocolate (yum!) but they were still a little dry.  Finally, Txilite decided he wanted to try his hand at it too, so we made it together one night.  That was the best so far – I hadn’t realized how much time I needed to spend mixing it to make the water get spread evenly.  Nor had I realized that I was supposed to let the water boil before putting the mixture in the pot.  Unfortunately, we ran out of sugar so it wasn’t as sweet as we would have liked.

finally: successful cus cus! thanks to Txilite

Now I have become quite the expert! My best cus cus so far was made last weekend before I went to an election-day celebration at Txilite’s grandma’s house.  It was so delicious because it was made with flour from Lina’s land. J  They grow manioc, then casca it and leave it to dry.  Later, they grind it in a pilão, basically a big wooden mortar, using a giant wooden pestle.

The best part about my cus cus making saga is that it gave me something to talk about with neighbors and friends (and strangers) and also showed that I was really trying to integrate into Cape Verdean culture.  I got many offers for help, and even ended up sending a piece of one of my failed attempts home with a neighbor so she could tell me what was wrong with it.  It was so fun to get to share my delicious creations with other Cape Verdeans and have them legitimately enjoy them!

The final big topic to share has to do with some pretty strange and awesome Cape Verdean cultural traditions.  Last weekend, we had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Tânia and her family at her mom’s house in Praia Branca.  They were celebrating an annual cultural festa: San Jon (São João).  It’s a festa they’ve been having for decades.  This year’s theme was: “Herança de nôs gente, alma de nôs terra” (Inheritance of our people, spirit/soul of our land). The women and men dress in traditional clothing and dance the cola while a big group of guys play the tambour (giant drums carried on a strap over their shoulders).  The cola consists of a line of women facing a line of men.  Each side takes a few energetic steps backward in rhythm with the tambours.  Then, even more energetically, the lines meet in the middle with each man thrusting his pelvis between the legs of the woman facing him.  No need to be explicit about what activity this is representing.  Meanwhile, musicians blow into whistles or into conch shells to make trumpet-like noises. 

As they are dancing, the men and women chant stories and rhymes.  Apparently for this particular festa, the participants of Praia Branca come up with a new chant each year.  It generally has to do with the inappropriate/vulgar behavior of someone in the community.  Tânia told us, “Be careful!  Anything you do that isn’t viewed well by the community could end up in their chant!” I won’t be too detailed about this year’s story, but more or less it had to do with a woman who was paid 15 kont to have sex with a man and, after an unfortunate incident, left the hospital with 18 stitches in a very uncomfortable place.

The first day of the festa, the dance was done to bring in the kindling for the fire.  This year, they’d chosen marcela, a weed known for being a remedio de bruxa (witch’s medicine).  Several women carried the marcela in large bunches on their heads as the cola dancers and drummers danced and played their way into the town center.  After lots of playing and dancing in the town center, they started lum’ na ar  (‘fire in the air’).  At this point, the marcela was ignited and a big fire was started in the middle of the square.  Community members (mostly young males) took turns jumping through the flames.  I don’t exactly know what jumping through the flame symbolizes.  At some point in the past, a person would jump over it with an egg.  When they were done, they would break the egg in a cup of water.  They left the egg there for a day or two and came back to see their future.  In her day, Tânia’s mom saw a ship and 3 children.  She later moved to Portugal and ended up having 3 kids!

Alexandra and I danced the cola but did not have the courage to jump through flames.  With my luck, I’d have twisted an ankle or fallen in the middle of the flames.  But the festa was one of the coolest things I’d ever had the honor to participate in.

Well…I think that’s plenty for you all to read for now.  These days we are CRAZY busy prepping for Camp Saninclau, a summer camp we’re hosting for local youth next week.  A million difficulties have come our way, but we’re working through them.  Your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes are appreciated!  I’ll post again about camp once we get back.

Até logo and see some of you in America come August!