Well, it has definitely been the most chaotic month of my PC service so far. But I am proud to say that my formal responsibilities as a PCV on Saninclau are officially complete! We finished classes weeks ago, but have had lots of little things to finish up: final exams, grade entries, grade meetings, all-professor meetings, etc. We had our LAST faculty meeting today, so I am officially on vacation!
Apart from classes, Camp Saninclau is what has been running my life for the past month. Starting in the last week of June, we hit the ground running to gather all the support we could in our community. This meant turning in proposals and requests for funds in to the bigger companies and community organizations (the local youth center, the tuna factory, Shell gas station, etc.). It also meant talking to individuals about helping out, both financially and in terms of leg-work. We went to EVERY store or small business in Tarrafal (which is a decent sized city - about 4-6,000 people) to ask for money and food donations. 50 kids eating 3 meals (plus one snack) a day for 6 days is a lot of food! It also meant going back to each and every store (at their conveniece) to collect the money and donations.
It was a huge undertaking, but in the end was also a huge success! I'd estimate that we raised about 110.000$00 CV escudos (or about $1200) from local producers. That doesn't include any of the support we received for transportation, which was ALL donated: gas, car, and drivers. It also doesn't include any of the in-kind donations we received - kilos upon kilos of fish, beans, sugar, salt, corn, etc. plus cleaning supplies, juice, oil, toilet paper...you get the idea. We actually ended up with way more food than we needed! It's amazing how generous the people of this poor island are and how willing the are to come together in support of activities like this.
As for the camp itself...we spent an AMAZING week with 52 students (ages 12-15) from all over the island. We had about 10 coordinators who stayed for the whole week (and 5-6 more who came in went) along with 3 student helpers. It was a lot of people, but everyone was such good sports! Sleeping space was insufficient, bucket baths were short and limited to half a bucket per person, and the food wasn't always delicious or sufficient (we only had 3 cooks cooking for all of us). But there were few (if any) complaints. Kids curled up together 3 to a mattress, shared extra bathwater with their friends, and came back for seconds. Most importantly, they did everything with smiles on their faces! They were SO well-behaved and even helped with the cooking and cleaning.
The week looked like this:
Sunday - transport to Juncalinho, snack time, introductions and ice breakers, baths, dinner, bed
Monday- Planeamento de Futuro: breakfast, sessions re. future planning, lunch, relax, swim in the lagoas, bath, dinner, movie, bed
Tuesday - Dia de Saude e Desport: breakfast, sessions/activities about nutrition, fitness, drugs, and alcohol, lunch, fitness games and aerobics in the polivalente, visit to the lagoa, bath, dinner, movie, bed
Wednesday - Dia de Saude Sexual: breakfast, sessions/activities about healthy relationships, pregnancy, and safe sex, lunch, visit from a local nurse (including condom demonstrations and activities), soccer game, bath, dinner, sm'ores and music around the campfire with marshmallows sent froom America!
Thursday - Dia de Arte e Educação Ambiental: breakfast, sessions and recycled art activities, lunch, games in the polivalente, bath, dinner, festsa at the discoteca
Friday- breakfast, clean/pack, walk to lagoa, lunch, say goodbyes and go home!
Other highlights included beautiful T-shirt making, cuchi-ing corn for catchupa, and making thank-you cards for our community supporters. We also had a near-death experience (well...sort of) when our bus broke down and caught fire on the road just outside of Tarrafal. We got everyone out and ran far away. The flame went out right away, but it still gave everyone quite a fright. We hiked home in the fresh air and sunlight, but had to have a meeting with parents to explain the situation a few days later. That meeting was probably the hardest thing I've had yet to do as a PCV - trying to explain to a parent why their child's life was put in danger under our watch, especially in a language I'm still not fluent in. But it went well and they were understanding in the end. Fortunately no one was hurt and we now know not to use that very old bus for long trips - even if it is a donation!
The highlight of my week was listening to a beautiful song that one of my students wrote to thank us PCVs for our work on the island and at camp. She performed it along with some of the other campers for us. We have a video and as soon as it's uploaded, I'll post a link. The verses were in Creole and the chorus in English. The lyrics are as follows (with translation of the Creole):
Foi num dia tud começa
Ques maltas do Corpo da Paz esga na Cabo Verde
Es traze nôs tcheu cosa, tcheu ajuda
E hoje nôs e grat pa tud quês trazê nos
(One day everything began
The guys/friends from Peace Corps arrived in Cape Verde
They brought us so many things, so much help
And today we are grateful for everything they brought us)
We will never forget the day when we met you
Because nothing is more beautiful than what you did
Obrigada mais um vez
E na nôs nome, de nôs campista
Na nome Cap Verd
E tambêm tud quês recebe ês obra solidariedade
(Thanks once again
In our name, the name of us campers
In Cape Verde's name
and for everyone that received this work of solidarity)
Beautiful blog, Marin. You have clearly made a huge impact on all if your students & friend in CV and know you are taking so much of them with you. We are sooo proud of you!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing!
Amor,
Sua mae
Employer has to know how much involvement you had in the project and what happened so mention complete details about your project work.
ReplyDeleteTransportation CV
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Cape Verde? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Cape Verde in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia,39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez