Food and Other Stuff

Someone wanted to know about the food here. Lemmie tell you, there is txeu (a lot) rice and txeu fish here. At the market in the main city of Praia (about an hour’s drive) you can find pretty much anything you could get at a bad run-down grocery store in Austin. All the ingredients you want, just of a lower quality. In Assomada, the closest city to where I live (about a hour’s walk), the pickings are a little slimmer. The best thing though is the market. The one on Assomada is a true African market, with women sitting everywhere selling anything you can imagine, most of it picked, harvested, killed, cought or captured that same day. It smells delicious (until you get to the ladies selling the fish). There are things grilling or smoking, being weighed and measured, cut, ground up, bottled, baked, etc. All around you there are hand-woven baskets and tables full of cucumbers, rice, peppers, tomatoes, breads, grilled eel, pork (alive or dead), chicken (alive or dead), apples, curries, goat (alive or dead), papaya, crabs, shrimp, Grog and other home-made wines, mango, dried tobacco, garlic, tomatoes, bananas, guave, roots, spices, milk (from cows, goats, and even new moms!!!), corn, beans of all varieties, candies, yams, cova, apricots, blueberries, and most of all, FISH. You can get a humongous 30 pund tuna, right out of the ocean, for about $5 American . Unfortunately, $5 is more monet than most families around here will see in 4 or 5 months. Consequently, most people buy a chunk out of the tuna. Consequently there are a lot of fish guts everywhere. Also flies. My neighbor milks her cow every morning, puts it all into a couple of empty wine bottles, walks to the market and sells it every day.

Speaking of neighbors, they’re all trying to feed me. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 dinners in one night. Here in Cape Verde, it’s the most significant sign of friendship for someone to invite you to share what little food they have, so consequently its a real sign of a jackass to say no. I’m pretty ,much booked for dinner for the next 8 years. I only eat a little bit at each one, but its still a lot...of fish. Fucking fish out the whazoo. Big giant entire fishes floating in soup sometimes...heads and all! (Although sometimes its grilled chicken or pork and ALWAYS rice.) Sometimes people try to make “American” food for me too. French fried potatoes and noodles with tomato paste. Too funny. And its not like a family dinner with everyone, it’s me sitting at the head of a table with about 10 women and kids standing around smiling and staring at me while I eat a dead fish that they probably couldn’t afford in the first place. It’s actually almost always pretty tasty, just a little bit of overkill. The main, and completely unbelievable thing, is how NICE everyone is...not a single glare or scowl or anything even resembling a rude remark. Not ONE since I’ve been here. They are just genuinely caring and affectionate people, and most of them haven’t ever seen a white person up close. (Someone remind me to tell you about what happens when they realize I have chest and arm hair!!!.)

I’m REALLY excited to be going to Santo Antao tomorrow (five days in one of the what the Bandt travel guide calls “One of the world’s most beautiful, exotic and striking natural landsacpes.”). I’m not sure if I’ll get posted there after training, but I’m telling anyone who;ll listen that that is where I want to go, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. It’s going to be beautiful...and will have cool weather. Also, I’ll have a day or to to relax and fly my kites and take some pictures. I haven’t taken many pics of my village because I didn’t want to look like a big tourist, but pretty much everyone in the entire village (1500 people) has had me over for dinner, met me personally or at least has seen me, so I think I’m safe to do whatever now.

A few days ago I flew one of my little kites on the (entirely dirt and rock) soccer “field” with the kids in the village and now they are ALL wanting to play with it some more. I’m like the pied piper walking down the black cobblestone path here....txeu (a lot) piquinoites (little kids) all crowded around me, holding my hands, singing, and hanging off of me...smiling and yelling “Kelly!!!.” As you might imagine, I’m in heaven. 