Update

So I’ve been out of contact for a while while I didn’t have a computer but now I’m back. Not even sure where to start updating...now that I think about it, quite a bit has hap-pened since the last post. Let’s see.

1. I got bit by a humongous centipede while sitting on the stairs in my house. I’ve posted a pic of one of these horrid monsters (though not the one that actually bit me). It hurts. A lot. After a day or two the burning sensation goes away, but now I’m scared to sit down anywhere and I’m always thinking I’m seeing one of the creepy bastards out of the corner of my eye.

2. There was a suicide here in Cha di Igreja last week. (See separate Blog entry)

3. There was a three day festival on the beach down in Cruzinha. There were dancers from Sao Vicente, the kamera hooked up power and there were food stands and grilled meats and night time swimming and live music and an impromptu rugby game on the beach. I missed nearly all of it after getting violently ill from a perhaps-not-well-cooked pork spitada (shish-kabob).

4. The group of volunteers that arrived the year before I did have nearly all left, and right now the new volunteers are going through their home-stay and language train-ing on Praia. Plus, as far as Santo Antao goes, nearly all the other volunteers are on vacation in Portugal, South America, the States etc. As far as I know, there is just myself and one other volunteer left on the island right now. That brings the population of white folks down from 14 to 2. Even though I rarely see the others, I’m feeling a little lonely. Weird.

5. The price of rice has almost doubled...again. When I got to Cape Verde, I could buy a half kilo of rice for 40CVE. It’s now 120CVE. Although I hear that this is a global problem and that even those of you at home in the States are noticing the increase in the cost of foods...it’s much more pronounced in a country where more than half the population lives below th poverty line and spends the majority of their budget on food. (See separate Blog entry about this.) I was hoping that Peace Corps would take that into account in figuring out our living allowances, as transportation, food, electricity and everything else has gone up significantly since we arrived here, but our living allowances have stayed the same. I suppose I’m being unreasonable though, as I wouldn’t think of asking my employer in the States for a raise just be-cause things get more expensive.

6. Electra, tho power company, has sunk to new lows. (See previous Blog entry to de-termine how low that must be.) In Txangreja, we now have power for about 3 or 4 hours a day. In a weird paradox, that actually makes the electric bills go UP. I guess it’s because of the fridge. After being off for 20 hours, it runs constantly on full blast for the next 4. I used to buy groceries in Povocon to last me for a week or so, but now I just buy whatever I can find here in Txangreja on a daily basis.

7. It rained! (See separate Blog entry.)

So that’s a brief update on the state of things here. I hope everyone at home is doing well. Brooks sent me some news updates recently and I gather that the economy is in the tank, Brett Favre has lost his mind, the campaign is getting ugly, there are terrorists trying to ruin the Olympic games and Batman is trying to beat Titanic for the box office record. Anything else happening that I should be aware of?