Day to Day

September 25, 2007

Am I on Vacation???

So I’ve gotten a few e-mails accusing me of being on vacation in paradise for two years, rather than grinding out a life as a Peace Corps volunteer. While that is not entirely incorrect, it’s not entirely accurate either. Anyway, I though I’d give you a run down on my day-to-day activities here on Santo Antao.

My days are mostly…trankilio, as they like to say here. I wake up at 630 (everyone else does, and it’s too noisy to sleep later) make a cup of coffee and drink it on the roof, where I stare at the ocean and think about breakfast. Then I’ll either have a little cereal, or if I’m feeling ambitious, will go ranga (arrange) some eggs and some cheese, make some tortillas, and have breakfast tacos. That gets me through till about 8. After that I take a shower and shave, wash the dishes, and sweep and mop the house. That gets me through till about 9 or so. Then some days I either do laundry, hike to the beach, walk to the little plaza and play cards or guitar with the old men, go for a hike up the mountain, sit at a neighbor’s house and (try to) chat…pretty much whatever I want, until it gets too hot. By about 1pm, it’s REAL hot and I have to be in the house or in the shade (along with everyone else in town). From 1 or so until about 4, I get work done. I’ve been preparing my lesson plans for English and Computer classes, practicing my Portuguese and Kriolu, and writing letters to the local government offices to request assistance and/or money for my classes, but I also have a lot of paperwork to fill out for PC. Sometimes I need to request books, or fill out safety forms, typical boring government paperwork. Also, I’ll fix a grilled ham and cheese or something else easy for lunch, and read for a while. After 4, I usually read some more, or go for another walk, or try to meet someone new in town, or go to Cruzinha and jump off the rocks, or have a language lesson with my neighbour. In the early evening, I go to watch the town’s soccer team practice, or look for pretty girls, or take pictures, or read or play cards or guitar in the plaza. By this time the weather is perfect, nice and cool (low 80’s?) with a little breeze coming off the ocean, and the mountains and the whole sky turns a watermelon pink. Then every night I go spia sol txia na mar (literally translated, watch the sun get down into the ocean, or watch the sunset) from a cliff near the ocean (spectacular) where I think about you guys, and wonder what you are doing. It’s my “being sad” time. After that I walk back to town, stopping and chatting with whoever I can. By that time, everyone is out in the plaza or sitting around on the front stoops of their houses, and I’ll join them if I can. The plaza has a TV, and there are always a lot of people sitting on the park benches watching the news or else soccer. I’ll sit there for a while, try to meet someone new, maybe have a beer or some popcorn or fried moray eel. Then I head home and get to work on dinner. There’s nothing in a box, nothing you can just add water too, and no restaurants or take out, so it takes a while. (I’ve got a REAL appreciation for all the magic that my mom and my sister can work in the kitchen now.) I’ve been making spaghetti with my own sauce, tacos, boiled or broiled chicken, lots of rice and beans, sometimes just a sandwich or French toast or something easy, or else I’ll go eat with my neighbour and his family. (I actually have been doing that a lot.)

Of course some days I have to go to town for supplies. There is only one car a day to and from the nearest (bigger) town, which is called Provencao. It leaves here at 615am and comes back to Cha at noon. If I miss it coming back to Cha di Igreja, I have to spend the night in Provencao at another volunteer’s house and get it the next day, or pay 2500$00 to hire a private car, which is out of the question on my budget. So far that’s only happened once, but it’s no big deal because the volunteers in Provencao are really nice girls that love to cook, and they have an extra bed, and don’t mind the company. On Sundays, there is usually no transportation at all. I’ve also spent a couple nights in Punto do Sol, which is Cape Verde’s version of Malibu. Real pretty, real rich…by Cape Verdian standards. Once was for a town festa where I was at the disco till dawn, and once because I had a meeting with the president of the kamera (local government organization) about my classes, and missed the car back to Cha di Igreja. For festa, I stayed with a volunteer, and after the meeting with the chefe (president), I met a family in that town that let me sleep in their quintal (covered porch) for the night, after feeding me a handsome dinner of grilled fish and fried breadfruit. Such is life here.

So that’s it in a nutshell. Of course I’ve also been doing little stuff like decorating (taping pictures of you guys to my walls), getting my bed frame, a fan, and a lock-box, starting a little herb garden, writing entries for my Blog, writing to you guys, having meetings with my Associacao, hosting other volunteers in Cha di Igreja (CdI from now on), fixing my plumbing, putting together some shelves, giving my neighbour private English lessons, and trying to arrange a pequena (girlfriend). ;-)

All of that said, if you still want to accuse me or my CV’s neighbors of being lazy, you have to keep in mind that, until my classes start, there is absolutely nothing for me to do here, besides get to know my town. There are no businesses here, no jobs (other than being teacher or owning a tiny market), no hotels or restaurants or clubs, no social services, and no real, measurable government presence. So, they sit around and play cards and play guitar and wait for the rain. After the rain, they’ll be working (and please don’t take this the wrong way) exactly the same way they did when they were slaves…out in the fields or up on the mountain, doubled over digging in the dirt with a 2 foot spade, planting corn and beans by hand, pulling up weeds and grass by hand, gathering straw for the animals, carrying things on their head, etc. The difference being that now, all that work is for them and for their families, and not the Portuguese.