Logistics...and Language

So if youºre still a little unsure of where I am in Cape Verde (as someone who wrote me today was) maybe this will help. I am on Santo Antao, up at the top left. Iºm at what would be about 10 O´Clock if Santo Antao was a clock, about 2mm from the coast. On this scale, Iºm guessing The Continent (as Africa is known here) would be about 9 or 10 inches to the right.

The Barlavento islands are those on the North, where various dialects of the Sanpadjudo Kriolu is spoken. Although it´s almost never wise to make generalizations, very generally speaking..as in the broadest terms possible...the Barlavento islands are more European, and their residents have more or less a lighter color. The Kriolu is generally shorter or clipped, has a sing-song tone to it, is more stoccato, and more heavily influenced by the Portuguese language. (Although keep in mind that the kriolu I speak in Chan di Igreja is much much different than the Kriolu that the volunteer in, say, the Ribeira of Paul, speaks...so much so that people there may have a hard time understanding people from my village, even though theyºre less than 2 hours away. Different enough in fact, that Cape Verdians from Santo Antao can usually place a person down to the village based solely on their dialect or accent. Example...in Paul they would say Oje ta ku vento. In Chan di Igreja, we say Oj t´k vent Today it is windy. But where was I?)

The Sotavento islands are those in the South, where they speak various dialects of the Badiu Kriolu. Broadly speaking again, the kriolu there is somehat slower, more clearly annunciated (they say tudu dretu where we´d say t´dret for example), and is more heavily influenced by traditional African languages.

Anyway, to get from the main island of Santiago to the island of Sao Vicente is about 50 minutes in one of the puddle-jumping prop-jet planes they fly here. To get from the island of Sao Vicente to my island is about one hour in the ferry boat. The drive from Port Novo, on the south of my island, to Ribeira Grande, on the Northern coast of my island, is about 1 hour as well. (It would much faster except that the road is nothing more than a series of switch-backs up and down the mountains that divide the island into itºs two halves.) The drive from Ribeira Grande to my village is about an hour as well...but only becuase there isn´t what anyone from the States would consider a "road." Basically, you can walk from one one end of the island to the other in a day.

OK, so I hope that helps!