Long Time No See

Hola.

It’s been a while but I wanted to let those of you who are interested know that I am in fact not dead or injured, and that, contrary to popular reports, I have not yet been caught by INTERPOL.

I have however, in the last 2 months, been to the States to see my friends and family (a long and strange journey which I’ll write more about soon), acquired a small pig, seen hundreds of naked Cape Verdians dancing in the streets for Carnival, suffered from a never-ending case of “engina” (I think it’s what we would call Strep Throat…I’m finally feeling better thank you), gotten a huge hickey on my forehead from an octopus I was trying to catch, hosted visiting volunteers, made the most delicious friend chicken and mashed potatoes in history, quit smoking (almost 3 weeks now and I haven’t killed anyone yet!), gotten my kite stuck in one of the three trees in Chan di Igreja, moved from my old house to another just across the way, spent a wonderful weekend in Mindelo with Benvinda, learned to cook 3 new meals and play nearly every Brian Adams song in existence, read 9 books (including The Hummingbird’s Daughter and 1000 Slendid Suns, which I recommend to EVERYONE) introduced the town of Chan di Igreja to the joys of washer pitching and Frisbee tossing, started a second round of English classes, help build a ramp for a disabled man in my town who had a wheelchair donated to him by an American aid organization, been peed on by Djonny Jr. (who fell asleep in my lap in the car on the way to town the other day and then proceeded to wet his pants), composed an original Valentine’s Day poem in Sanpadjudo Kriolu, pissed myself in the ocean when I was made victim of a practical joke and thought I was being attacked by eels, and fallen down a small flight of steps in my new house when the power when out unexpectedly.

I’ve managed to lose my pen drive however, so I transfer photos and I can’t pre-write the Blog entries on my laptop and then just upload them…which means that I’m paying for computer time as I write anything out, which means that I REALLY need a new pen drive if anyone out there happens to feel like sending one. (1Gig would be prefect!) Anyway, I’ll get one up about my trip to the states (and all the culture shock that that entails) and one about the killer morays that had me panicked in the ocean the other day.

I missed you guys and will write more soon.!!

Caley