Afunda-se

So don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that the Peace Corps isn’t an adventure. Since April 2nd, two of the large ferry boats that carry people, vehicles, goods and other cargo between the various islands, have sunk. To the bottom of the ocean. On the cover Friday’s edition of the Cape Verdian national newspaper, was a story concerning the ship Musteru, owned by Agencia Polar (who also owned the boat that sank just South of Fogo on April 2nd, and the boat that I had been scheduled to travel to Maio on at the end of this month) which sank in rough weather in the middle of the night last Tuesday. Now I know why Peace Corps issues all the Cape Verdian volunteers a life vest. At the time of the accident, the boat had 108 persons aboard, including one Peace Corps volunteer. Although nobody died, passengers were forced to swim to several fishing boats which arrived from Porto Mosquito. The picture of the Musteru below shows that it was equipped with life boats, but there was no mention in the article about whether or not they were used. Although I’m sure the story was plenty embellished by the time it got to me via word of mouth, I heard the PC volunteer that was aboard was forced to dive from the bow and swim through shark-infested waters to a small fishing boat. Too cool.

If my Portuguese is right, I heard on the radio that the government has temporarily suspended all boat traffic between the islands pending an investigation. One of the largest impacts of this second accident then, will be that the tiny islands of Brava and Maio will be completely isolated in terms of communication and transportation. Since there are no airports there, anyone currently on those islands will remain on those islands until boat traffic resumes, although at this point I’m not sure if Agencia Polar has any more boats, and even if they do, I’m not sure who]s going to be willing to get on them anytime soon.