I suppose I should squash all those rumors going around that I am paralyzed, because I am not. Though I had some pretty good plans for what I’d do with a nice battery powered wheel chair, alas, I can walk. I had some tingling there for a while, but I think I have narrowed it down to the extreme excess of azeite, oil, I have been eating everyday. So I took a bit of a fast, or the best way I could describe it in Creole was similar to Ramadan. Either way, my body is feeling better than it was. Food in general here is much different in regards to the food pyramid and what they value here. Me and Nathan (the other EE trainee) made tortillas from scratch. Beans, rice and this tomato/onion/garlic/pepper mixture for our families last Sunday night. It rocked beyond belief, but lo, it didn’t have the key ingredient that Cape Verdeans hold so dear: lots and lots of salt and oil. So while they pretended to like it “Mmmm, sabe” we know they didn’t. At least we ate a pretty good meal.
In other news our site assignments have been pushed back to week seven, so I still have no firm idea of where I’ll be heading for the next two years, though its been hinted that itll be sao nicaolo.
So what else has been going on here? Well, last weekend we hiked to Ribearo de Barco and it poured on our way there. As this island is very dry, the slightest bit of rain causes havoc, so we could hear and see large rocks crashing down from the cliffs. And we got pretty wet, but they LOVE rain here as they get so little of it. The people here get inot a very festive mood, they sing and yell and splash around and will swim in almost anything that contains even the smallest amount of water. Even water tanks with lots of dead frogs. And then they throw the frogs at each other. But that’s another story.
Me and Nathan have been learning about the environmental outlook of CV, what has been going on, what problems there are and what they would like to do in the future. For instance, in Assamado, they have had a trash collection for many years. However, since they only have two trash trucks which break down often, trash still gets littered all over and when a trash bin isn’t collected, its sometimes turned over…for some reason. Another issues, one of the biggest, is the lack of water and the quality of water. They have a dam here that is meant to trap rain water for irrigation use. The one flaw is this dam now stops water from going down stream to other farms. So while they have built the dam, they haven’t finished the pipes which will carry the water further down. Outside of Santiago, trash is not as prevalent in the flora as it is here, possibly because there are a lot of people on Santiago. They are thinking of building an incinerator and suing the burning trash to power a desalination plant. Oh, water.. Most of the potable water comes from wells which collect in tanks and is then distributed to surrounding zones. However, because these wells are drawn upon daily, they have begun to draw water in from the sea which salinates the water and renders that well useless. Outside of the “urban” areas, some people collect rain water in cisterns or on their roofs, others buy it from a truck, and many have to go to cheferiz’s to collect water from public wells.
Our second ET occurred last week,. So we are now a group of 27, but as always, everyone’s spirits seem to be high, and as I can speak only for myself, all seems good and all are ready to be done with PST and get to our sites. If not only to start our service, but to get some semblance of our own lives back, being able to cook, have your own space, etc. Hmmm, oh, took a test on porteguese last week….i need to study more. Creole isn’t too bad, I can get by fine, but as we all know and agree, porteguese is much more difficult..
I suppose that’s all for now. Oh, mail. Thank you to everyone who has sent mail as it rocks to get mail. If you happen to be planning on sending me any books or large chemistry kits or harmonicas or other things, it might be best to wait until I get to site. Taking what I already have with me on a plane in this country is a task. The less I am dragging alongside me the better, I already have two bags, a large water filter, and once we swear in, we get a large, yellow peace corp issue life jacket. So don’t send me a life jacket either. Any mail you send me now will still get to me, they will send me mail to my site if it arrives after I swear in. so, hope all are well and as always, questions questions questions. If it’s a good one,. Email it to me and not in a comment, I don’t check those comments too often.
N ta fala ku nos mas tarde, e n kre un dia nos bem ali. Kuando nos bem, n ta odja todo ilhas para bu. Ti logo,. Txeu..
In other news our site assignments have been pushed back to week seven, so I still have no firm idea of where I’ll be heading for the next two years, though its been hinted that itll be sao nicaolo.
So what else has been going on here? Well, last weekend we hiked to Ribearo de Barco and it poured on our way there. As this island is very dry, the slightest bit of rain causes havoc, so we could hear and see large rocks crashing down from the cliffs. And we got pretty wet, but they LOVE rain here as they get so little of it. The people here get inot a very festive mood, they sing and yell and splash around and will swim in almost anything that contains even the smallest amount of water. Even water tanks with lots of dead frogs. And then they throw the frogs at each other. But that’s another story.
Me and Nathan have been learning about the environmental outlook of CV, what has been going on, what problems there are and what they would like to do in the future. For instance, in Assamado, they have had a trash collection for many years. However, since they only have two trash trucks which break down often, trash still gets littered all over and when a trash bin isn’t collected, its sometimes turned over…for some reason. Another issues, one of the biggest, is the lack of water and the quality of water. They have a dam here that is meant to trap rain water for irrigation use. The one flaw is this dam now stops water from going down stream to other farms. So while they have built the dam, they haven’t finished the pipes which will carry the water further down. Outside of Santiago, trash is not as prevalent in the flora as it is here, possibly because there are a lot of people on Santiago. They are thinking of building an incinerator and suing the burning trash to power a desalination plant. Oh, water.. Most of the potable water comes from wells which collect in tanks and is then distributed to surrounding zones. However, because these wells are drawn upon daily, they have begun to draw water in from the sea which salinates the water and renders that well useless. Outside of the “urban” areas, some people collect rain water in cisterns or on their roofs, others buy it from a truck, and many have to go to cheferiz’s to collect water from public wells.
Our second ET occurred last week,. So we are now a group of 27, but as always, everyone’s spirits seem to be high, and as I can speak only for myself, all seems good and all are ready to be done with PST and get to our sites. If not only to start our service, but to get some semblance of our own lives back, being able to cook, have your own space, etc. Hmmm, oh, took a test on porteguese last week….i need to study more. Creole isn’t too bad, I can get by fine, but as we all know and agree, porteguese is much more difficult..
I suppose that’s all for now. Oh, mail. Thank you to everyone who has sent mail as it rocks to get mail. If you happen to be planning on sending me any books or large chemistry kits or harmonicas or other things, it might be best to wait until I get to site. Taking what I already have with me on a plane in this country is a task. The less I am dragging alongside me the better, I already have two bags, a large water filter, and once we swear in, we get a large, yellow peace corp issue life jacket. So don’t send me a life jacket either. Any mail you send me now will still get to me, they will send me mail to my site if it arrives after I swear in. so, hope all are well and as always, questions questions questions. If it’s a good one,. Email it to me and not in a comment, I don’t check those comments too often.
N ta fala ku nos mas tarde, e n kre un dia nos bem ali. Kuando nos bem, n ta odja todo ilhas para bu. Ti logo,. Txeu..
The picture is a view from my house
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