Lucky Update Number 9 (hooray)

I have been battered by people with questions about life in Cape Verde, about what my dia a dia is, are there really elephants in Cape Verde and if so, how high can they fly off the ground, is it true that they have an inside out verison of blue, these among many other questions i hope to answer in this next exciting installment of "Janelas: Ka pode fechada!!!!!"

(For this update, i have used the very old form of listing that the Afrikans used way before the time of Jesus or pita bread, they called it bullet points. Ancient huh?)

• Since my commute to workis under a 5 minutes walk, i for some reason get up earlier than when my commute was an hour bike ride through the mean gritty streets of NYC. Entao, i get up about 6:30 and do a little workout jam session untill about 8 ish. Depois, i get some stuff ready for work and then read untill 8:30 when i leave my house, take a few steps and wa la, i'm at work
• I have just created a plan for the nextthree months of work here, basically i will be working on a few things with room to maneuver to help out other sections or do fun stuff that seems to pop up every once in a while, like last week, the school here had to harvest a bunch of vegetables they wanted to sell. So, me and Nat went on over to watch and/or buy, As they kids were standing around getting restless, i would pick up a vegetable and ask "O Que e que li?" or "Tomat verde e mais sabe do tomat vermelho?" And then all the kids would scream out thier answer. Twas fun.
• Anywho
• My three main areas of focus for eco tourism are:
• Creating a management systems (and quality system) for the eco tourism section
• this is harder than my brief description makes it sound as i have had to create everything from scratch minus what i have slyly copied and pasted form old ISO documents i made
• creating a simplified EIA framework for park projects to adhere to. This is basically to help ensure that bio diversity and local communities are not harmedwhen projects are undertaken...and lastly
• english classes!!! thats right, not only was it my major in college, not only do i rank #3 in 2007 for Worlds Best Speller, but now i am teaching my superior form of english to the guides and eco tourism staff two days a week. Fun

• After work, which ends at 3:30 offically, i have been hiking. Moslty, its a hike in the park, which wiht its limited number of trails is slowlybecoming very known to me, or something. other times, i hike or catch a ride to Vila where i can buy most of the thingsthat you cant buy in Cachaco, like vegetables and dryed chickpeas, thens it an hour and half hike up hill, and when i say hill, i mean pretty sheer volcanic mountain, tis grueling at times. Vila is also the magicaly town where the post office is for all of you wondering
• Then, we make dinner.
  
• hmm, thought thatd be more exciting

• Then its more reading or other stuff, and to bed around 9:30 or 10. I bet you are surprised, just as i was, to realize that the night life in Cachaco isn't as robust as they advertised. But alas...

Anything else, well, thats my basic kind of day. The weekends are very similar except i dont walk to work, i just hike alot longer, or we go to Tarrafal, where a few of the UN volunteers live. Its hot, very, in Tarrafal so not only do we get a break form the mists of Cachaco, but we can bringout clothes and dry them, go for a swim in the ocean, and other stuff that PCV's and UNV's do when they hang out.

And the elephants, always buzzing overhead wearing summer dresses of the most striking inside out blue you have ever seen. Tis a sight.