Behold!

In the course of human history, there have been but a handful, a small handful at that, of true geniuses, of writers so extraordinaire that their masterpieces escape the confines of time and space, of that which we call reality. The Odyssey, War and Peace, Leaves of Grass, East of Eden, A Confederacy of Dunces, Willard and His Bowling Trophies, The River Why, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Children’s Crusade, Skinny legs and all, and of course, The Alphabet of Manliness. All make us test the limitations we believe words can have upon our souls. But nowhere in written language has man been prepared for what is about to come, for the conflagration of letters into words into thoughts that will bombard the souls and scratch new blood ways inside that which was once locked and shut away so long ago.

O ye of weariness, rest a while upon thy shores, and thusly thou whilt behold a sight that blindeth even the eyes of god…

Drum roll please.

A little louder.

Not that loud.

O minions of mine, men and women, children of all ages, robots, space aliens posing as regular Joes, revolutionaries, punks and those who think punk is dead, dead animal eaters and vegan eaters (not people who eat vegans but rather people who eat vegan), bike riding hippies, BEHOLD!!!

The next masterpiece which will erode all the work done by every other writer ever, the next masterpiece that will redefine what it is to be a masterpiece, the next masterpiece to début as the New York Times bestseller and remain there… forever, the book that will replace the bible.

Together with Sonadei (www.sonadei.com , and while your on their website why not check out some awesome Cape Verde Bicycle Organizations shirts, messenger bags, and donation opportunities. Also check out some of the super awesome things Sonadei does for the biking communities around the country, and the causes they help support), I am embarking on constructing the greatest written work that will ever shine upon the collective eyes of man. The book will be between 0 and 1,000,000,000 pages of gut wrenchingness, side splittingness, sock knocking offness, tear jerkiness, correct spellingness, all shades of humor (ness?) and all other real and made up stuff I can say about this book.

Be on the lookout for new information, updates, even greater hype, and the world premier release date of this exciting book which marks a new epoch in the course of humanity.

Just in case you didn’t understand what I said, I am writing a book with Sonadei about my time here in Cape Verde, about the bike project ALL of YOU have helped support (that’s right, I’m looking at you who hasn’t bought a shirt yet, arrrr), and about my experiences with Peace Corps. We don’t have an idea yet about when it will be published, as modern spell checkers only go so fast. But stay tuned for all the exciting news about this exciting project.

Jeez, after that my normal everyday news just doesn’t seem as exciting. But I’ll give it a go anyways. Tis the New Year here in Cape Verde (not sure about anywhere else) and with the arrival of 2009 we can look back and reflect upon the year we jokingly referred to as 2008, HA! Anyflashback, here are some of the highlights that marked that wild and crazy year:

• My first Carnival ever. Four days of dancing for hours and hours and hours dressed as a shiny red Power Ranger, and even getting a few seconds on the local news as I danced (perhaps slightly, SLIGHTY, inebriated)
• Two weeks sojourn into the deepest heart of the mainland Afrika, or at least the heart of western Afrika, Mali. An amazing adventure along rivers, bumpy desert roads, and hikes in ancient embankments, all documented exactly as it occurred in my blog.
• Becoming certified by the internationally recognized Centro de Saude in Tarrafal as a First Aid giver type person, or something
• The start of the infamous Carberinho Project. Will it end in 2009? Who knows???
• My 1 year São Nicolau, Cape Verde, and Peace Corps Volunteer Anniversaries!!!! Yay!
• The announcement of the “Cape Verde Bicycle Safety and Awareness Project” and the start of t-shirt sales. This project has been moving along, despite my apparent lack of updated information, and together with Sonadei we are going to have a successful (i.e. Kick Ass) project.
• Visitors from abroad!!!!
• Mid-service medical exam. Probably the most intense physical I have EVER had. Add to it the awesome Ukrainian accent of the doctor, and the sudden “…and now you take off all your clothes” and you have one hell of an experience.
• New 1st year PCV’s!!!!!

There are a myriad of other things, little and big, that occurred over the course of the year, and who knows what 2009 holds for us all, or at least me, with these remaining months of Peace Corps service.

Thanks for sticking with me, and let us all walk/bike each day with love in our hearts.

Word up!

Crafts here, get your ice cold Crafts here!

Hey wow, three posts in a whole little time. Im buzzing wiht info lately huh. So, just when you thought you were done helping people in other countries, Im coming right back at you.

Check out the project i am helping organize with a local women, CRAFT PROPOSAL LINK, we want to create a womens group mkaing crafts and hopefully making a small income.

Nothing complicated. take a look, see how and if you can help, and better still, help and pass the word on to others. Thanks.

CRAFT PROPOSAL LINK

Ate logo

Where´s Jerry Lewis when you need him?

I hope this is my final plea, that everyone who reads this post heeds my words. We are nearing the three month countdown to the big Bike Event here on São Nicolau. Various organizations around the island have pledged their help and we have started the work to organizing the event. Details are still coming in, but the bike race might be the 26 kilometer road from Vila to Tarrafal that has been for the last two years receiving a face lift.

So what do we need, well, BIKE HELMETS. How do we get bike helmets, by people like you supporting this project through your donations and shirt purchases. We have about half the money we need to purchase and ship the helmets here. So, here’s my plea, my down on my knees begging:

Donate $25 right now. Do it, now. If everyone one of you reads this post and donates $25 right now, well, that’d be bring us a whole lot to closer to the amount we need for these helmets. Go to the project page and click the donate now button Did you do it? Did you forget where that link is, Click here (Donation Link). Did you do it now? PLEASE. What’s $25 dollars in this soaring bustling economy? Do it, Click here (Donation Link), help provide for people you might not know, living in a country you might never have heard of, but yet, they are our brothers and sisters too, and like all of us, love to bike ride and need to do it safely. So, Click here (Donation Link).

Does your girlfriend or children need shirts? Sonadei announced they now have shirts available in women’s and children sizes, sweet. So:

Shirt Link: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=86
Messenger Bag: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=90

Are you reading this line right now and still haven’t donated? What’s wrong with you man!!!??
Donate $25 right now, do it do it do it do it do it do it!!!!!

Echo?

Project Info: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/CVBO.php
Shirt Link: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=86
Messenger Bag: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=90
Donate: Click here (Donation Link) to go right to Pay Pal to donate money

Thanks for your attention.

Australian Adventures

Early on a Saturday morning, with the fog slowly burning off, the roosters roostering away, and the children on their way to school, we headed off towards ports unknown, armed only with a German map of questionable accuracy, 10 liters of water and the hope that in two days time we would reach Carriçal, the Shangri-La of São Nicolau.

It didn’t take long to realize that hiking with a 5 liter container of water on your back was not going to be an enjoyable way to spend the next 7 hours. But as there weren’t going to be any natural springs to quench our thirst, we hefted the water with us. Our first stop of interest was Port de Lapa, the original settlement on the island. Located right on the beach, it was a great place to live, and it also turned out to be an easy place for that most hated and feared of all pirates, the Dread Pirate Sir Francis Drake to bombard. So the people left, but the houses, maybe about 5, remain. After some water and some bread, we were off again.

Ahh, the Germans. On the map, it looked like a nice red line to which we could follow. But a two hour detour alongside the scraggly cliffs taught us otherwise. So we nearly made our way back to Porto de Lapa before heading off in the right direction. Not being used to hiking with a heavy pack, our pace slowed and slowed, till it seemed the only thing keeping us going was the hurricane force winds pushing us. And then, an oasis appeared.

Morre Alto has seen better days. From far off, it looked like a nice little town, painted houses, cows a grazing, goats a goating. But when we get there, all the houses had been abandoned. Seems like the well had dried up, literally. So, being good little PCV’s, we broke into one of the abandoned houses and made it our home for the night. Excluding the mice and the house shaking winds, I slept like a baby. A baby who wakes up every fifteen minutes and wakes up cranky.

Day 2 and out sights were set on Carriçal. Once again, the map made it look straight forward, and again they had a nice red line showing the way. Hour after hour, we lost, found, lost, thought we found, and lost again the trail. And the trail wasn’t even a trail, but an animal path. At one point, a descent of 100 meters over loose volcanic rocks seemed the point of giving up, and yielding our bodies to the soil of Cape Verde.

But lo, off in the distance, our eyes set sight on that glorious prize, that inaccessible spot on the horizon, Carriçal. So again, after 7 hours of hiking, we reached our goal. And then we made a new goal, to get some food. We hit up a loja, got a beer, and enquired about water and dinner. Water, and later dinner, came from a store further along the road closer to the beach. The beach in Carriçal is at the end of a long ribeira, but a ribeira unlike any other. It is full, chock full, of trees. Palm trees and Accacia trees, it was an amazing and beautiful site to see. Along the coast white sea birds blabbered away in the tree tops.

Dinner was spaghetti in a small bedroom/kitchen/living room. Our hostesses served us well, with the hot filling food and some freezing cold juice. They were even making some cuzcus (a dry cake made from corn or yucca flour, steam cooked), which turned out to be awful. We spent an hour or two there, chatting with our new friends, until it got dark and thoughts of tomorrow’s hike filled our heads. After listening to some locals play guitar and hitting a few ponches, we headed off to the forest where we were sleeping underneath the canopy of palm trees. And then the biggest grasshopper to ever live on Earth landed on my leg.

This place was full of grasshoppers. Uggg. I think one even bite me, I’m not sure. So once again, I slept like a baby. The next morning I even nearly cried when I stepped on a thorn from the Accacia tree that went through my flip flop and went into my foot. Damn nature. Our days hike was to take us from Carriçal to Juncalinho. We had been told 2 hours, had heard from others about 5 hours, and so assumed it wouldn’t be either of these.

Our packs much lighter, we stormed the trail, 18 km, in 4 hours. Going from coast to coast, south to north, we had crossed the island. And when we got into town, lo and behold, a car was going to Vila in 30 minutes. Well, I’ll be a horse’s kazoo.

Back in Vila, after some fried catchupa, I made my way back to Cachaço, and officially ended the great walkabout of 2009. So there you have it boys and girls. Be on the look out for an announcement of a surprise project that according to some people has all the known modern world a buzzing.

Till then, be well, and walk with peace.

Come on people now..

And buy some Cape Verde Bicycle Organization T Shirts from Sonadei and/or a messenger bag and/or donate money to the cause. Time is slowly counting down and we need a fund to purchase helmets. Help me help others.

• Info about the bike project à http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/CVBO.php
• Cape Verde Bicycle Shirt Link à http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=86
• CV Recycled Bicycle Shirt Link: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=89
• Recycled Messenger Bag w/ CVBO design: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=90
• Donation page for bike project: Donate Link(Click here)

Tell someone you know about this project, or if you happen to read this blog and havent bought a shirt yet, what are you waiting for?

Papa´s got a brand new bag

{NOTE: This was written way before Thanksgiving, and as you might have noticed, was posted way after Thanksgiving, so some information may be for not} The “holiday” season is upon us, and by us I mean you since it isn’t the holiday season here. The lojas don’t begin decorating for Natal (Christmas) until about the week before. Anywho, while you are planning your offensive plans for the turkey bowl, or figuring out how long you need to cook that 5lbs tofurky, why not let yourself melt away while reading some of my holiday inspired ramblings. Oh what fun.

But maybe I should start with some Peace Corps or Cape Verdean related items? I don’t have much, I am still making my knitting thingamajiggey proposal, you’ll know when it’s done because I will have put it up here for all to peruse. We are still a bit short on the bicycle fund to purchase helmets, so when you are making those last minute holiday purchases, don’t forget to get a few Cape Verde Bicycle shirts (see previous post for all links). My English classes to mold future students into my likelihood have not gotten off to a good start, and by that I mean they haven’t started. What else, oh, Carberinho, ta spera, ta spera, ta spera…vida de costa.

Ok, on to the nittey gritty. Hmm, that’s an interesting phrase if you stop to think about it, which I just happened to do. As many of you may know, I have a new hat. My friend at the park, who I am working with on that knitting project, made it for me. Guinness has already called me to put it in the 2009 edition under “Awesomest Hat Ever”. Its surprising how many times I have been included in that most scholarly book. In January I am planning on embarking upon a hike of such grand proportions it will require more than one sentence to fully describe it. I am going to hike to Carrical, and possibly the far eastern edge of the island. This is almost equivalent to hiking from London to Ulaan Batar in Mongolia, twice!!! Assuming I can arrange a donkey and 5 liters of water, I foresee no problems.

I also plan, or want to plan, a trip to Mindelo and onwards to Santo Antao where there is supposedly a French or German man who makes cheese. I go not for the cheese but more for the fact that I have been told he has tables that have a little trough in the middle filled with various ponches. I guess I’ll do some hiking too while there.

Rumors abound in Cape Verde, and one is that a boat has started up again going to Sal. As you will recall, the last SN – SAL boat met its unfortunate demise at the bottom of the ocean. As have a few other Cape Verde boats. But this new (old) boat has rekindled hope in all that island transport, while shoddy at best, is still being half heartedly looked at by someone.

World AIDS Day (I assume a day in which to highlight the work done against it, not in support of it) will be celebrated in all its regality here in Cachaço. On December 1^st, those crafty little Peace Corps volunteers along with Amigos Unidos will hold possibly the biggest, greatest, loudest, boldest, quirkiest, liquidiousest World AIDS Day known to humanity. Only the Romans, if they still had their little empire, could possibly have rivaled our event. The event will include: An information session, a theatre performance {didn’t happen}, free AIDS testing, condom giveaway, SNACKS!!!!!!!, among many many many other things (not determined at this time). If you are in the neighbor, it would behest you to stop and witness the greatest spectacle to possibly ever occur on this little floating ball we like to call Earth. {As hindsight is 20/20, I can accurately say that the event, beyond being the single greatest AIDS day event ever held, was such a rounding success, nearly a quarter of all Cachaçeans came out, and half of those got AIDS/HIV tests}

This past weekend, the 5^th and 6^th were Municipal Day in Vila. The whole week they had lots of events, mostly cultural stuff celebrating the island, and then the last two nights had music in the high school soccer field. This year it was a group from Santo Antão. They were good, covered a bit of Bob Marley. Anywho, like most festas here, I didn’t enter until 3am. There were horse races on Saturday and on the last race, one of the jockeys (actually a child) fell off the horse. He lost.

Up next in Cachaço and Sao Nicolãu is Natal and Ano Novo. There are a few national holidays in January, not sure what exactly, and then the big granddaddy, Carnival in February. The park will continue chugging along, with a few loses come the end of the year. But the CV government will be taking over, which means a wee bit less money than the $4,000,000 dollars the UNPD had given the park for the last four years. We’ll see what happens.

O minions of mine, I believe my typing hands have gone dry. Enjoy celebrating the genocide of the natives we massacred and jellied cranberry sauce {I made a pretty good pizza for Thanksgiving, so you should be equally jealous}. Mmmm, that’s good stuff. Till next do we meet, I leave you with this question to ponder: Is it all just what it is, or is it more?

(NOTE: The picture is a view from my roof looking towards the mountains of Covada)

Seven Veils of Ignorance (aka - Go Obama!!!!!!)

Owing to the fact that Tom Robbins is one of the best American writers, I am dedicating an entire (nearly) blog entry to his wisdom, and his concise cataloging of the various ignorance’s that shield our eyes from seeing the truth of life.  Some of them self imposed, some placed by others.  Below, you shall find the truth that lies behind the seven veils, which when peeled away during the dance, allows us the chance to take control once again. 

 

Veil #1: Earth, the planet, is a feminine creature.  Males have attempted to compensate for this by creating patriarchal religious systems and society.

 

Veil #2: Human beings DO NOT have dominion over plants and animals.  We like to pretend we are outside of or above nature, but we are not.

 

Veil #3: Many, if perhaps not all, our problems are caused by politics, politics can not solve our problems.  Our struggles go beyond race, classes, colorful flags, systems of beliefs, etc etc, they harbor in the vastness of the search, both inward and outward, for the divine within and without.

 

Veil #4: Religion is not the answer.  Once you take the divine and create a system around it, it no longer is divine.

 

Veil #5: Money is an illusion.

 

Veil #6: We live life NOW, in the present moment.  People sacrifice the present for the future or live the present crying of the past.

 

Veil #7: You have to do it yourself.

 

When these seven veils fall to the floor and there you stand naked, you might find life is harder (in that you begin thinking for yourself, you begin realizing that the answers don’t lie out somewhere else, that you shouldn’t sit around waiting for tomorrow when its today), but the sweet rewards are worthwhile. 

 

Anywho, since we have numbers on the brain like a sizzling tofu scramble on a hot iron skillet, lets get down to the final four.

 

The Final Four – A brief summarization of the four major projects I am, will, and/or plan to concentrate on for the remaining time of my Peace Corps service in the Republic of Cape Verde, a small island nation consisting of ten islands, nine of which are inhabited, and many islets and sits roughly 500km off the western coast of Dakar, Senegal in Afrika. (You might be asking yourself why I spell Afrika with a “k” and not a “c”.  Well, it is only our fickle English language that uses the letter “c” in the spelling of Afrika, whereas in all Afrikan languages they use the letter “k” or its equivalent).

 

1 – Bike Project.  Still working on building up the funds, so now not only can you buy a normal cotton shirt, a recycled shirt, but you can get a recycled messenger bag too with the awesome Cape Verde Bicycle Organization logo!!!!! Holy Sweetness!!!!  Here are all the links you will ever need to buy and donate money to this project:

 

• Info about the bike project à http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/CVBO.php
• Cape Verde Bicycle Shirt Link à http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=86
• CV Recycled Bicycle Shirt Link: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=89
• Recycled Messenger Bag w/ CVBO design: http://www.sonadei.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=90
• Donation page for bike project: Donate Link(Click here)

 

2 – Protected Area status for Carberinho.  The report is nearly finished and then it goes to the head honchos in Praia where we hope that politics (see above) works its magic to declare this beautiful and important area a protected area.

 

3 – English help for high school students.  Beginning soonish I will give English help for those students who take English classes in high school.  I think this is a productive way to use my wondrous English skills to help those trying to emanate me. 

 

4 – Knitting/Crotchet/whatever it’s called.  In the infant stage, this project hopes to join some wonderful people back in the states who have already collected yarn or other knitting supplies, along with soon to be future suppliers in the states with some local women here to give workshops on how to make knitted (or whatever it’s called) crafts to develop a sustainable means of income.  Naturally, more on this to come as it develops and blooms.

 

So, once again, there you have it.  With all those pagan oriented religious holidays coming round the corner, what could make that special someone happier than a squirrel invited to Thanksgiving dinner than a Cape Verde Bike shirt and messenger bag.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Well, maybe donating a whole bunch of money to the bike project too.  But besides that, nothing. 

 

PS: A shout out to my brother from another mother, Melissa, who is sporting some bike project advertising on her blog, http://paradoxish.blogspot.com.  She also puts up some great info on environmental topics, political stuff, and other things that work to remove the veils of ignorance.  Rumor has it she also sells collector sports memorabilia on ebay,

PPS: Yay Obama!!