Life is the craziest I’ve ever known it. It’s odd when you are so consumed with life that you forget when or where you came from. Fellow trainees have nicknamed pre-service training high school on steroids. It really feels that way. We are in class from 8:30 until 5:30 with sometimes only ½ hour for a lunch break. Those are the days I go back home and collapse. There is no time however, because my family is there and I like talking to them. They don’t speak any English so I have been forced to learn to speak Creole fluently in 2 weeks. I was actually surprised as to how fast most of us were able to pick it up. The teaching thing is going to be very scary. We started model school this week. I am teaching 10th and 11th graders. I have lesson plans but when you get in that classroom with 30+ students in the class just staring at you, I found it was similar to auditioning. And we all know how much I love doing that. At least I know what to expect when I actually get to my site, which is also something of a nerve-racking anticipation. I may also be teaching a computer class or two, so I’ve been told. It will be basic word-processing class, but that means that I will have to be up on my Portuguese. Yes we are learning two languages at the same time. We were given 2 weeks of instruction in Creole, and now we are expected to continue speaking with our families. For those of us in education, we have now moved on to the Portuguese instruction for the next 6 weeks. So we will continue to speak Creole in the home with our families and Portuguese in the classroom. In schools here, Portuguese is the language all subjects are taught in. Any kind of formal instruction, anything is done in Portuguese. But when having a conversation with the average person on the street or in the market, they speak Creole. Yay language! It’s very overwhelming and life consuming I feel like I’ve been here my whole life. I haven’t been able to think about anything else. It has started to rain here. They love the rain, they only get a little bit of it, so they are thankful when it comes. I’m sorry if this has been scattered and long but I don’t get to go to an internet café that often. Hardly ever actually, there is no internet in the town we live, so it is rare to get to go. Mailing letters may actually be quicker. I may have to try that…. Goodbye for now and I hope to be able to write again soon. Also attached are some photos of the area. There is one with me and my host mother and younger sister. Also, there are other photos of Sao Domingos where I have been for the past 3 weeks, and will be here for another 6 weeks. I always have like 5 seconds on the internet so i try my best!!

Wow this place is ablsolutely fabulous. I really didn´t expect to love it this much but i do. Today we started shadowing and there are two trainees following one Volunteer, he has been here for almost 2 years. he took us hiking up a REALLY tall mountain, we didnt hike the whole way, occassionally you get rides from people and just hop in the back of their truck. its nice becasue you dont have to pay them and its a nice breeze. from the top we could see another island, the one with the volcano called FOGO. we have now come back to the capital for one night and thecity is absolutely crazy. MUCH different from the small town we have our training. i will post pictures of it when i get a chance to transfer them from my computer. i took the public buss system here in the city and everything is so cheap. for a half a chicken some fries and a coke it costs about 450$00 escudo which is roughly less than $4.00 and the food is delicious. there are a surprising number of french fries here and they are so good, but i never thought i would get that many here. these islands are growing fast and they are slightly more europeanized than mainland Africa. I like it, i look forward to travelling to the northern islands to see what its all about. well i need to go, i will post something again soon!