HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
It was an action-packed weekend folks. I learned a few things, that I am happy to say make me a better person all around :)

1. Contacts + dust + chalk + saltwater = Very red, itchy, and painful eyes. Glasses are my new best friend.
2. Why Mr. Martin threw chalk at his students. I often get this ridiculous urge to throw the piece of chalk I am holding at a student who is not paying attention. Of course I never do, as chalk is expensive and I don’t want to waste it, and I’m not sure if throwing stuff at the students is allowed. But every time I think about it, I think about Mr. Martin.
3. Even if the directors of the school promise the meeting will start on time, it won’t.
4. Afore mentioned meeting will go on for an unnecessarily long time (in fact I am currently in said meeting writing this fun list; don’t worry, I found out later I actually didn’t even need to be there).
5. The attention span for focusing on understanding a foreign language you only semi-understand is on average 7 minutes. When spoken in a meeting you weren’t really supposed to be at, this average reduces to about 3 minutes.
6. Playing with your cell phone, including taking photographs with sound effects and answering a call in the middle of the meeting is perfectly acceptable.
7. Boa Vistans are very proud of their music.
8. If you have a (relatively) famous Boa Vistan singing in an open forum, you will attract all of Boa Vista.
9. When both your eighth grade classes invite you to the beach at a specific time telling you that it is someone’s ‘birthday’, get suspicious.
10. When hosting a janta (dinner), if you invite 20 people, you may end up with 40 or 10. You never know. So always plan for 40. Leftovers are delicious anyway.
11. A janta is apparently the only thing that (unexpectedly) starts on time.
12. Nowhere in Boa Vista do they sell an oven dish in any way shape or form. Even if they say they do, they don’t. So using a metal serving tray is perfectly adequate.
13. Avoidance is the only way to get someone to stop asking to be your boyfriend.
14. You gain an incredible respect for sunscreen, and obsessively put it on three times a day when the “fungus” on your face has started to form little lighter colored spots and getting tanner only makes them more noticeable.
15. You hate the word “fungus.”
16. Your fellow drunk male teachers are just like any other drunk male colleague in a chauvinist society: they hardly say anything to you the entire seven weeks you have been working with them and then in one night manage to say to you the one thing that’s gonna make the next day at work VERY AKWARD.
17. Everyone shares everything. (And I mean everything).
18. If the evening temperature drops below 88˚ and there is a breeze, I suddenly miss my sweatpants and scarf.
19. The loofa and the washing machine may be the two greatest inventions on the planet. Followed closely by the KitKat bar.
20. Leland and I are too old and tired to wait for the discothèque to open at midnight. We tend to fall asleep waiting. Yes, we were all dressed up and ready to go.
21. Watching an animal be slaughtered, skinned, gutted, and then served up on your plate a few hours later is actually not as off-putting as originally thought (sorry, Tash).
22. Why Joao Galego and neighboring towns are called the Norte (North) even though they are not even remotely north of here, so much as they are directly east, and slightly south. Story goes that the first village that was built on this island (Curral Velho meaning old village) was on the southern part of this island. They then built the towns of Joao Galego and few others north of the original city. Sal Rei (where I live) wasn’t built until much later, so the term Norte refers to the towns being north of the first original village of Boa Vista.
23. Joao Galego is probably the coolest place on earth. But after lunch, if you try to help your hostess clear the plates, she will give you this look that she is so grateful she is about to cry, all the while laughing and slapping your hands telling you emphatically “no! no!” And you apologize not knowing if you’ve offended her or that she was a little touched that someone actually offered to help.

Like I said, action-packed. The busiest we have had so far. Leland and I are usually so exhausted from the week that we end up being grateful for the lazy Sunday. Friday night there was live music in the central square and all of Boa Vista was there. That night Leland and I managed to make it till 11:30 pm before we had to head home. The disco was out of the question for me as I have to teach class at 8:30 Saturday morning. Saturday night Leland and I decided to throw and dinner party, or rather just serve dinner to a few of our friends. So all day was spent cleaning house and preparing food. It was a fairly small affair but one that has snowballed into several other invitations to several other gatherings. So, all in all, well worth the effort. And we now have enchiladas to last us for a week. One of these invitations was to Joao Galego on Sunday. I have mentioned this town before as it is the town Leland and I almost moved to a few weeks back. One of my colleagues, Helena is from Portugal. Nine years ago she came down to Boa Vista on a Portuguese-sponsored teaching exchange. She now lives here permanently with her husband, Tony, and their son, Peter. She is probably one of the nicest people I have met here so far. Tony’s family lives in Joao Galego and they usually go down there on Sundays. This time, we were invited along. We went to the beach and then spent the rest of the day in the town hanging out and of course, watching the goat get slaughtered and gutted. Earlier at the beach, we watched the fisherman clean and gut a moray eel they had just caught. Tony bought a couple, then they were battered and friend for us a few hours later. It was actually very delicious. It almost has the texture of sea bass, as it is a very fatty fish. It was Tony’s aunt who refused help from me (see point 23). But it was definitely a weekend to remember. I only regret not taking my camera. Oh well, there is always next time!

Hi, ok. So I am starting to get this whole blog thing figured out with all the settings and stuff. I have changed the settings to allow people to comment who are not registered users. I should have done this earlier I know, but as I said I am just figuring this stuff out myself and it's confusing!! Anyway, so you DO NOT have to register or create an account to leave comments, you can leave an annonymous comment, but please PLEASE PLEASE sign your comment so I know who left it. Thank you, and sorry I didn't do this earlier.

MORE PHOTOS!! This is the old part of the school taken from the new part. Only 7th graders have class here
The new part where I teach. this is taken from the old part of the school. Don't ask me why they decided to build the new part of the school across a small desert. It's not quite finished. off to the left side, you can't really see, but there's more unfinished building.
The Youth center that Leland works at. This was taken from right outside the old part of the school. They are literally right across the street.
Inside the Youth Center. yes it's air conditioned and there are all brand new computers. Now you know why I spend so much time here. That's Leland in the background working. But it's a Cyber Cafe as well.

Hope you enjoyed!! I also put these and a little more on the Snapfish album that I just emailed everyone a while back. If you have an account you should be able to go and view the same album entitled "Cape Verde" and see the new photos. I think I added like 14 new ones. But I don't think I have to email you the link again. If I didn't email you the link last time but you would like to view all the pictures on Snapfish let me know and I can do that. You have to create an account, sorry about that I know it's a pain in the rear to do that. But for me it's the fastest and easiest way to upload all my new photos. Ok then, enjoy!!

My crazy 8C class
Girls reading the bingo numbers
Crazy 8C again (aka Spawns of Satan) Ha no they're not that bad
A little rowdy though...

My 8A class we are playing Bingo
Still 8A playing Bingo....for numbers practice
8A again
PHOTOS!!

Well, well where to start. I apologize for not having any pictures this time around. But I am going to take them tomorrow, so I hope to post them Friday. I have just finished reading The Kite Runner. And yes, it was good. My mother sent it to me in one of the many much appreciated packages that have arrived. As my entire family had read the novel (including my father!), and because I was sick in bed, I decided to give it a go. I usually have to prepare myself for books like this. They are no Jane Austen material (i.e. readable at just about anytime). And I have to say, it went as I expected. Heartbreaking, and an incredibly emotional story. I think I would have edited the book slightly differently, there were some rough spots grammatically but all in all it was a good book. And as a first time writer Khaled Hosseini does well. Now I sound like a book review.

Speaking of reviewing books, with time on my hands I was considering doing a type of book review of sorts. Many of you have heard me discuss the possibility of doing an intensive religious study. I have found that I have significant time on my hands these days. With classes going well, and our lives being placed comfortably in our new surroundings, I have found a type of idleness I am not used to. Training was so intense, we were kept constantly busy; and moving here, we hardly had time to think about any extra activities. But the dust has settled and I find myself looking for hobbies and other things to keep my interests. I think I have decided to delve into religion. Examining the three main religions of the world for their similarities and differences has long interested me. This is something I will not take on lightly. I understand that a religion is not simply based on it's main religious text. I also understand that without speaking the languages the texts were written in originally, I quite likely loose significant details and translations that may be crucial to understanding. But I am now physically in a place where I can conduct research with little interference.

The religion here is mostly Catholic. There are a few 7 Day Adventists and some Muslims sprinkled here and there. But unlike other countries, the people here practice their religion quietly. They go to church on Sunday, but it is never a question asked of someone. Maybe because they simply assume that everyone is Christian. But maybe it's that they just aren't as concerned as other populations. My point is that I am unlikely to be influenced by any people here. Or the blatant placements of religion in matters that are more or less unrelated. God is not mentioned anywhere on their currency, it is kept completely out of schools, and rarely do I see symbolic representations in their homes. This is a country that has religion, but it doesn't govern their lives or make excuses for their behavior the way it does elsewhere. And perhaps some may say this could be a reason for the rate of teen pregnancies. But I doubt the fear of God would change these children's minds about sex. Violence and crime is so low it's barely significant, and I doubt it's because the preacher told them that steeling is bad. (Don't get me wrong, there is crime here, theft being among the most common, but by no means as significant as one would expect of a supposed third world African country). It's an interesting dynamic, to have such widespread religion and yet so little vocalization about it. No one presses you, no one influences your religious beliefs, no one looks down upon you when you mention you are not Catholic. They shrug and say "oh." So I believe that I have found a good place to conduct my research, and I will begin here in the next few weeks, I hope.

But on my life in general, things have been going well, there is nothing much happening although I was just informed that Leland and I will be throwing a party at our house this weekend. A dinner party no less. Good to have a social event planned. Bad to have to clean up after it.

Well, it's been a good week. I know it's only Tuesday, but things are going well. As I mentioned before, Leland and I have found ourselves in a routine that is fitting an actual life style. Of course, that's all about to be turned up-side-down once we have to move again in a week and half, but for now, this is life. The Peace Corps staff were great when they were here over the past weekend and we were treated to several free meals, which is always a plus and even better that Leland and I know nearly every restaurant in town by now. I am continuing to make progress with my students, I hope. And today I had a tiny breakthrough with my 11th graders. As I am still having difficulty coming up with things to teach them, and on top of that creative ways to teach, coming up with something that they will actually enjoy proves a daily challenge. They are all only slightly younger than I am, one girl is 21 years old. She's older than Natasha. Scary thought. While I am still their teacher, I always get the feeling that they don't really respect me. They are young enough to still be my students, but too old to want to talk to me, or treat me like a person they can view as a type of friend. I do not want them to get too confortable with me by any means, but to feel free enough in the classroom to participate and have a good laugh, or something. Anyway, today I was teaching a rather mundane topic, the present continuous, when it dawned on me to try and play a game. I had played hangman with my eighth graders who are always up for some competition. But I just wanted my 11th graders to say something in class. Well it worked. There are only 12 of them, so I split them into two teams of six, and let them go at it. Competition is an inherent emotion ingrained in any human being. I guess I should have seen this before. Hangman is a surprisingly useful game as they learn to spell the vocabulary words at the same time as learning them. And you can focus it to whatever topic you are teaching at the time. For example, today we kept it to verbs translated in present coninuous. The more creative, the more your team wins (or rather forces the other team to lose). Great game, highly recommend it.

On another note, it was Eid yesterday so I tried my hand at cooking kababs. Keep in mind that I had no recipe nor had I made them before ever in my life. But considering I didn't have any cilantro, I think they came out quite nicely. We managed to find ground cumin which was incredible. So we will continue with the cooking experiements, as that seems to be a hobby I have found to occupy my time. I have found that cooking is one of my favorite things to do. And not as expensive as trying to get into windsurfing or snorkeling. I do have to say that our food supply is in no means meager. Our Medical Officer was here over the weekend and I took her to the outdoor market where I buy all our vegetables (fruit tends to be extremely expensive). She was amazed at the variety of veggies we had. She said we have more than on Santiago sometimes, or even Sal, another very touristy island. So cooking tends to be my occupation when not lesson planning or reading. If you have anything interesting you think I should try, let me know!!

Hello all.
Well I am, for almost the first time, sick. And of course who knows what it is exactly because It's a type of pain you can only experience when not lying in your really comfortable bed in PV, AZ :) The good news is, the entire Peace Corps staff is here, including the nurse, so in case I fall deathly ill, I won't have to go to the scary hospital-like structure in the town square. Of course, the nurse didn't bring her lab with her, so could do exactly nothing if I did fall deathly ill. Short of flying to Praia, there's absolutely nothing they can do for me. Which is funny. But, of course, I am NOT deathly ill nor do I plan on becoming deathly ill, so for now, it's just a little tummy discomfort and the occasional trip to the toilet for the upchuck reflex. I know you all wanted to know the dirty details.

Other than that, things are going quite well, actually. I think we have found our niche, which in six weeks on this island is quite exciting. My classes are starting to flow quite nicely (except for my 11th graders who could care less about anything) and I am feeling comfortable in the classroom. I have also made the leap to speaking Portuguese and no Creole in the classroom. If you think about it, it makes sense as Creole isn't really a grammatically translatable language. In fact, it hardly has any grammar structure. So for a translatable language when teaching English, Portuguese is essential. Or at least it has grammatical structure. It also helps me with my language skills. But Yonis, my boss, observed one of my classes and said I am doing very well, that he likes the direction I am taking with my students. Or something like that. Yonis is a complicated man. But funny.

Anyway, I am sorry this blog is short and disjointed, but my head is fuzzy and looking at a computer screen doesn't help. I am going to try and take photos of my school, students, the town, pretty much everything next week and I will post them here when I can. If there is anything in particular you want me to take a picture of, let me know and I would be happy to. We are now almost in full tourist swing, but I think I have been around long enough for people to know that I am not a tourist obnoxiously snapping my camera at the little African kids. Anyway, all is good, despite my intestines, and I hope to have pictures next time!!

So now that my school year is wrapping up its third week, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the students here. After having talked to my fellow TEFL volunteers around the island, I have learned that we have all come to experience nearly the same things in all of our classes, regardless of age or level.

Let's begin with the fighting. Now, most of you know what my education was like in the US, fairly sheltered and bubble-like. I can't pretend to know what it was like in any inner-city school in the heart of Chicago or in the Bronx or someplace like that. So, while my comparisons may be a little off center, what goes on here is still sometimes appalling. Having the consensus of my fellow volunteers doesn't give much weight to the situation either as we all have similar, well-educated backgrounds. Anyway. I teach two 8th grade classes, both with about 30 students in it. And one would be surprised in the complete and utter difference in behavior between the two classes. My 8A class is wonderful, and the children in it are often well-behaved and somewhat eager to learn. Class time with them is usually easy and I look forward to it, because they like to have fun and learn at the same time. My 8C class, however, I have come to nickname the Spawns of Satan. While for some reason they seem to pick up the material faster, they are rowdy and defiant and I spend a lot of class time getting them to quiet down (which balances out quite nicely as they get through the lesson faster). But just the other day, I had to literally break up a fight between one girl (a tough-looking girl I might add) and a boy who sits three rows in front of her. Apparently this argument had begun in the class before and I was told by some of the students that if they continued, that I was to kick them out of class. Oh my God, I thought. Kick someone out of class?!!?! Well, I thought I would be a little lenient and let them argue it out a little more. My God was that a mistake. The girl got up from her chair and launched her self at the boy all the while they are screaming at each other, and of course I can't understand a damn thing. So I go to step in between before she can get to him, almost getting smacked in the process, and I calmly (as I can) half carry her out of the classroom. She is about my height and probably twice as strong as I am, by the way. Well, once outside, she continued to yell into the window until she kicked the wall and walked away. So that put a little spice in the week.

But my experience is not unusual. Stephanie on Maio had to fill out a disciplinary form the other day because one of her students yelled an obscenity he no doubt picked up from a 50 Cent song and yelled it at an innocent girl. She's also had to deal with one student trying to stab another with a broken shard of glass. My friend Jon on São Nicolou also witnessed a group of students chasing one kid who turned around and threw a dead stiff puppy at the group who was chasing him. Ew.

So as I continue my daily life here, it usually interests me to see what will happen next. As we are now three whole weeks into the semester, my students are becoming more and more comfortable with me, as I am no longer just the newcomer. Which is a good and bad thing. Today in my 11th grade class, we were doing a vocabulary builder. My objective was for them to learn basic vocabulary around a house, verbs and objects (they are only level III). They were contributing well, and it was going along ok, until one girl thought she would be funny and yell out "to f***". "Yes, Patricia," I said, "that is a verb, but not a very nice one." I feel like they could care less about life. They have that attitude. But everyone remembers how wonderful 11th grade was, don't you? Anyway, just a small glimpse into the classroom scene.

more beach views...:)

me and the little baby turtle

view from our balcony
sunset from the balcony

this is the view to the left, towards town, from our balcony - with leland

our living room/kitchen

view from my bedroom balcony - this is sort of the back of the town

this is the balcony of our new apartment, yeah and that's the beach right past it

By the way, I put a link to Lauren McHugh's blog. Lauren is a friend of mine from Lake Forest College, who just arrived in Macedonia with the Peace Corps. I thought you might like to check out a different perspective. Also, for a small and interesting update, Andrew Philippi has also joined the Peace Corps and will be going to Albania in March.

9th October 2006

So about 30 seconds after I published my last blog, things (of course) changed. And then 24 hours after that, things changed again. Leland and I are now living in one of the most beautiful apartments in all of Vila da Sal Rei. I walk about 10 minutes to the high school, and can now officially cook my own meals. Now for the story....

Literally 30 seconds after I clicked the "Publish Post" button, Leland gets a call from his immediate boss at the Peace Corps (his name is Aguido and he is Leland's boss the way Yonis is mine). We had been looking at several apartments but they had all been one bedroom. One we had looked at came fully furnished, including a futon in the living room/kitchen. Leland didn't really want to go to Jão Galego, and if you read his blog, that is evident. So he and Aguido discussed all the ways it was possible for us to stay in Vila almost at any cost. Leland told Aguido that if it came down to it, he even wouldn't mind sleeping on the futon until our permanent apartment is finished (it is in the building process, but with things moving and changing the way they do around here, we are not even considering guessing when it may be finished. They say 2 weeks, but we'll see). It has always been the plan to find temporary housing until this permanent apartment is finished. It is more in the middle of town, and we will have Cape Verdean neighbors, which is good.

Anyway...So we started to set things in motion on moving into a one bedroom apartment, with Leland on the futon. But by the time we decided this, the one bedroom apartment had already been rented out!! We then get a call from the Safety and Security Director of Cape Verde saying he is coming in the next day with the regional Safety and Security Director. The two of them, in three days, were going to find us a house. Lovely. So we spend all day Friday looking at houses and talking with several landlords about pricing and all that, etc. Housing in Peace Corps is usually done with the bare minimum. They usually rent out a cheap house or apartment, and furnish it themselves. They promise us volunteers a bed, a refrigerator, a table and four chairs, and a two burner stove. But anything outside of that we have to save up and purchase for ourselves. Needless to say, there are no cheap apartments here. Not yet anyway. So the only two bedroom apartment my Security guys could find was a tourist one that comes fully furnished with pots and pans and everything. And get this!! a washing machine. Ha!! Peace Corps is paying a ridiculous amount of money for this apartment and I will admit that even Leland and I were slightly ashamed to be living here (by the way I will upload pictures, hopefully tomorrow). The rent is about equal to $700 a month, which is over twice the usual maximum Peace Corps allows for rent. But we can finally cook! And we have a balcony with an amazing view and a fully stocked kitchen. But it is only temporary, until we move into our more Peace Corps-like apartment.

So that is the situation. Leland is ecstatic that we didn't have to move to Jão Galego. I have to admit I was slightly disappointed, especially because now we don't have any neighbors and we are living in a tourist apartment which doesn't help our image any. But I can't complain because it is a beautiful and convenient place to live. And I can cook :)

October 5th, 2006

Tourism. It has an interesting effect on all our lives, really. And it may not be extremely obvious at first, but it has definitely had an impact on my life here. While Boa Vista is no Turks and Caicos :), it does have fairly nice beaches and a growing service industry that has lended itself to the rise in European tourists. The cost is fairly inexpensive to come here, and hotel lodging is also relatively cheap. Just for an idea, $1.00 = 86$00 or one American dollar equals about eighty-six Cape Verdean escudos. The hotel that Leland and I have been staying in for the past month, for example is, 4000$00 per night, or roughly $50.00. Our rooms have two double beds, air conditioning and the rate includes breakfast. And we are across the street from the beach. Now, for most people, this is a very good deal. There are, of course, more lavish hotels, and also, cheaper ones. My point: Boa Vista is a cheap but nice place for European tourists to come. Especially the Italians.

How does this affect my life, you ask? Well, Vila da Sal Rei is the main town on the island. I guess you could call it the capital of Boa Vista. This is where most of the hotels are, all the grocery stores, the main market, and several restaurants. This is the main hub of the island. As a result of the growing tourism market, the small 'businesses' (I put businesses in quotations because Maria who has a small fruit stand in the Municipal Market, is in herself a business, just not a conventional one) have begun to cater almost entirely to the tourist population. These businesses include the housing market. Now you see where my life is affected. Housing in Sal Rei is extremely difficult to find. But this is where the high school is, and therefore my job. Leland also works here in Sal Rei in the Youth Center, and so naturally we wanted to live here as well. Needless to say, we have looked for a month now and have not been able to find a house. There are new developments, to be sure. But as they cater to tourists, they are all either only one bedroom, or outrageously expensive. So Leland and I have been forced out of our comfortable hotel and we move this weekend to Jão Galego. Which has its ups and downs.

Tourism also makes our integration into the community extremely difficult. As you have heard me mention before, people simply pass us off as tourists. It doesn't help that we live in a hotel. When we first came to Sal Rei, Leland and I were a littledisappointedd at the lack of the inviting culture we saw in São Domingos. But there is no lack here. It is merely hidden away; tucked out of reach of the tourists in the back alleys of the town and side streets that are not immediately visible from the main square. It took us a while to find it in Sal Rei, but it's there. And now that he and I are getting recognized around the town, integration has become a little easier. The good thing about Jão Galego is that there is no lack of culture there. It is your typical small African village. Beautiful, and the ripples of tourism are significantly weaker out there. But it is in the interior, and a 45 minute drive from our jobs. What makes that even more difficult is that public transport only goes in and out of Jão Galego three times a day. I'm not really sure what we will do if we miss the car :) Sleep on the beach, I expect.

But in a small way, I am looking forward to moving. The traveling will be hard and I am sure take a toll. But I will have a kitchen (yay!) neighborsours, and we will integrate within the community that has its own customs and doesn't cater to anyone, foreign or otherwise. They are there for themselves and for their families and friends. They have culture, and that is what I am looking forward to.

One last interesting observation we made about the tourism impact, was interestingly enough the amount of smokers here. On the island of Santiago, hardly anyone smoked. I maybe saw three or four people smoke the whole time I was in São Domingos. Here in Boa Vista everyone smokes. Teachers, parents, probably some students (although I have yet to see that thank goodness) and especiallyplethorathura of Italian tourists. The Italians love Boa Vista. There are several who live here and have been doing a lot of developing for the investments of more Italian tourists. So Leland and I will go on our merry way and move to the interior. He's not so thrilled about it, but I think it will be a good experience. But I will let you know after a few weeks or so of the drive :)