September 19, 2007

This weekend something really sad happened: A 20 year old guy died on the beach. It rained a lot Thursday and Friday and of course the water washed mud into the ocean. So on Saturday the water was really murky. Apparently the guy dives a lot and he did so on Saturday and never came back up. They searched for his body for 2 days. I walked out of my house to see people gathered in groups talking about it. I then saw people running to the beach. I have never seen anything like it. People were literally running from all over the town to the beach to watch divers search the water. After not finding him on Saturday, divers from Praia came and they found him on Sunday afternoon. People began to yell, sing, and cry. I even teared up at that point because I knew someone´s son had just been found dead (when they found his body someone had to come meet the boat in the water to give them a white sheet to cover the body before the boat could go back to shore). Caheta has over 10,000 people and I think all those people were out on the beach when they brought the body to shore.
In Cape Verde when someone dies the family mourns for seven days. People are expected to go to the family´s house and cook, clean, and help with the preparation of the body (they do not embalm in most cases, and they use different methods and chemicals to prepare the body for the casket). After the 7 days, the family still mourns and for about a month people do everything for the family (cook, clean, etc.). During the 7 days, people come to pay respects to the family at the house. This is called a “visita.” One is expected to go to the visita even if you don´t know the person. It is very disrespectful not to go and everyone will know if you do not go. Some people will stop speaking to entire families if someone did not show up for their family member´s visita. Unless the person was not liked in the community then people do not go and that is acceptable. Anyway, at the house of the family everything is cleaned and all the furniture is covered with white or the brightest and best cloth (none of the furniture can be seen), 2 candles are placed on the shrine-like area, along with religious paraphanelia. The 2 candles must be lit for 24 hours for 7 days. The candles are actually the lights the person will use to find their way to heaven (the family lights the path for the person). Also someone has to be awake every minute of the 7 days. Which usually means that people come and stay at the house at all times of the day and night.
It is customary that the person´s body must come to the house before going to the cemetary. The visita I went to in Matu Sanchu, was of an old man and his body stayed for almost the entire day. When I went to the Visita his body was still there. Since the guy in Calheta was so young and he died in an accident he could only stay at the house for maybe an hour and his body was not there when we got to the house that night. Since he was not in a good state (spiritually) because it was so sudden, he was rushed to the holy ground (cemetary) and buried. The body has to come to the house because if it does not the person can not find the path to get to heaven. The person must enter the house head first and must be carried out feet first. If they are carried out head first then their soul will not move on and will stay in the house.
After all that there are rules for funerals as well. Mothers and Fathers are not allowed to go to the funeral of their children who die. They believe that if the parents go they will bring more death to the family. The parents are also forbidden to wear mourning colors. If an uncle loses a nephew or niece he can not carry the casket of the nephew or niece. Essentially, one can not carry caskets or attend funerals of people who are subordinate (i.e. Grandparent to Grandchild, parent to child, etc.) but the reverse is expected. If one is a widow or widower they have to wear head to toe black. The traditinal cloth around a woman´s head and waist, the man´s socks all have to be completely black and they have to dress in black for 6 months (since tradition is changing some people only do it for 3 months) but I have met people or seen people who do it for the rest of their lives.
The biggest cultural difference for me is the tradition of “wailing.” When I went to the Visita in Matu Sanchu you could here the song-like yelling and crying (wailing) from more than a mile away, and after we go to the house every step to enter the house it was louder and louder. The first time I heard it, my heart was beating out of my chest and you can feel it in your stomach, I almost started crying because you could hear people´s pain and it was loud. At this Visita it was relatively quiet. However, after being there for an hour I got up to leave. I went outside to walk home and there were Hiaces (about 7) full of people. People were coming to pay respect from all over the town. The small house was packed in seconds. People were walking in lines and groups. They were coming from the street, and from behind the house from the mountains. It was amazing to see that much respect being paid to someone so young and he was not even a celebrity; he was a member of the community and that was all that was important. That is when the wailing started, and that was first time that it realy hit me that he was younger than me and all his young friends were coming to say goodbye to him.
I noticed really for the first time how different mourning in America is and mourning here. Here it is out in the open. People wail in the middle of the street and they wear clothing of a mourner without fail. I was telling a neighbor that mourning in America is much more private. People cry but usually it is silent or the volume is very low (she was shocked). I told her that I would never go to a wake of a person I did not know and I hated going to funerals. But that Visitas are very similar to “wakes” in African-American culture. People go to the person´s house and play cards, cry or laugh, and they eat and talk about the good times or memories of the person. She said that was very African to have an almost warm feeling about someone moving on and taking time to remember them by staying up playing cards and talking. She said in general that Americans are more private with emotions. I told her I agreed. People would be shocked (or confused) if someone yelled, cried, and sang loudly for 7 days for the death of someone. She said she had a friend who went to France. Her friend witnessed a person getting hit by a car. The friend screamed and cried. Another woman came up and asked her “Oh did you know that person?” I think in some ways that symbolizes the differences between our different cultures when it comes to death. In Cape Verde, if someone dies you pay repect, even if you don´t necessarily know the person. People know everyone here, so it would not be uncommon in Calheta for 10,000 people to show up at your house if one of your family members died. People are close here in a way that I never experienced in America. Not that either way is right or wrong it´s just different. I think we (americans) are very close to one another and that we care and love each other sometimes without filters or barriers, and sometimes people mourn openly. I also know that the wailing done here is sometimes not always genuine (people sometimes go to visitas to cry away their own problems). But public displays of affection here and in a lot of other cultures is definitely not a private issue: Girls holding each other around the waist, men and men holding hands, etc. it is all very intimate. And it is not uncommon in a town of thousands that you would know everyone, and if not everyone, every family. Sometimes it is beautiful, and sometimes it is annoying. People stare at me, not because I look weird but because I look Cape Verdean and they don´t know me. Once they know my name and that I am American, the staring subsides (a little) and they treat me like a long-lost family member. And that part does feel great!

September 18, 2007

I have lived here, in Calheta, for over 3 weeks and yes it is hard. I thought that I was fully prepared for the difficult task of integrating and being on my own. However, nothing anyone can tell you can truly prepare you for the reality of your life as a Peace Corps volunteer. I think that in the beginning it is hard because not only are the language skills low but also your job or jobs can be frustrating because you don´t fully know what you are supposed to be doing nor do your bosses know what to do with you. However, everyday it has been seemingly getting better. At first you feel completely alone because you know no one and no one knows you. Yet, the only way I have found to cope with that is to put yourself in uncomfortable positions. I mean the entire process is uncomfortable but one has to make it even moreso by getting in people´s way. Saying hello to everyone, introducing yourself to anyone you talk to (even if it is very briefly), eating lunch or dinner in another persons home, going to people´s houses to talk even if you don´t have the language (“txiga”-ing), and also attending every event possible. I have been here a very short time and I maybe know 10 people´s names but a lot of people know mine because I have told everyone I have met, and because everyone talks in town, other people I have never met know my name. I think getting out there and seeing the town and people is hard because I am relatively shy, however, in the last 11 weeks I feel my shyness slowly melting away. I do not think you can be judgmental, negative, or shy in this kind of work. I think a lot people find that out very quickly. You will not have fun, meet people, or grow as a person with any of those traits.
I have a few jobs in town. I work at the Camara (local Government). I do not do very much there but it does allow me to meet a lot of people and also puts me close to major people within the community (the President, the secretario, etc.). Through this job I also met a girl who works for Morabi, the organization that handles micro-credit for women.
I also work at the Centro di Juventude. Which is a great job because it puts me around a lot of the young people in the community. It is also the place I know I will do most of my work. I have already participated in programs about volunteering and will soon teach English classes there and help in a safe-sex informational. I know that there is not a lot I can do right now because I do not possess enough language to convey all that is necessary to be effective, but in the near future I will hopefully be a great resource for them and will help facilitate activities for the group.
I will also work at OASIS. Which is the national Women´s Association. I have not started really working with them because there is not much to do other than help with events, and because I have little language I can not really help with that quite yet. But I have introduced myself and I have let them know I am around.

September 1, 2007

So I know I have been neglecting my blog duties but here is probably one of the most important entries. September 1st 2007 was the day I swore in as a volunteer! It seemed like it has taken a lot for me to get here, and I guess it has. I had to go through the almost year long application process (lots of paperwork, interviews, and fighting with doctors for appointments, etc), then packing my soon to be life in two bags, then saying goodbye to my family (including friends whom I consider my extended family), then the long treacherous trip through Senegal (*wink wink*), and then this nine-week cultural and technical training period. I mean no matter what happens after this I have actually become a Volunteer and I have lived successfully in Cape Verde for more than 2 months. Anyways, the swearing-process was emotional because although we have only lived in our homestay houses for 2 months a lot of us feel like our temporary towns and families have become very important and very much a part of our hearts. We had to say goodbye to them and soon say goodbye to one another.
Swearing-In, in some ways, felt very surreal. It was a very long nine weeks! But the ceremony was relatively short and two new volunteers gave speeches in Portugese and Kriolu (both of them did very well), and of course we were sworn in by the Ambassador (that process was a lot shorter than I was expecting). After the ceremony we ate snacks, watched the Batuk group (from txan di tanki) perform, and took a lot of pictures. We had around 4 hours to get everything we needed and leave for our sites if we were on Santiago. I walked around the town with some of the volunteers and then very soon said goodbye to all the other new volunteers. That was unxpectantly very sad. And on September 1st I came to the beautiful town of Calheta to start my two-year service!

N KA SABI-Aug 18

This week has been crazy!!! Ok so first thing first. I live in a town named Txan di Tanki in Santiago. Most towns in Cape Verde have a patron Saint and they have Saint Days. The saint for TDT is Senhora Graça and her Saint day is August 15th. Although, it is only supposed to be for one day TDT celebrates for an entire week. So starting on the 11th, people were buying clothes and getting food. Music was being played at every house, all day, everyday. There was a huge soccer final game on the sunday before between Txan di tanki and a neighboring town. They got down to the end and neither team scored. So because it was the final they played sudden death. But here, Sudden death is done differently instead of people staying in their seats, biting their nails, and peeing in their pants, everyone, and I mean everyone, gets on the field and surrounds the goal post. So there I was with the entire town standing on the field and watching as txan di tanki ...lost. It was so sad. Everyone was sad...I couldn´t really see any of it but I knew they lost because my host sister pulls me and was like "nu bai gosi" (let´s go now). I was wondering why she was pulling me but then I realized because the other town was going crazy in victory... and tdt was going crazy in anger. There were fights, and a lot of drunk people and a lot of people who were just there for quinze de agosto looking to have a good time. So we left to the safety of our side of town.
Because Community development is the only group in Txan di tanki we were able to get Aug 15th off as like a holiday. My families exteneded relatives came form everywhere (neighboring town, islands, etc.) and stayed in the house. There was always a different group of people in my house laughing, eating, and drinking. I never realized how important food was here but literally they take it seriously. You prepare, cook, and eat all day during holidays. I woke up on the 14th to the sound Pigs, cows, and goats being slaughtered. Literally, starting on the 13th multiple families had the skins of animals laid out in the front or on the side of their houses. Needless to say, it was a party for 3 days prior to the actual party.
Anyways on the 14th everyone cooks all this food and at night people go to the discotec (club). Well me being an American I thought oh we should probably get to the club around 11. Umm no. We actually left our houses about 11 and walked through the streets. It was like a huge town block party. We get to the club around 12am which is still early for Cape Verdeans. Other PC Volunteers from two towns over came and surprised us about an hour later. Let me just say that I thought I had danced before but you have never had a real dancing experience until you have danced to reggaeton, reggae, and then Funana (a traditional dance in Cape Verde...Think of the fastest hip-hop song and then multiply that beat by about 20) in a club with no air conditioning or fans, with windows that blow no air in because it is almost as hot outside as it is in, and filled to complete capacity (a space for maybe 300 with about 600 people there). We left the discotec around 5 and I went to bed around 5:40. But I later found out that wasearly, generally on quinze de agosto you donºt leave the club until 8...so we were lightweights compared to everyone else. ~

I woke up around 10 and watched a huge processional from the city to our village from the town street. I joined in with other Peace Corps Volunteers once they passed my part of town. We walked through the town with the Senhora Graça statue at the front, next to the priest who was giving his sermon over a huge intercom (speakers in the back of a pickup truck). After Misa (mass) we all went to random houses and ate all the katxupa (cuchupa...traditional CV dish), txeren (cheren...cv form of grits), and arroz (rice) we could stomach. Although Grouge (the official liquor of Cape Verde...the strongest form of liquor I have ever encountered) was very abundant. So it was an intense 5 days for me full of random cultural events. I ate, danced, and witnessed a lot... and it was fun!!!
Yesterday was a big day for Peace Corps volunteers. We actually got our site placement. Which means we all found out where we are going to live for the next 2 years. To find out we had to play a game. The current volunteers made pinatas. One was a donkey for all the Community development people and one was a pig for the TEFL people. We had to break them and inside was candy with papers with our names and site written on it. Each person picked up one and read it.
So my wish came true and I am staying on Santiago. I am going to live in Calheta de Sao Miguel. I will be working with 4 different organizations. OASIS (agricultural group) OMCV (the large Women´s association), One of the CEJs (youth centers), and the local Camara (like a city hall). Yeah it is gonna be a lot but I am so excited!!! I am apparently living alone but my current LCF (language teacher) lives in the town and I am soo excited because she knows everyone and that will really help me integrate into the culture there. I am pretty sure I will have electricity and possible water. Oh and I am very close to the beach! Well this was a brief overview of some of the events of the week. I will try to put more pics up soon but my camera died so I need to charge it before I can put all the pics from site announcement day and quinze de agosto. I must take a pic of the wildlife here (roaches, spiders, etc.) because they are unbelieveably big. I actually could here them crawling around my room at 3am. But I couldn´t see because we don´t have electricity after 11pm and didn´t have my flashlight...it was a very sleplees night. hahaha!

The 5th week mark

Well this week we went to a place called Sambala. It is an actual resort that is being built in Santiago. It is massive!!! I mean it is a really cool property and it is going to have some really amazing things there. The villas and houses are relatively cheap for a resort on the top of a mountain next to the beach. It is an odd feeling going there though, because you drive through the capital city (Praia) and through a small village, and out in the middle of nowhere is this giant resort. When we first got there I was shocked by the scale and all the great things that were gonna be there, but then they got to the good part. The group is actually going to move the closest, and only town halfway across Santiago. Granted the villagers will have a better school and access to more water, but they are moving them to add more villas and also so that the inhabitants never have to really see real Cape Verdeans. Samabala will actually employ about 3,000 workers, 800 of which are currently working there. However, about 90% of the workers are not from C.V. they are from the continent. I mean Samabala is doing great thing like eventually it will be a sustainable eco-tourist resort with wind power as well as solar panels for energy to the houses...but that´s 15 years away. This is a round about way of saying that tourism while good in some ways is a shady industry.

The company that owns Sambala is a british company, and they are appealing to the brits because this is their closest group of tropical islands. The people that are going to live here are going to be living in a self-contained environment (grocery stores, shops, restaurants, etc.) and if they really wanted to they would never have to step out to Cape Verde. Cape Verde yells and claps when we get rain (chuva) more like mist (brufa) but this place is going to have 2 pools and a large number of fountains in all of the resort´s villages. They are taking trees out in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing! They will never have to see real villages or the impoverished people that live in the country. Which is probably how they like it anyway. I don´t know it just makes me think of all the ways that I support places like Jamaica, South Africa, or any other place that has a booming tourist economy but a high percentage of people in poverty.
Finally, I saw Sicko on Sunday. I thought it was great. I watched it with about 4 other trainees and 3 volunteers and all of us had the same reaction: wow maybe I should move to France or England. hahahaha! It was actually really weird watching that kind of movie out of the US. I was happy that I got to see it because I thought it was a great movie and it was very well done, but I think it was even better because I wasn´t in the US. I thought maybe I am crazy for wanting to live in another country, but hearing other people say "that movie was great but it kinda makes me not wanna go back to America" was slightly reassuring. I mean I love America and I will definitely be back but I wonder if my time here will make me more critical of things that happen back home. I know that if I make it two years I will come back with a greater appreciation of the country but hearing someone say "look at a country´s greatness not by how they treat the rich or healthy but by how they treat their poor and sick" makes me wonder.
Anywho, have I mentioned how much I miss washing machines and dryers. My host-mom washes clothes for about 9 hours twice a week. I try and help but I suck at rinsing the soap out part. She is always like "nau nau" or "mas forsa" (meaning more strength) because in case you were wondering I am a weakling here! hahaha! oh well. Oh, and that whole thing about not having chicken for 2 years...completely false! I had fried chicken for lunch today...it was good. Fried chicken here is "Frango." Õh and if anyone has any ideaon what I should cook my family for an american dinner on Monday (Segunda Ferra) I am all ears!

Sta SABI- July 12

*My host mom brother, and niece, and PCV Andrea *

So the last week has been busy. I have been to so many towns in Santiago it´s crazy! Everyday we go somehere different...which is good because it keeps our minds off America and at the end of the day around 5 or 6 you come home and talk to your host family by 9 or 10 you are exhausted. My diet here is actually not very conducive for that whole skinny thing I was going for. I have never eaten so much rice, beans, and potatoes (Arroz, fava, and battatas or Yuccas) in my life!!! Starch is all you get here. However, it is still probably 50 times more healthy than what we eat at home. We have all the meats however I eat a lot of fish and decent amount of chicken (petxi and gallena). My host family is so nice and they try to cook stuff I like.

Cape Verde is such diverse place. Even though the dialect is Kriolu (which varies north to South, island to island) all classes, radio, tv, and official documents are in Portugese. And starting in 6th grade all kids take either english or french. So everyone here can speak kriolu, understand and probably speak portugese, and possibly understand or speaks another language. More Cape Verdeans live outside of Cape Verde than in so everyone has family or friends in Brazil, US, or Europe (London, Portugal, Netherlands). That influence is definitely here (on T-shirts, food, music, etc.). But sadly, 80% of CV´s economy come from remittances ( money sent to family/friends from someone not in CV) which makes it hard for people to see a reason to work all the time bc they are so dependent on the money from other people.
Tomorrow I am shadowing a current volunteer. So I am flying out to Fogo. Look it up...it´s amazingly beautiful and everyone seems to think it is Sabi (C.V. word for awesome!... Which I have added to my permanent dictionary or fave word along with about 5 others!!)!! It is the island with the active volcano (no worries...no eruptions since 1995. hahaa!) I am excited bc the kriolu is different there and it is gonna be a completely different culture. I will make sure to tell you how it went.

Tudo Dretu!-July 20

Well I finally have a minute to tell you about what has been going on the last week. For the last 5 days we have been shadowing current volunteers all over Cape Verde. I shadowed a current volunteer on Fogo. She works in a Camara (governmental building- "city hall") but she also does stuff with kids and women. So I won´t bore you with the technical stuff but I did have an intersting time there. I learned a lot about the relationships between men and women. She pretty much gave us the dirt on how men treat women and how women just seem to take it. She says that if you are going to have a relationship with a guy you have to set up concrete guidelines for a relationships ( i.e. telling him that you believe in monogamy, that as a woman you want to be respected publicly and privately, etc.) I don´t think that all guys are like that but most of them believe in having a lot of pikenas (girlfriend) and having a lot of children not with their wife. One of the guys we met father has 27 kids, 9 with his wife and the others all over Cape Verde; and he is definitely not alone. I met another guy who had 33 siblings...crazy! I mean I hate to generalize but it seems that monogamy is not of great importance. However, it´s partly the fault of the women here, who accept that behavior, thus the low divorce rate. Some women even let the husband´s kids stay with them! But I still wanna make sure that everyone knows that I mean there are a lot of men and women like that not all of them.
We received our site preference sheet today. It is just the sheet that asks you where you want to live (urban, rural, etc.), who you dont want to live with, and which exact job for particular islands you want. Í am pretty sure I am gona end up on Santiago because I have boldly expressed that to my sector leader and I think I might be right in the city (Praia). So if anyone comes to visit I will be able to really show you around the hub of Cape Verde. someone will be staying in Mindelo, which is the center of Karnaval which will be cool bc we will have someone who really knows about the town. I am excited because I am pretty sure I am going to Karnaval this february so i will get to test the waters before anyone wants to come to karnaval in 2009. oh, and a current volunteer is actually starting a trip to Ghana in January and she said that anyone who wants to come can (it´s only about $600!!). So melissa, I might get to see your old stomping ground a lot sooner than I thought. It´s cool here because a lot of the other trainees here are really open to going places with other trainees, and people are already making plans to start a trip to Brazil and Portugal, and since a lot of people will be in fluent in Portugese that trip will be amazing! On a sad note, we already had one person ET (early terminate) which was sad because no one saw it coming and I spent most of my 4 days on Fogo with her. However, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I am sure it will still be difficult everytime.

Bon Dia- June 29th

Hey everyone!!!
I am sitting in an internet cafe in Praia, Cape Verde at 5:45. Well I just wanted to let everyone know that I did make it from Atlanta, to Dakar relatively safely. We reached the capital with a full entourage of people. The Senegalese ambassador and the Peace Corps Country director came...and from the looks of it so did the entire city of Dakar. They almost attacked our van to say hello it was really weird, nice, funny, and just a tiny bit scary. We went to this really pretty hotel (on the outside). My group (around 30 people) stayed up the entire night and lounged by the pool and ate a senegalese lunch, and stared at the amazing beach as our plane was delayed for a few more hours.

We all were kinda sad when they said that we had to leave. We got to the Senegal Airport (which is much more laid back in customs than America) and boarded our plane for our whopping 1hour and 30 minute trip!
Anyways, we got to Cape Verde around 3 and we had a full welcoming crowd...it was awesome!!!! We got here and met everyone and saw the city which mind you is poor but very beautiful. It almost looks like we are in a latin American community. The scenerly is great, we have a mountain on one side of us and a HUGE beautiful beach on the other. So far I really like Cape Verde. And yes they are beautiful people...
Our orientation/training is alll day!!! from 8:00am to around 5 or 6. Its all really informative but overwhelming and scary. On Sunday we are meeting and moving in with our host families. We are gonna live with them and eat every meal with them. Since my job is Community Development I am actually pretty much only learning Kriolu (pronounce creol-ooo) because that is the local dialect. Like everyone speaks it but the formal and official language is portugese. So I might have to learn a little for writing.
I thought they were exaggerating the fish thing but now I think they underplayed how much fish they eat. All day, everyday, every meal. I have only eaten fish since I arrived in Africa. I LOVE IT!! We have bread, rice, potatoes sometime all three every meal. And it`s good! It is flavorful but without all the jazzy stuff. For lunch today we had eel. oh mind you all the fish is fried. itºs soo funny bc a couple of guys in our group and I were laughing that we only had eel as sushi and never thought to fry it!! I have met some really awesome people and I am having a great time.