Sunday, July 27, 2008-6:49PM (CVT)
I’m here getting ready to start my second week at the homestay. I really seems as though I have been here forever but I am also reminded that it has only been a week every time someone speaks to me in Kriolu because I rarely understand the first time. My Portuguese is progressing at a natural pace and I feel confident that I will be where I need to be in a few months time. Unfortunately, like other African countries, the European language is spoken in business situations while the local language is spoken everywhere else which is basically all the time. What the Portuguese will help with is when I am writing grants proposals to the government when I get to my site and start my secondary project which I think will have something to do with nutrition and physical health.
I guess I should be describing some of my daily experiences so basically yesterday I went to a festa in a town that is about 30 minutes away. We rode in what they call a “Yass” which is basically a skinny minivan which serves as a taxi. Its not the typical taxi that fits four people tops but instead you just pile as many people in a possible and the driver drives as fast and reckless as he can to get you to your destination. Different Yass’s go to different places so one may be taking all of passengers to Praia while another will be taking all to Assomada and so on. The Third Worlders know what I’m talking about because I’m sure there is an equivalent in their country. In Trinidad these are called “maxis.” So we basically got to this festa at 11AM. Don’t know what kind of party starts in the morning but basically it was some religious holiday so many people in the town went to mass which I guess was about 2.5hrs long and then afterwards you’re supposed to go around to the houses of the families you know and eat and drink until the night when the partying and dancing starts. The country’s devotion to their religion is fairly comical. Go from mass straight to getting drunk. Ohwell, to each his own. For me, I did not go to mass because mass is one of the most boring and dreadful experiences that I have ever had and a Cape Verdean mass is just as boring as any mass anywhere I’m sure. While in Chadalain (the town of the festa) I definitely realized that I got shafted on the housing situation. Some of the other Peace Corps trainees houses and rooms are ridiculously nice. One kid basically has a rooftop apartment and another is living in a legit American standard house while I still have a random stray dog that roams through my house periodically. Its okay though. I did not come here to live like that any way so I’m definitely not too jealous. It would have been nice though.
The real problem with these types of festas is the food. Though a lot of the food here is great, after one week I find myself already getting tired of it because everything eats the same thing and the selection is very limited. Also, you can never trust the cleanliness of the preparation. Since it is rainy season now there are a lot of flies and when people put food out it is inevitable that the flies will get on them which is not even the bad part. It’s the fact that food is not always cleaned properly which would basically entail soaking it in chlorine. Even more, there is this one dish that is made up of beans some other vegetables and pig skin. Though pig skin sounds bad enough to me I would probably eat it if was cleaned properly but the problem is that you can still see the hair on the pig skin. Definitely was not about to eat that. This all goes to say that yesterday and this morning diarrhea was definitely happening for me. Loose bowels are always fun. It was not as bad as before though. I’m good now. I have come to realize that I can’t eat as recklessly as I would like to. By 6 or so I think everybody was beat and we headed home in this pick up, migrant worker looking truck thing. Any of us could have easily fallen out but I guess its normal. I definitely felt like an illegal immigrant crossing the border of something.
Besides that nothing crazy has really been happening. I’ve been mostly spending time in the community and hanging out with my host family who continuously laughs at my bad Kriolu and feeds me every second. As far as meeting people in the community, most do not recognize unless told that I’m an American. Some get really excited and intrigued when they realize that I am an American while others don’t. I definitely do not get the same reaction as white Americans though which is good and bad. Can be annoying to see brain-washed Cape Verdeans worship white people like they are something better but at the same time once I learn the language I’ll be able to see things in the country that other people won’t.
Final thought I guess comes from this “American Apartheid” book I’m about three-quarters of the way through. Basically its about the construction and maintenance of the American ghetto and how this is the root of race relations in the United States. Basically goes from the late 1800s through to the present and shows how policies and actions in the United States has held onto segregation through discriminatory housing practices. It shatters the idea that class is more influential the race. Anyway, it made me think about the segregation on an international scale. Why is it that every country that is made up of mostly black people is of the Third World? On top of it, it seems like the poorest countries have the darkest people which are generally in Africa, the middle income countries usually have brown or lighter skinned people like India, Brazil, etc, and the richest countries have the whitest people. I’m not saying that its all based on this and there are definitely exceptions like Afghanistan and Paraguay but in general the correlation holds. Begs further thought about a seemingly internationally universal conception of skin color and maybe the systematic construction of an “international ghetto.” Even, here in Africa, the northern African countries are far more advanced that those of the Sub-Sahara. Is it just coincidence that their people are lighter-skinned? I guess you could say that they more involved in the Middle Eastern economy but Cape Verde for instance is not. Here there is a far higher standard of living than most African countries. Is that also a coincidence that people here are lighter-skinned? Who knows. Just interesting to think about it. Anyways, I’m out. Get at y’all later.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Day 1:
This was one of the most tiring days of my life. We arrived in Praia around 8am. I forgot what it was like to go to the baggage claim in a Third World country. It took forever for everybody to get their bags. I’m sure that there are about two guys who manually get into the luggage portion of the plane and remove the bags by hand and then put them on the conveyor belt where people receive them. We finally got out the airport. Got that VIP Peace Corps pass so we didn’t have to go through customs. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, or off the plane for that matter I realized how amazing the weather would be. Its PERFECT. Not too hot with an amazing coastal breeze. Anyway we finally leave the airport and arrive at this dormitory where we will be staying for the next couple days. When I saw dormitory I really do mean just like West freshman year without running hot water. I had to drag my bags up four flights of stairs because there was no elevator obviously. Not too bad though. Afterwards we grabbed some quick food and then went straight into meetings. MEETINGS ALLLL DAY…HOLY SHIT. I could not take it anymore. I understand that its all important and that Peace Corps must do these things but its just annoying. I was definitely falling asleep multiple times while the country director was speaking.
Rather than go through an entire summary of my day which just consists of meetings from the second we got off the plane until now (9pm) I would rather give an explanation of how I’m feeling. I’m far more excited than nervous. Though I know no Portuguese or Crioulu, I’m not too worried. Its expected that I won’t know anything on the first days. The kids are cool. Its your typical liberal, optimistic, grassroots crowd. Obviously I’m the only black male in the group but the good thing is that I’M IN AFRICA. I AINT THE MINORITY NO MORE. It gives me a little chuckle to see some of the kids MAD SCARED while walking on the street. Not to say that I’m totally comfortable but I certainly will be able to blend in much better than others once I learn the language. Plus I’m usually pretty good at getting accents down. I may not have the words correct but the accent is usually really good. I HATE when Americans speak other languages and do not try to emulate the accent. You might as well not even try to learn the language. The “mainstream” American accent is pretty annoying to listen to when you think about it. Like I said though, in general most of the kids are cool. Just excited to experience Cape Verde as I am.
Right now I’m sitting in the hallway of the dorm writing out this blog entry on a word document and everybody keeps asking me if I’m getting wireless. I just want to slap people and be like “YO, YOU’RE IN AFRICA!!!!” Wireless internet??? Not happening. Anyway, this may have to be the end of this entry but today has been very tiring. We have not stopped going since we got off the plane. It does not seem like I arrived this morning. It feels like I have been here for weeks. That just goes to further emphasize how long the day was. Anyway yall at home, I’m missing everybody. Wish I could call or something but there is no phone anywhere that I’ve seen. Also the food is GOOD so far. We ate in the cafeteria for the building and it tastes like food I would order from a restaurant back home. Peace out from Cabo Verde.
Thursday, July 24, 2008-Written at 4PM (CVT)
Is seems that whenever I sit down to do this journal/diary I never know where to begin. Well I can I can nearly safely say that I am over my illness. My stomach still gets nauseas but in general everything seems to be working out well. I must say that I have NEVER had more diarrhea in my life. I must have had ten diarrhea sessions per day and that may be being modest. It was actually a relatively scary moment. The night before I came to my host family’s house we all had a “festa” at the Peace Corps Recreation Center. Basically, it was the last time we would meet together as “bourgeois” people in a fancy place. At that point I was certainly questioning the difficulty of my Peace Corps experience. You can see from the pictures what the place looked like. Later on during the guitar players performance I my stomach definitely didn’t feel good and them all of sudden I started to have this crazy uncontrollable turrets syndrome shake. At the same time I started to get goose bumps while it was probably 80 degrees outside. Craziness!! Diarrhea proceeded the next day. Good times but I’m all good now and back to my carefree, gluttonous eating habits. My host mother makes the most amazing food and she was real cool about my sickness.
On that note, she treats me like a king. Although I’m pretty sure that I have one of the poorer families, she gives me everything that she can. When she makes dinner I eat with her before the rest of the family. Even worse, I think the family basically eats our leftovers. She may be making another batch of food for them but I’m know that one of the nights I definitely say the family eating from our leftovers. I want to tell her that I wish the whole family could eat with us/me but I don’t know how to approach the situation. It’s a pretty large family too. My host mother Aldonca has a husband and 6 children. I do not know where they all sleep nor where they use the bathroom because there is one bathroom in this place and I’ve not seen anybody else use it besides me. Maybe there is another bathroom somewhere else or something but if there isn’t that means they are all using the bathroom outside somewhere. A good thing is that now their 21 year old son just got home from studying theology in Portugal. Seems like a cool kid. He ate dinner with me last night before that rest of the family so I did not feel as bad. His says that his Portuguese is not that good although he has been taking classes there for three years now but obviously it was still far better than mine. Though he spoke to me mostly in Kriolu he helped me with a lot of Portuguese words. It definitely is going to be good to have a male that is my age in the house. I’m sure we will have much to talk about and if all else fails I’m sure soccer will always be a popular conversation.
All in all, being catered to is all of the complaint that I have. Sure its hot but really not that bad at all. It probably gets into the low eighties regularly. Sure I’m using hand signals to explain a lot of my words. Sure I’m thousands of miles away from anything that I have ever known but this is what I signed up for. I’m just waiting for that moment when I my body and psyche has to deal with the fact that this is HOME. On some level it still feels as though I am on some wild vacation or as if I was doing a term abroad. I’m sure I will settle down and the rush that I’m getting from being here will fade and I think that is when the real challenge will start. If I’m lucky the rush will never go away. There are some things that I know I will never take for granted here. One is the AMAZING view that I have while I’m walking from the l’escola primaria where I take my language classes to my house. Its only a 3 minute walk but to the right of the road is about a 500 foot decline of dispersed grass and dirt and off into the distance the mountains start which extend to the clouds. This is what I see every day and just to be around something like that makes me very thankful. It is cliché to say that it makes you appreciate all the small things that you in the United States but it is very very true and far more profound now that I am in this position. You can see just from the picture that it feels like I’m sitting in a national geographic site.
Ohyea…like I said this really won’t be a vacation. At least these three months of training anyway. All I do now is sleep, wake, eat, take classes, go to country training and that’s about it. I usually go to sleep around 9:30. Also the country is poor. I don’t know how the other places are but where I am is very very poor. It is also very rural but they have do not have much here. Like I said, there is no running water in the house and electricity is sporadic. If after training I get a spot close to a nice beach, as opposed to one where people think it’s a good idea to use the bathroom in then it will feel closer to a vacation but as of now. Definitely not. I do know some people who are living with families that have sick houses and others that live on the beach but not I. Kind of sucks for me but at the same time I wouldn’t have it any other way. You can go to Miami and see a nice beach. No where in the states can you see what I’m seeing right now. On that note, I’m out. I’ll get at all later. At the end is the phone number of my host family including the country code. Remember that Cape Verde is three hours in front of the east coast in the US. Miss everybody back home. Think about visiting. I should know Kriolu and Portuguese well enough by then to get around. We can go to this place called San Francisco where all the British tourists go and own time shares. It’ll probably be the first time I’m there also and I want to see it anyway. Heard its pretty sick. Aight I’m out for real. Peace. Pics will come soon I promise.
This was one of the most tiring days of my life. We arrived in Praia around 8am. I forgot what it was like to go to the baggage claim in a Third World country. It took forever for everybody to get their bags. I’m sure that there are about two guys who manually get into the luggage portion of the plane and remove the bags by hand and then put them on the conveyor belt where people receive them. We finally got out the airport. Got that VIP Peace Corps pass so we didn’t have to go through customs. As soon as we stepped out of the airport, or off the plane for that matter I realized how amazing the weather would be. Its PERFECT. Not too hot with an amazing coastal breeze. Anyway we finally leave the airport and arrive at this dormitory where we will be staying for the next couple days. When I saw dormitory I really do mean just like West freshman year without running hot water. I had to drag my bags up four flights of stairs because there was no elevator obviously. Not too bad though. Afterwards we grabbed some quick food and then went straight into meetings. MEETINGS ALLLL DAY…HOLY SHIT. I could not take it anymore. I understand that its all important and that Peace Corps must do these things but its just annoying. I was definitely falling asleep multiple times while the country director was speaking.
Rather than go through an entire summary of my day which just consists of meetings from the second we got off the plane until now (9pm) I would rather give an explanation of how I’m feeling. I’m far more excited than nervous. Though I know no Portuguese or Crioulu, I’m not too worried. Its expected that I won’t know anything on the first days. The kids are cool. Its your typical liberal, optimistic, grassroots crowd. Obviously I’m the only black male in the group but the good thing is that I’M IN AFRICA. I AINT THE MINORITY NO MORE. It gives me a little chuckle to see some of the kids MAD SCARED while walking on the street. Not to say that I’m totally comfortable but I certainly will be able to blend in much better than others once I learn the language. Plus I’m usually pretty good at getting accents down. I may not have the words correct but the accent is usually really good. I HATE when Americans speak other languages and do not try to emulate the accent. You might as well not even try to learn the language. The “mainstream” American accent is pretty annoying to listen to when you think about it. Like I said though, in general most of the kids are cool. Just excited to experience Cape Verde as I am.
Right now I’m sitting in the hallway of the dorm writing out this blog entry on a word document and everybody keeps asking me if I’m getting wireless. I just want to slap people and be like “YO, YOU’RE IN AFRICA!!!!” Wireless internet??? Not happening. Anyway, this may have to be the end of this entry but today has been very tiring. We have not stopped going since we got off the plane. It does not seem like I arrived this morning. It feels like I have been here for weeks. That just goes to further emphasize how long the day was. Anyway yall at home, I’m missing everybody. Wish I could call or something but there is no phone anywhere that I’ve seen. Also the food is GOOD so far. We ate in the cafeteria for the building and it tastes like food I would order from a restaurant back home. Peace out from Cabo Verde.
Thursday, July 24, 2008-Written at 4PM (CVT)
Is seems that whenever I sit down to do this journal/diary I never know where to begin. Well I can I can nearly safely say that I am over my illness. My stomach still gets nauseas but in general everything seems to be working out well. I must say that I have NEVER had more diarrhea in my life. I must have had ten diarrhea sessions per day and that may be being modest. It was actually a relatively scary moment. The night before I came to my host family’s house we all had a “festa” at the Peace Corps Recreation Center. Basically, it was the last time we would meet together as “bourgeois” people in a fancy place. At that point I was certainly questioning the difficulty of my Peace Corps experience. You can see from the pictures what the place looked like. Later on during the guitar players performance I my stomach definitely didn’t feel good and them all of sudden I started to have this crazy uncontrollable turrets syndrome shake. At the same time I started to get goose bumps while it was probably 80 degrees outside. Craziness!! Diarrhea proceeded the next day. Good times but I’m all good now and back to my carefree, gluttonous eating habits. My host mother makes the most amazing food and she was real cool about my sickness.
On that note, she treats me like a king. Although I’m pretty sure that I have one of the poorer families, she gives me everything that she can. When she makes dinner I eat with her before the rest of the family. Even worse, I think the family basically eats our leftovers. She may be making another batch of food for them but I’m know that one of the nights I definitely say the family eating from our leftovers. I want to tell her that I wish the whole family could eat with us/me but I don’t know how to approach the situation. It’s a pretty large family too. My host mother Aldonca has a husband and 6 children. I do not know where they all sleep nor where they use the bathroom because there is one bathroom in this place and I’ve not seen anybody else use it besides me. Maybe there is another bathroom somewhere else or something but if there isn’t that means they are all using the bathroom outside somewhere. A good thing is that now their 21 year old son just got home from studying theology in Portugal. Seems like a cool kid. He ate dinner with me last night before that rest of the family so I did not feel as bad. His says that his Portuguese is not that good although he has been taking classes there for three years now but obviously it was still far better than mine. Though he spoke to me mostly in Kriolu he helped me with a lot of Portuguese words. It definitely is going to be good to have a male that is my age in the house. I’m sure we will have much to talk about and if all else fails I’m sure soccer will always be a popular conversation.
All in all, being catered to is all of the complaint that I have. Sure its hot but really not that bad at all. It probably gets into the low eighties regularly. Sure I’m using hand signals to explain a lot of my words. Sure I’m thousands of miles away from anything that I have ever known but this is what I signed up for. I’m just waiting for that moment when I my body and psyche has to deal with the fact that this is HOME. On some level it still feels as though I am on some wild vacation or as if I was doing a term abroad. I’m sure I will settle down and the rush that I’m getting from being here will fade and I think that is when the real challenge will start. If I’m lucky the rush will never go away. There are some things that I know I will never take for granted here. One is the AMAZING view that I have while I’m walking from the l’escola primaria where I take my language classes to my house. Its only a 3 minute walk but to the right of the road is about a 500 foot decline of dispersed grass and dirt and off into the distance the mountains start which extend to the clouds. This is what I see every day and just to be around something like that makes me very thankful. It is cliché to say that it makes you appreciate all the small things that you in the United States but it is very very true and far more profound now that I am in this position. You can see just from the picture that it feels like I’m sitting in a national geographic site.
Ohyea…like I said this really won’t be a vacation. At least these three months of training anyway. All I do now is sleep, wake, eat, take classes, go to country training and that’s about it. I usually go to sleep around 9:30. Also the country is poor. I don’t know how the other places are but where I am is very very poor. It is also very rural but they have do not have much here. Like I said, there is no running water in the house and electricity is sporadic. If after training I get a spot close to a nice beach, as opposed to one where people think it’s a good idea to use the bathroom in then it will feel closer to a vacation but as of now. Definitely not. I do know some people who are living with families that have sick houses and others that live on the beach but not I. Kind of sucks for me but at the same time I wouldn’t have it any other way. You can go to Miami and see a nice beach. No where in the states can you see what I’m seeing right now. On that note, I’m out. I’ll get at all later. At the end is the phone number of my host family including the country code. Remember that Cape Verde is three hours in front of the east coast in the US. Miss everybody back home. Think about visiting. I should know Kriolu and Portuguese well enough by then to get around. We can go to this place called San Francisco where all the British tourists go and own time shares. It’ll probably be the first time I’m there also and I want to see it anyway. Heard its pretty sick. Aight I’m out for real. Peace. Pics will come soon I promise.
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