Friday, November 21, 2008

Once again its been a long time and I’m not sure where to start but as of now I am at my site and have been for nearly two months. I’ve put up some pictures of my house which I must admit is really nice. Obviously, if anybody comes to Cape Verde they can crash.
The first and most important thing is the election. I guess it’s obvious to say that I was ecstatic when I found out that the next president will be Barack Hussein Obama. I always believed that eventually there would be an African-American president but I definitely did not think this soon. And yes…it is important that he is African-American for many reasons. Most importantly, it is a huge milestone in African-American history. This is on par with the Emancipation Proclamation, Brown vs. Board of Education, as well as the Civil Rights Act in ‘64. Just as those events provided opportunities that were previously not availably to African-Americans so too does this. The difference is that those laws served as normative and ideal statements which were later actually enforced while Obama provides and example of what CAN be and what IS possible for blacks to achieve in the United States today. He is the result of the enforcement of these previous events. In no way am I saying that racism suddenly no longer exists in the US because that is obviously not true. I also admit that Obama did not exactly come from the projects but is that what it means to be black in America? I don’t think so. What I am saying is that it challenges many African-Americans who believed that they could never achieve success in the US. This is the fruit of the labor of those who have come before and to say that blacks can’t achieve success in America is to disgrace their tireless effort.
The election night, here in Cape Verde was one of the better nights I have had so far. All the volunteers on this island met up in the capital and hung out at a bar. We forced the bar to keep the election on all night. This was actually one of the nicest bars that I’ve seen here in Cape Verde. It had two flat screen TVs with one showing the election on CNN and the other was playing a Celtics game on NBATV. I felt right at home. We must have stayed at the bar until around 4am just watching the election. When it was finally obvious that Obama would be the next president many of the volunteers including me shed a few tears. What made the event even more special is that there were many Cape Verdeans also at the bar who seemed equally as interested. It’s amazing that not only has Obama given hope to those in the United States but even people in Cape Verde are optimistic about the future. Though I feel that people here are falsely optimistic and will be sorely disappointed, I still entertain their dreams.
People in Cape Verde seemed far more interested in American politics than they are in their own. This does not just apply to the recent election but in general. I never hear people talking about current Cape Verdean politics. It seems to be a fairly apolitical society. Even the newspaper is barely read. In part, this has to do with the newspaper being in Portuguese and many people cannot read it. Still, when I watch the news I do not see many stories about the politics of Cape Verde. Maybe this is good since it seems that many countries in Africa that are considered highly politicized tend to express their political views through violence. Cape Verde has not experienced much violence historically. They peacefully gained independence from the Portuguese in 1975 in tandem with Guinea Bissau. Though there was a revolution most of the fighting was done in Guinea. Plus there are no extremely wealthy people here like in some other African countries that have natural resources. The distribution of wealth is relatively even. Maybe this has to do with why they are relatively peaceful…I dunno.
On other things, the teaching thing is going okay. I wouldn’t mind doing something else but the students are starting to grow on me. Plus I am starting to really invest my time in creating the English library in the school. Kids here definitely do not study as much as they should at home. Much of this has to do with the fact that they have no place to study. I remember when I was in middle school and high school I had a desk at home in my room where I did my homework. It was quiet and organized. Here most, if not all, of my students do not have that. Maybe they do their work on the kitchen table but often families do not stress the importance of education. Sure they may do well in high school but after that…then what? Maybe they will go to the university in the capital but after that there definitely is not much else they could do unless they go abroad which for many is just a dream. I figure if I create the English library then students will have this space. Plus the teachers will get into it because they will have a place to do their own research, write lesson plans, and store materials. LESSON PLANS, MATERIALS, NOR TESTS ARE RECYCLED. So every year the teacher has to recreate their lessons. It makes sense to leave room for the teacher to add their own creativity but its difficult when you don’t have any textbooks, any materials and basically have to start with nothing. It is a big waste of time.
There are a couple weird things that happen at school. I definitely will never get used to teachers blatantly hitting on female students. It’s actually kind of disgusting how overt it is. I’m sorry but that is where my cultural relativism stops. Some of the teachers hit on the little girls in eighth grade. These girls are THIRTEEN AND FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. That will never be okay in my book. Besides that there are just random occurrences that happen at school. Obviously electricity comes and goes. At one point we didn’t have electricity for a week but since then we have had it fairly constantly. When there is no electricity at school obviously they cannot ring the bell so they beat this metal bucket with a stick as loud as they can. Pretty cool but definitely different. Another time, the school almost caught on fire because at one of the junctions on the phone line blew up and caught on fire. Now, there are no fire fighters anywhere close and the telephone pole is made out of wood. Yea...it wasn’t a good situation. Luckily, here most things are not built out of wood but it was still pretty scary. Another time, I had a random crazy girl who was not a student at the school come into my class and try to hit me with a notebook. My students tried to warn me that she was crazy but I didn’t realize that she was actually out of her mind. She then proceeded to run around the close trying to hit other students in the head. Eventually I grabbed her and put her outside but she was definitely not good in the head.
Other things…Did anyone know that World AIDS Day is coming up? Its funny how many people here know the date of World AIDS Day, especially when the prevalence of AIDS here is really low…something like 0.8% which is equal to the world average and definitely lower the most African countries. Anyway, I think I’m going to do something for that. Need to work on it more but I’ll tell y’all about it later. I feel like I’ve said enough. I’m out. Check out the pictures of the house. I also put some other pictures on Facebook. PEACE.