Friday, April 29, 2011

Long Titles and Pleasantries

I was recently in Praia (the capitol) for a 5 day meeting concerning the National Parks project document. The UNDP, United Nations Development Project, represented by Oliver Puigner (Chief Technical Specialist for both projects; Climate Change and Biodiversity) and Fabiana Issler (Regional Technical Advisor for Biodiversity) were present as well as the local government officials and my supervisor Leão Carvalho (National Coordinator for Biodiversity) for all of the preliminary meeting. We were to finalize the documents, coming to agreement on the wording and meaning of said wording. This would be a long process in one language, but three? Unreal! The first day of meetings was incredibly productive, I was doing my very best to understand the Portuguese and felt as though the other two Peace Corps Volunteers as well as myself made some great contributions that were taken seriously and even stayed permanently in the project document. Go us! The following 4 days were a slow decline to what I can only describe as a small coma. The languages being spat back and forth at lighting speeds gave me a slight headache; I guess I forgot the other official language of the UN is French. No, I don’t speak French. It was easy to drift off to another world when 1) They were speaking French and 2) they were working on part of the project that had nothing to with us *Climate change. There were several times when many things were being said in both Portuguese and French quickly and then Fabiana would look over to us and say “do you agree?” my response “I don’t know, I don’t think that any of us understood exactly what was said”. Anyhow, to get to the point, the project went official as of Thursday April 14th. Thanks to the help of all government officials and NGOs (special thanks to Natura2000 and Elena Perez) who have a stake in this project and made contributions, my project has “officially” begun.

What does the mean to me and my future on Boa Vista? Good question reader…. I don’t know. Here is the limited amount of information that I have received from the newly hired Lazero, the local coordinator for Parque Marinho do Leste here on Boa Vista. Lazero worked at another park on São Nicolau for about 4 years and is currently living in Praia. He is due to move out here in May, fingers crossed, and will have a brand new truck with him for the park. All of this sounds promising, but I am forever skeptical. If all of this comes together and we begin work in May, I will be ecstatic. However, turtle season starts towards the end of next month and I will never be short of work with Turtle Foundation. 

In other news- 
  • I will be coming home for a short visit in July! Interested in seeing your favorite blogger? No… oh.. ok
  • My post that some of you may be familiar with "The Shadow of The Sahara" is receiving some national and international attention that I had not foreseen. I have received calls from Peace Corps Administration and emails from across the world telling me how much my article meant to them. I also forgot to tell you, that blog actually made the latest newsletter of Cape Verde that you can see here Nobas Newsletter
  • I have started my population study on the endemic Chioninia spinalis boavistensis 
  • Peace Corps Cape Verde has a new country director and she is cool!
  • If you get some time or just feel like spending some more time cruising the interweb then cruise on over to Turtle Foundation and see what good work these folks are doing.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Languages Are Fun

I wouldn’t say that the word sexy is used all that frequently here in Cape Verde. However that could just be because I am not sexually appealing to many Cape Verdean women or some other circumstances I am unaware of. I tend to lean towards “other circumstances” for the mere fact that I refuse to believe I am not attractive, don’t we all? Nobody wants to hear they are unattractive or that they are fat, that’s just not polite. Unfortunately, that word, I’m afraid is lost in Kriolu, and will never to show face unless forced or bribed.

For example, if I am feeling gracious or just happen to have a package from America and have lots of treats, I will generally hand out most of the candy. The candy is always welcomed but mostly the giver is unnoticed, that’s where the bribe and forceful nature of thank you comes in. I will not give them the candy unless I hear please and thank you. I digress, politeness, why are we so polite in America? In the English language in general? We always ask things in a manner that is unsure or hesitant; “Can you please give me”, “could I please have”, “if you’re not too busy please do….”. They all seem to ask for something to be done if it doesn’t inconvenience the other person. 

I double digress, politeness… in daily conversations with even acquaintances there is almost no boundaries, physically or linguistically. The space is always much closer than American standards and the conversations can always take a hard right into the metaphorical wall. For the sake of privacy during the conversation I shall call this friend G. This is the conversation I had with my friend (at work… in front of everyone) after returning to site from Senegal and having been at site for roughly 2 weeks:

G: Matt, what’s up man? Long time since I have seen you
Me: Nothing special just getting back to life here in Boa Vista
G: How was your trip, how was Senegal? Were you safe, no problems?
Me: No problems, it was beautiful. I really like Senegal, the food, the culture, everything. I went to see this town in th (get cut off)
G: What have you been eating man? You came back fat! You’re fat now. I lost some weight, I was really sick, but have been working out too, but you’re fat now.
Me:………? Really? Like really fat? (timidly)
G: Well you know… just… fat.
Me: Ok, well I have some things to do sooooooo, talk to you later?
G: Sure thing Matt, I’ll pass by your house today
Me: Of course, peace and love

How embarrassing right? Well this is pretty normal conversation for me here; there is no filter for what can be said and location of conversation it seems. The other conversation would have been less inappropriate had I not been speaking to my friend’s girlfriend, and him being right there. We’re at a bar/restaurant just hanging out about a week after returning from Senegal, we shall call her L:

L: Good evening Matt! How are you?
Me: I’m good, how are you?
L: Good, so how was Senegal?
Me: It was good, I had a good time there. Be right back, I need to use the bathroom.
(Exit the booth, and return)
L: Woah, Matt, you came back sexy.
Me: From the bathroom?
L: Hahahaha no, from Senegal. You returned sexy.
Me:…… Really? I don’t think I changed much. Soooooo, how about that football (that’s soccer to you Americans reading) game? Did you see that goal?

Which one to believe? I don’t know, but I lean heavily towards sexy. But sadly, it’s the other conversation that I hear more. I am in no way slighting one conversational tactic or the other. I think that in English we have a way of saying things more delicately, but I enjoy the directness of Kriolu. If you want something you say, “give me”. Sound rude? This is completely acceptable. To bring this blog back full circle, I will continue to live in my own dream world, where I am “sexy”. Thanks Cape Verde, I’ll ignore the fat comments. Peace and love friends.