Warmest Chirstmas Ever

As I sit here listening to the same four Dean Martin Christmas songs on repeat I think to myself; Oh Christmas… is it really so close? I certainly don’t feel like Christmas is here, especially since the temperature has stayed a consistent 28 degrees Celsius. I always wondered what it would be like to miss all the consumerism, 2 months of Christmas music, and Santa ringing the bell outside of every Wal-Mart. I surely thought that it would be wonderful to not have any of that… and I was right, kind of. I do miss that loud, annoying, bell-ringing Santa, he reminds me of home. But here on Boa Vista, we are not entirely without Christmas celebrations, the largest grocer on the island has decorated the outside of the store with a giant star, and I have helped with the planning and construction of the Christmas tree in the main square.  But something is still missing… probably family and friends… and perhaps the fun-kind of eggnog. I will not be entirely void of friends to spend Christmas with however. Two of my closest friends here on the island, Gilson and Michel, have asked me to “pass” Christmas with them, to which I graciously accepted. There is also a small group of Peace Corps Volunteers coming here, hope they don’t mind me making my rounds during Christmas. I don’t think it would be in good taste to show up to a Cabo Verdi Christmas with 4 other Americans. I’m sure they will understand.  

The Christmas festivals thus far have been really cool! Every weekend there is music and dancing in the plaza. One thing I still haven’t figured out though; how in the world do people know what time things start here? Seriously, there are never announcements or fliers. I just get lucky and know a few people who are generally involved in the events. I have no idea how everyone else figures out, I imagine if they are passing by the plaza and hear and see people, they stop. But this is a mystery that has yet to be solved.  

The most recent basketball practice was not going so smooth, so I introduced a game that I am sure many of you are familiar with; 21. I think the team loved it, because we played it for four hours on both sides of the court. I also learned a new game called “suspensão”. The rules are simple enough; one person starts out by shooting free throws, if he misses, the ball can be touched by the next person in line, but he must shoot while in the air. If the second person in line misses, the third person goes, and so forth until someone makes one or no attempt is made to shoot. The benefit of not shooting is, if you try but don’t touch backboard or rim, you go back to zero points. So, sometimes it is best to not shoot. 

I wish I had more cool stories to tell you but, things move slowly here. I am still jobless, but I am happy. I have found some peace in the tranquil pace of my life. I hope that you all find some peace this holiday season, and drink one more grown-up eggnog for me.

 Feliz Natal- Feliz Navidad- Merry Christmas

from Boa Vista

World Map and Such

Thanksgiving was a hit, we had more food in this house than I ever thought possible. The ladies, Misty and Kate, literally stayed in the kitchen for an entire day and cooked the following wonderful menu; chicken, garlic bread, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and cheesecake. The company was even better. However, Danny and I didn’t realize how isolated we were until they came to visit. Yes, Danny and I live together, but we are literally the only Americans on the island, and he is the only person that I truly trust at this moment. And so if you imagine the size of my island, and then think about my city, you begin to feel the overwhelming sensation that you’re alone in the Atlantic. It doesn’t help when the people visiting are all second year volunteers and talking about going home already. Somewhat depressing to hear them talking so enthusiastically about leaving and how we don’t have much time to accomplish the things that we want to do.

On a brighter note, my English classes are going well and they asked me to tell my family and friends in America; "Happy Thanksgiving". No, they don’t know exactly what it is, but I gave a quick English class on what it is and what we typically do in American households. It gave me an opportunity to teach some words we needed to learn, but also let me share a little bit of my culture with my students.

Now that I have divided the class into speaking levels, this is the size of my church class. They range from novice low to intermediate low. To put that in perspective that is the level I was during the first two weeks in Cape Verde. Herein lays the problem with the slow pace of English learning, after a lesson they don’t leave speaking English. The students will switch back to their native language and so the practice stops outside of the class. And now, I completely understand how we Peace Corps volunteers “learn” a language as quickly as we do, and how incredibly hard teaching a foreign language actually is. Sorry Mrs. Cryan, you were a really good Spanish teacher. 

The World Map project is going well. We have made great progress and this weekend is the big day where all the children will come and paint the countries.

As far as Danny and my relationship go, we are fine. We have had serious differences, we have tested each other, and resolved many of our differences, and I am confident that there will be nothing that can derail the Boa Vista machine.

Also, I forgot to mention that I have started making these as meals. I have named it Pop's-Meal, after the man who taught me how to make this, and make a difference. Thanks for always being there Pop.

Dias na Isla de Dunas Areias

Sleep, enjoy your precious sleep. It’s a hard thing to come by here. Between the construction workers who begin at 6 am, traffic, the party that happens every night next to my house, and the roosters who never seem to know what time of day it is, sleep is a hard commodity to find. I am also finding myself busier everyday as well; I have added three more English classes to my schedule to accommodate for the more advanced speakers. There is a huge benefit to teaching; 1) you are helping people learn a language that is truly useful in the world 2) There is a sense of gratification when teaching and 3) the instant recognition throughout the city when I walk around. For example, I was walking to one of the local stores to but some potatoes and rice, when I see a guy in a wheelchair wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, me being the Steelers fan that I am, had to ask him if he knew what his shirt meant. I then explained to him that the Steelers were my favorite team of American Football or “bruteball”. I love this word in Creole. He then goes on to explain that he knows a little bruteball and has seen a few games that have been on the television, but I digress. The point of this story was what he said as I was leaving, he told me; “I have heard about you, you’re the one teaching English in the church. You have good heart boss”. I didn’t know what to say or do; I was a little chocked up. I had never been recognized for teaching before and I didn’t expect to be, so I was taken aback at what he had said to me. I like that guy, hope I see him around town more often.

In other news, progress is coming slowly on the World Map project, and our friend Shon at the Centro de Juventude is doing his best to get us the paint we need. I was also recently approached to do a Christmas project in which groups of people go door to door and collect a small amount of money to buy food and other things for the less fortunate here on the island. I have been truly touched by the generosity that this culture has shown me. This island is truly unique, a treasure that few in this world know about. When I first arrived on this island I cursed the fact that I was placed in a city; this is not the Peace Corps that I read about, this is not what I was told I was going to be doing. However, the more I allow myself to open up to the whole experience and not worry about the details, the more I find the experience entirely enjoyable. I have found a friend, who is not American, and he is very anxious to learn more English, he is an Air Traffic Controller and is the unofficial coach of the basketball team that I play on. His English is not bad, he just needs help with some verb tenses and conjugations and he will be fluent, sounds like a task for me.

With Thanksgiving around the corner one can’t help but think about family. This will be my second Thanksgiving away from my family; the first was due to school obligations in America. However, this time I will be surrounded by a different family, my Peace Corps family. Several volunteers from Santiago are coming here on the 26th with a turkey in tow. I plan to extend an open invitation to all of my neighbors to join in the festivities to share a little American culture. The neighbors will be happy to learn that I will not be cooking, and probably more likely to participate. My culinary skills don’t venture far beyond a grill. I have however mastered the art of baking chicken here! A friend of mine, who runs a local restaurant, gave me the secret which I will reveal….. never.

To: Roosterless Eight Hour Sleep Friends

From: Sleepless in Cape Verde

Days on a Dune Island

So it’s been awhile since my last post, believe me I have my reasons. How am I supposed to top dolphin-saving, Giardia-fighting, turtle-protecting blogs? My life seems to have found some sort of groove here in Sal Rei, and it has nothing to do with my primary assignment (the National Park that may never commence). I am teaching 8 English classes now, 6 in my house and 2 at Nazarene church a little bit up the hill from my house. Mondays and Wednesdays I go to the church and teach for roughly an hour and half from 7 to 8:30pm. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I teach two classes a night in my house, these are by far my favorites. The classes in my house are smaller and we are able to cover more material. These classes have some cool benefits as well. One of my students is the owner of a local restaurant, and she makes the best Cape Verdean cheese cake, which she is kind enough to make for me sometimes. Also, there is a stigma of bad customer service here in Cape Verde, no more sirs and mams, one of my classes is made up entirely of the waitresses of some restaurants in town.

In other local news, my favorite bread-lady has left Boa Vista for her home on Fogo, very sad. I saw her in the Plaza and she called me over. As, I walk a little closer she has a look of concern in her face. She tells me that she is going to Fogo and Brava, so naturally I ask her when she is coming back. Never! What do you mean never? She then proceeds to explain to me that she misses her family and she doesn’t like it here. She makes me promise to find her when I come visit Fogo, and so I do. So the once busy Padaria is no more. My impromptu Portuguese lessons are no more. I will miss my friend, but I am happy for her, she wants to be with her family. I find a bit of a paradox that as I get busier, I feel as though I have more time doing nothing.

I had a meeting with a few people from the Boa Vista government and my friend, the director of the library, in which we discussed a project from Christmas. The plan is to make a Christmas tree entirely out of recycled 1.5 liter coke and sprite bottles. There will also be a contribution from the churches whom I believe, if I heard it correctly, are making a nativity scene out of old juice containers. Not exactly how I pictured myself inducing environmental change, but I’ll take what I can get.

In other news, I am now in possession of flippers for snorkeling. A friend of mine who lives in the same complex as me has loaned them to me indefinitely. My snorkeling adventures have become more frequent and have become a fairly good integration tool. Every time I go there is always someone watching and eventually they wander close enough for me to talk to. We’ll talk about any and everything, eventually using my snorkeling mask and flippers to go on their own little adventures. And supposedly, there are better spots to snorkel that some of them have promised to take me to, but they tell me that I have found a good spot because there are so many fish there. Way to go mom and dad on the snorkeling stuff! Everyone tells me they are “profissional”, no translation necessary.

On another note, I think I have decided to allow myself 1 shower every two days instead of three. That third day makes a big difference in the amount of water we consume, but it also makes a big difference in the way one smells.

Sorry for the lame blog, cooler things to come!

To: My Mothers; Biological Mother (love you mom), "Hood" Mothers, and Cape Verdean Mother

From: Needing a Shower

Africa Needs You

Sometimes I wonder to myself, what the hell I am doing here. It seems as though I don’t do anything, I spend the majority of time just hanging out it seems, but these seemingly mundane days have their effect. Simply being out in the community can have an impact on those who see you. I walk the streets of Sal Rei, and my name is yelled from across the street; “Matios, how are you, are you passing well”, and sometimes I am mistaken for Danny, but hell, were both “white” Americans, what’s the difference.

But the real reason I am writing this blog is to inform you all that I am in the middle of a big project known worldwide, called World Map, see this link if interested: http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/media/PCTimes2010_01.pdf

I have been in contact with a pastor from the church in front of the primary school, where we plan on doing this project, and he is very excited about the project. He actually dropped by my English class this morning to observe, and has asked me to teach an English class in one of the classrooms at the church to adults in the community! A real board on which to teach, righteous! But back to the project, December 5th is International Volunteers Day (IVD), and in conjunction with this, Danny and are inviting some of his 7th grade class to paint the countries which Danny and I will have completed by the time IVD arrives. I would like to ask my American friends for some help, if you could send any of the following items for this project as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated:
Erasers
Masking tape
Small paint brushes
Erasers
Protractor
Black Sharpies (wide-tipped, medium, and small)
Pencils
Sharpener

Thank you for any assistance that you can provide, and remember mail takes a little over two weeks to get here. No rush or anything, but seriously, sorry for the late notice. Address:

Matthew Acre
Correio de Boa Vista
Boa Vista, Cape Verde
Via Portugal
Par Avion

To: International Volunteers (that's you if you're reading this)

From: Lacking Materials

Emmerson The Marine Biologist

The phone rings loudly, interrupting what was one of the best nights of sleep for me in Cabo Verde. I look at the clock, its 5:45. What could be so important to warrant a phone call? I sleepily ask “oi, tudu bien pomodi bu tchoma-m ke-li hora” (hey, how’s it going, why are you calling me this early)? The voice answers in English; it’s a friend of mine who speaks very well. She informs me of about 50 Dolphins that have washed upon a shore that is perhaps a 15 minute walk from my house. I am so excited; I can hardly contain myself, excited for several reasons. One, I am no longer deathly ill and feel up to the task of saving dolphin lives. Two, I am getting phone calls from locals informing me of events occurring within Sal Rei! The latter is quite possibly one of the most important things that could happen to me; this means I am, as Peace Corps loves to say, “integrating”.

As I arrive to the ghastly scene of approximately 60 dolphins washed upon the only rocks within 20 kilometers, I notice that most of the locals are just watching as one Italian woman tries to pull the dolphins back into the ocean. I immediately begin helping, waiting for each wave to come in, thus making the dolphins easier to pull. A Capeverdean woman walks up to me and says, “You know that the dolphins will just come back”, but this does not detour me from trying, and I tell her that I must try. I don’t know what sparked the people standing around watching, but the first help comes in the form of a 10 year-old boy named Emmerson. How fitting, this is the name of my favorite brother during my home-stay on Santiago. He helps me drag the dolphins one-by-one, into the ocean where I take over and swim them out as far as I can (roughly 300 yards).

One problem, what the woman has told me about the dolphins coming back was holding true. So the boy looks at me, and says “let’s find the biggest dolphin that still has a little life and put her in the ocean, she will call to the others”, brilliant! We find the biggest one and begin moving all the rocks in front of her, as to cause as little bodily damage as possible. We get her in the ocean and I swim her out far, by the time we get the next one in the ocean, a boat has shown up with two marine biologists who live here on Boa Vista. They help me and the others corral the dolphins that are in the ocean and prevent them from swimming back to shore.

After roughly three hours, we have 13 dolphins in open-ocean, thanks to the help of a boat and 6 other Capeverdeans. One of whom, turns out to be Emmerson’s father. We talk for a few minutes about his boy, and I tell him that he has a good kid who seems to care about the environment and understands the importance of conservation. He tells me that his boy wants to be a biologist! Which would explain the boys fondness to me, I had told him that I am an ecologist/biologist, and that I am here working with the Ministry of Environment. After all the work has been done, a few people show up from the Ministry, and ask me if I have done a count on the dolphins that were beyond saving. I tell them no but, I would do it now; 46 dead. This number puts a shadow over the minuscule number that are currently swimming, but I still feel accomplished, just slightly less so.

The article that was written up for “ASemana”, the Cape Verde newspaper, fails to mention any dolphins saved, but those of us that were there know that we were successful in saving the lives of a few dolphins. Thanks to by new buddy Emmerson, whom I plan to meet with again soon. Who knows, one day he may be an influential scientists, one can dream.

To: The Future Scientists

From: Aspiring Scientist

I Have What?

Rewind… roughly six weeks. I’m standing in my host-mother’s kitchen watching her make some food. She is drinking some substance slightly resembling milk, and she offers me some. I am unsure; I waft a little in the direction of my nose to get a better sense of what is before me. She says that the milky substance is in fact milk from a goat, but the smell is wrong, but what the hell, this is Africa right? Let’s get a little cultural. I take a swig, and am immediately disgusted with myself, that is no milk that I have ever had. Unpasteurized mixed with vinegar and sugar. My stomach churns as I begin to digest this odd concoction of liquids. Little did I know that I was contracting a little parasite called Giardia.

The last few weeks of pre-service training consist of spontaneous vomiting and bowel movements of the most wicked kind. On one occasion I actually awoke to a rather unfortunate accident, this incident occurred early enough in the morning to awake and use the washboard to clean my sheets before any member of my family knew what was occurring. When my mother awakes, she asks me why my sheets are drying on the roof. I tell her that they were dirty and that I needed to clean them, she says “why so early”? I pretend that I don’t understand and just go on about my morning routine. As I arrive to the center where we have technical session, four other trainees are already sitting in the center. They greet me; “Bon dia Matt, how are you”? Reply; “I pooped the bed this morning”. Now, I realize that you reading this back in the states may think that this is ridiculous but realize that bowel movements are like pillow talk here. My fellow trainees cannot contain themselves, they begin laughing hysterically at me, and to be fair, this is rather humorous.

Later that day Estavon, the Peace Corps driver, takes the 3 environmental trainees along with one other trainee to Praia, for a meeting with the Director of environmental affairs for Cape Verde. The trainees are asking me questions about my incident and I recap my story, and maybe I embellish a little. Estavon hears some of it, but misses the story punch-line, so I tell the story again in Kriolu. Now, the story is sufficiently funny in English, but outrageous in Kriolu. At the end of my story Estavon and all the other trainees are laughing uncontrollably, and Estavon tells me, “oh, that’s normal”. This statement throws the already hysterical, into almost violent laughter. If only I could continue to laugh.

During our short stint in Praia I began a rapid decline to what eventually led to a sleepless night and medicine that only alleviated some of my symptoms. The last few days on Santiago were painful and long. Upon my arrival to Boa Vista, I was sure that with me now in complete control of my diet and drinking water that I would recover. Boy was I wrong. Three more weeks of hell and I just couldn’t take the pain, drowsiness, and dehydration anymore. I called our Peace Corps Medical Officer and she says immediately, let’s get you tested. I turn in two samples, one on a Thursday and one on Friday. The weekend is rather rough, the waiting is the worst. On Monday sometime in the afternoon I receive a phone call from Doc, and she says, “Matthew, your results came back positive for Giardia”, what the hell is Giardia? Anywhow, she continues to tell me that the pharmacies here are currently out of the remedy that will get these little monsters out of me, but what’s the difference? I’ve been waiting for 6 weeks, what’s another day or two. So I receive the medicine and now it’s only a matter of time. Who knew that a harmless drink could bring so much pain? Stay tuned… next week I’ll tell you about the dolphin lives I saved!

To: Healthy

From: Recovering

Turtles and Parasites

The days seem to go by quicker, and I find my mind wandering less every day. However, I wish I could say all was good on Boa Vista, as soon as I feel like I don’t have a nutrient-sucking, energy-draining, parasite living in my body, I think I’ll be better. Enough about the good stuff, I know what you all want to hear about… right?..... Turtles, me too.

I arrive at the “turtle camp” around 3 p.m. and begin the meet with the group camping at Boasesperanca, the beach with the broken boat. I am first greeted by Mafalda, a semi-attractive Portuguese girl of about 22 years. She introduces herself as the director of this campsite and tells me that I am on the midnight turtle patrol tonight. I then continue to meet with all the other people in the camp, one being Domenico, a very cool Italian guy who works in a national park in the southern part of Italy. I then meet all of the Capeverdeans, they are cold towards me in the beginning. We sit. I stare at the ocean through a crack in the tents, the sun is stifling, and we are deafeningly quiet. I jump in, I begin asking the Capeverdeans where they are from and why they are here, I learn that they are soldiers and have been placed here to guard the turtle volunteers. Slowly, they realize that I speak some Kriolu, I think they are impressed, and they begin to joke with me. Within an hour I had the table roaring in laughter, in 2 languages, but I think the soldiers are mostly laughing at me. After I realized that I had exhausted my Kriolu vocabulary, I became a little nervous…. I have nothing left to say, but I don’t want to go back to the awkward…. saved by my new good friend, the Italian. He says, “I am going for a walk, would you like to come with?”, of course I would like to come with. We walk and talk for hours, we say nothing for hours. Upon returning to the camp I can smell the aroma of dinner, and by the looks of it, snail is on the menu for the evening, it’s delightful. I catch a few hours of sleep after dinner and awake for my patrol. I go with Andrea, a beautiful girl from Switzerland, and Sakiss, a soldier in the Cabo Verde Army. To my surprise, he is dressed entirely in black and is carrying an AK-47. I feel as though I am going in to battle. We walk the 20 km patrol with no sightings (this is the end of the season, so no reason to be alarmed), and return for bed. The next few days are similar to this, except for one day when we find a nest that had been raided by crabs. We find a lone hatchling and take him back to base-camp to be released that night. They honor is given to me, and so I go down to the beach with everyone and turtle hatchling in-hand, I place him in the sand and watch him run to freedom, except, he is snatched by a crab and eaten. I have failed my one and only objective! A little sad, but this is the outcome for most turtle hatchlings, he never stood a chance alone anyhow.
The fact that I am eating for free is nice, because at this point Danny and I have no money and have been eating rice for a couple days. Time for Domenico to leave, we exchange information and I give him the number to a friend of mine who is living on Sal, since he is on his way there for a few days. He gives me the bro shake/hug, and I am actually sad to see him go, maybe he will come back next year for turtle season.

I am back in town, and back to the mundane, I feel weaker than ever due to what I can only assume to be a parasite. I can’t let the potential parasite keep me from living though, and besides, my language professor from Santiago Island has come to visit for the weekend. I have invited him and his colleague to stay with us so they don’t have to pay for a hotel. Still penniless, Africano, my language professor, has agreed to pay for our meals while he is staying in our house, score! We travel the island with him and end up on the far eastern coast where I find several people that I have meet with in Sal Rei, and with Turtle Foundation. We decide to stay for a bit and chat with members of this small village. The evening comes to an anticlimactic end, and I am exhausted. I fall asleep slightly romanticizing my time in America and unsure of my purpose here. Perhaps when I am parasite-free, my outlook will be different. Oh and wish me luck, I find out what exciting ailment I have tomorrow!

To: My Healthy Friends

From: Slightly Less Healthy

Where Am I

La…… what does it mean? In Kriolu, this translates as; there. This story takes place in “downtown” Sal Rei, better known as the praca. I meet with Ivon, at the Ministério da Ambiente, she is the director of the environmental arm of the Capeverdean government here on Boa Vista. I talk with her a little about my background, and her background. After our conversation, she tells me that I am supposed to have a desk here and a computer, but they didn’t know I was coming? Yeah I can’t figure that one out either. She tells me that it would be best for me to meet with the two NGO environmental groups here on the island, and she exits to make a few phone calls while I awkwardly sit with two other guys in the office and timidly try to have a conversation. Ivon returns and tells me that I need to return at “tresi hora”, I repeat; “tres hora?” and she confirms. I leave the office feeling slightly accomplished that I had those conversations in Kriolu. I return at 2:45 because I did not want to be late for my first meeting! Ivon looks at the clock, then me, then the clock, and finally me. She says, “I said tresi houra”. I say “I know, I didn’t want to be late”. She proceeds to pull out a piece of paper and write the number 13, she was trying to tell me that my meeting was at 1p.m., not 3p.m. So, Ivon and I are both a little frustrated with the other one and she tells me to go and meet with Christian, who is in charge of Turtle Foundation. I ask where the building is and she says “la”, and points in a general direction, I laugh a little and ask her what color is the building and she tells me the building is green and has two stories and is near a bar. So I tell her that I will be fine and that I can most likely find the building. She looks at me and I can tell she has no confidence in my ability to find it. I begin walking to “la”, and as I get near where I think the TF is I begin asking people on the street where this building is and most of them look at me and say, I’m not sure but I think its “la”. So, I walk to “la”, for a long time. Until, I hear oh TF is “li”, which translates as; here!!!! I am overjoyed, the building must be very close for that word to be used, the man points at a two story green building that has no obvious markings on it. I go to the building and knock on the door, no answer. I knock again… no answer. I am so frustrated at this point and I am just sure Christian thinks I am completely incompetent, I can’t even find a building. So I go home defeated, tell my roommate about my fun experience with the word “la”, and we both have a good laugh, because he knows exactly what I am talking about.

The next morning I wake up, have my coffee, the instant junk. I can’t seem to find a percolator of any kind here. After breakfast and coffee, I begin my journey again, this time I armed with the knowledge from a friend of mine who works at the library in Sal Rei. He gives me wonderfully easy directions, and I find the building in a matter of minutes this time. Christian opens the door and I introduce myself as a Peace Corps Volunteer and tell him my ecology background and my herpetology background. He seems fairly excited about this, a good start, and then comes my apology for missing our meeting the day before. I tell him that I am so sorry, that I had misunderstood the time, and it won’t happen again, he looks at me with uncertainty, and says “I knew nothing about a meeting, and I was definitely not at the office yesterday at 1”! I just want to laugh, but I keep my composure and finish out our meeting on a strong note. I set up a date to help out with the turtle work “li”, and will begin “la” very soon.

To: The Directionally Challenged

From: Linguistically Challenged

Home

Where do I begin… let’s start this journey in Picos, and the goodbyes that I had with my family there. The time is 7 p.m. and I am returning from a day in Assomada with other Peace Corps volunteers, and surprise surprise, there is no power. As I walk up the dark, lonely dirt road to my house for the last time I hear nothing… no Funana, no Batuka, and not many voices. Believe me, this is very odd. As I enter the house my mom says to me “we don’t have light”, obvious as it may be, generally worth stating in Cape Verde. As I enter the living room I see candles burning everywhere, and everyone that I had meet over the past 10 weeks was in the living room with massive amounts of food and of course, the pigeons that had been given to me as presents were made into soup! Disclaimer: I had been asking for pigeon soup ever since I received my first pigeon in week 3. The soup was incredible; the people all had a good time, including me. We talked all night about my first day here and how completely incompetent I was, my mother actually has a pretty good impression of me from the first day that I arrived! It was done, I was packed and ready to be picked up the next morning. It was a very surreal realization, that I would not have them as my support anymore, and that we had grown incredibly close. When the Peace Corps car arrived my mother looked at me and said: “I will have a longing for you and you will always stay in my heart”. This made me a little teary-eyed, all the memories of the past 10 weeks came flooding back, all the memories of my family in America the day they left me at the airport, I remember my mother, surprisingly strong, say: “stay safe, I love you”. I now have two mothers in this world, that’s pretty lucky.

Continuing, all 24 trainees swear-in and are now volunteers. We, the 11 Small Enterprise Development volunteers, hurriedly meet with a counterpart that will be essential to our time in Cape Verde. Then off to Boa Vista I go. As I arrive I am met by a guy who has my name written on a piece of paper, correctly, and we talk about Boa Vista and Sal Rei and where the best places to go are, where I should never go because of the “thugis”. I arrive at my apartment and ask myself: “am I really in Africa”. This place is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and this is probably the most environmentally conscious population on Cape Verde, due to the very large population of sea turtles that visit here. So when I tell people that I am starting a new national park, people are genuinely interested. Many people here that I have had interactions with speak kriolu similar to what I learned during my time on Santiago, which is a huge relief. These first few days have been hectic, trying to get moved in and settled. Danny, my new roommate, and I have hired a very nice lady, Filo, to clean our clothes and house, and occasionally make us food, but I am tired of the constant irregularness that has been pre-service training. I just want to make my own food, and today Danny and I made tortillas… they were delicious. As the sun was setting in Boa Vista, Danny and I walked to the “loja” near our house, we sat on the cobblestone street listening to Mourna and singing along to the American songs that the people hanging at the loja could play. Here I am… home.

And so with the inaugural tortilla, beer, and Mourna I am a Peace Corp Volunteer in Boa Vista, Cape Verde.

To: Mourna Lovers Everywhere
From: Boa Vista

Dos simana

Here I am now… week 8, of a 9 week pre-service training. Much has happened since my last entry: the most important being my island announcement…. Boa Vista!!!! I am very excited about this to say the least. The country director here says that “they” were very excited about me long before I arrived, because of my background in sand dunes. Yikes. I hope they aren’t too disappointed with my minimal knowledge with dune systems, and sounds like I have a large amount of studying to do in the area of sand dunes and starting a national park. Oh did I not mention that part? Yeah, so Cape Verde wants me to help start a national park on Boa Vista as my primary assignment!!!!!! Double Yikes!!! Do they even know my background??? Last time I looked at my resume, it said nothing about even working in a park, let alone starting a new one. But hey, this is going to be one hell of ride. I accept the challenge that has been laid before in the true Peace Corps fashion; blind and broke.
I have been able to keep in touch with several people from back home. That has been nice, and helped keep me normal. I thank you everyone who has been sending me letters, it’s nice to receive a piece of mail. It seems such a simple thing, but mail makes you famous around here. Oh and when a care package comes… all the trainees gather around and watch the one person open the package and examine each item as it exits the box. A funny site, 23 adults gathered around the one who has a box.
So back to my site announcement, I will be the first volunteer on Boa Vista along with one other volunteer, Danny. I don’t know much about him other than he’s from California, knows how to surf (go figure, right), and will be teaching English in Sel Rei. He seems like a cool enough guy though, I mean he is in Peace Corps. That has to say something about him. One thing that I can see potentially being a problem is our difference in job. Danny will be very structured with an 8-5 type of job, where my “job” may not technically exist for some time. We are warned as Environmental volunteers to become very flexible and not to expect much to happen in the first year at site… triple yikes! But if this is my calling, if this is how I can save the world, through a national park, than that is exactly what I am going to do. I guess I could explain the project a little better; as part of a global initiative in conjunction with the U.N., a few environmental organizations have identified the important ecosystems of the world. As Cape Verde develops and becomes a bigger player in international business, they want to become part of the global solution as well. They have committed to 6 national parks throughout the islands, 3 of which exist already and are quasi-sustainable currently. As for the other three, this is where the three environmental volunteers from my training group come in. Sarah Chang will be starting the park on Sal, Scott Benton will start the park on Santo Antão, and of course, yours truly on Boa Vista.
My final project for PST is fast approaching… Scott, Sarah, and I are planning a nature hike to Tabugal here on Santiago with the youth of a Village near Scott. We will hike and each talk about different things that are important to the environment, I will be giving my talk on biodiversity. Should be very interesting given my limited language skills and the new vocabulary I need to learn how to pronounce. Giving a science talk in another language is like giving a talk back home, but you just can’t use any of the word you would normally use! I gave a short talk on photosynthesis to youth a couple of weeks ago, and it went well enough all things considered. But I am sure I didn’t sound credible as I sloppily stumbled over words. Oh more fun news; the language skills that I currently have, will essentially be useless in 2 weeks… northern Kriolu is that different. But hey I am a member of the Peace Corps, and last time I checked I’ll be here for two more years, that’s more than enough time to learn the language. Hopefully, by the time my parents come to visit I’ll have a solid grasp on language.
Well I guess I will leave you with the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
To leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a
garden patch or a redeemed
social condition, to know even
one life has breathed easier
because you have lived—this is
to have succeeded.


To: Those who care
From: Cabo Verdi, with love

Achada Igreja

Hello family and friends! I hope all is well back in America. Today marks the 25th day here in Cabo Verdi. Peace Corps tells us about the roller coaster ride that we will be on during our time here; we just don’t really know what they are talking about until we are here and on the ride. I was unprepared for the emotional and mental aspect of this training. The distance to something familiar, the thought of something small that you never thought you would miss; these are some of the things that can play tricks on a trainees mind.
Peace Corps has made some recent changes to our language groups which I don’t necessarily agree with. I should explain a little better how training works I guess: So, Monday through Friday we have language and culture training with a group of 3 Peace Corps Trainees (PCT), lead by a Language and Culture Facilitator (LCF). I had just become accustomed to our LCF and gotten into a groove. However, Peace Corps thought changing the groups was the better choice. What the hell do I know; maybe this is for the best. On a good note, our group of 24 trainees is supposedly the first group in the history of Peace Corps: Cape Verde to all be at the intermediate level of conversational Kriolu at our first evaluation!
I don’t think that I have said this yet and feel it necessary to say this: thank you to all of you for your role in my decision to join and do this thing. No matter how large or small your role has been in my life, your support and willingness to learn with me through this blog means the world to me. You are all my connection to what is home.
To: Mom and Dad
I love you and you are on my mind, always
N ta amor nhos y nhos ta fika na lenbransa, siempre
From: Cabo Verdi

THE BEGINING

Hello everyone! Where to begin?

-This place is wonderful! My Cape Verdean family is awesome! My mother here says, roughly translated of course, “I am going to call your house and say Paula, Matthew is no longer in America, he is standing in Cabo Verdi.” This, in Kriolu means that I am in Cape Verde to stay. No worries mother, I still love you and will return upon close of service!

-My brothers are great… we probably spend 3 hours a day asking “Ke-li e kuze”, which means “this is what”. They are very patient with my always improving language skills.

-My host father and I run every morning to the Polivilinti, which is a soccer stadium about a 15 minute run from my house. There we meet up with all of my brothers, uncles, cousins, etc. to play soccer. After, we run back to our house, shower and go to language and cultural classes until about 2. Then we have technical training or an assigned activity in our village. As I’m sure you have figured out, this first 9 weeks of pre-service training are very hectic.

-I miss you all very much.

-To: mom and dad

I love you both and I received your letter today! 2 weeks, not bad!