A week in my life- Sunday

Hello everyone! Since so many of you seem to be curious about my daily life in Cape Verde, I've decided to do a day by day account of this week for you all. Here's what I did on Sunday, and stay tuned for the rest of the week!

6:30 am – Wake up to my very reliable burro alarm clock. No way around waking up when the donkeys start talking, but hey if I was carrying all kinds of heavy stuff (water, firewood, beans, hay, etc.) on my back up a hill with some guy whacking me with a stick, I’d be hysterical as well.  Then I get ready for church. Today this includes cleaning and putting cream on my strange arm rash/ possible fungus….the usual.

8am- Spot my church walking buddy and good friend walking down the hill. She calls me from the road
“Oiiii Szashaaaa, Duuuuu Baiii," (Hey Szasha, let’s go)   and I am once again impressed with how Cape Verdean women can make themselves heard so clearly from so far away. We then walk the 45 minutes to church very briskly with me practically running to keep up with a women who is a good 6inches shorter than me.  We discuss the weather, the latest town gossip, the weather some more, and how strange the bruma seka (sand from the Sahara dessert blown to the islands in hazy clouds which keep planes from landing and church going walkers from seeing the ocean) is today. The walk is a constant string of “Mashi Bon?” with our replies, that yes, we did wake up good today.

The walk to church (on a clear day a few weeks ago- no Saharan sand cloud) 

9-10:30-attend Catholic mass,the thing to do in my community on Sundays, conducted in Kriolu, and catch up with friends and students from other zones. Here Portuguese hymns are accompanied by African drumming in a blending of cultures that is truly beautiful. After church, I find a clutch bolea (free ride back to my house) from my neighbors!  As I am walking up the hill to my house, one of my favorite ladies on the street invites me to come back for lunch, so I hurry home to wash my laundry.

The church my community goes to

10:30-12:30- frantically bati ropa (wash clothes) with my washboard and buckets, so that I can get the clothes up and drying above my house before lunch.

Cape Verdean Washing Machine 

12:30-3- Have a saaaaabbbbii (really good) lunch with Louisa. She made fish catxupa  (Cape Verde’s national dish, a delicious stew-like food make of cracked corn, fava beans, vegetables, and any kind of meat you want, if you have it). After lunch we cut open a fresh papaya which, as promised, proves to be doce de mas (the most sweet) and chat about how to make chickens fat, the latest novella news (Brazilian soap opera), and life.  I stay a couple of hours, then head home to finish washing my clothes.

3-6:30- I get home and visit with my neighbors then finish bati-ing. A constant stream of visitors come by as I do some work around my house (sweep the kintal, wash dishes, put more cream on my arm fungus…etc.) Then my neighbor calls me to caska her beans with her because she knows that sitting with my them, chatting, and shelling beans is one of my very favorite things to do.

6:30- Go get my fresh, sun- dried clothes  off the line, fold them up, and once again wonder at how miraculously clean you can get a super muddy, sweaty, maybe even moldy shirt with a washboard and some elbow grease.

6:45-  Take a nice cold, sun-set lit bucket bath and put on fresh clothes!

7pm- heat up dinner. Yesterday, I found some curry powder, so I made curry with chicken, sweet potatoes, and kale- a nice break from the usual rice and beans…but, the weird thing is that as I’m heating up this exotic masterpiece of a dinner, I’m having major sodadi pa nha arroz e fixon (really missing my usual rice and beans)....ill take that as a sign of true community integration!

8-10- lesson plan, lesson plan. lesson plan

10- I wash my face, brush my teeth, reapply fungus/rash/mystery lesion cream, tuck in my mosquito net, and fall asleep watching the stars out my window.  Durmi Dretu!  (sleep well) 

Thanks for reading  and Fika Dretu (stay well),

Szasha