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 

Gripe Rixu

Hello everyone! I’ve been sick for a few days now with what can only be described as gripe rixu. Nearly every sickness imaginable here is referred to as gripe and many people pride themselves on their personal gripe cures. I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some of the remedies that I have been offered as my sickness as transformed from body pain and a fever to a sore throat and runny nose.  Last Saturday, I had a fever and spent the whole day in bed wishing I had the energy to do something. The day was not entirely lost however because I was showered with kindness from my community and offered these cures for fever:

● Drink txeu (a lot of) fresh cow milk

● Make lemon tea

● Climb up the mountain, pick a weed that grows laaaaa riba   (way up the mountain) and make a tea from it (As I was told this one, I couldn’t help but envision the epic hunt for the eagle eggs of Nacho Libre)

So after a few days of lemon tea, milk, and some non-aspirin fever reducer from my Peace Corps med kit, the fever was gone, but I was left with the same painfully sore throat that half my community has and a bunch of snot. That’s where the second round of remedy suggestions came in:

● Take a shot of hot (flaming is best) grog (local, barely refined, super forti alcohol made of sugarcane)

● more lemon tea, but this time mixed with sumu de tambarina (tamarin juice)

●Very bitter tea made from one of the grasses in front of my house… who knew that I was living on top of a natural pharmacy??

That’s when my landlord, a Cape Verdean woman who now lives in Boston, Massachusetts and is here visiting, intervened. She gave me her “bon remedi de America” – Dayquill, calling it the best medicine in the world and bringing my healing, cultural experience full circle.

Don’t worry, with all of the Cape Verdean remedies and a little help from my well stocked medical kit, I’m getting better and even have my voice back, which is convenient for teaching stuffed classrooms of teenagers! So who knows if it was the tincture from the mountain, the flaming grog, or the Dayquill, but Im glad to be feeling better!  Love to you all and enjoy the picture of the mountain (actually the backside of the volcano) -home to the mysterious fever-reducing leaves! 

7 Months to make the most

Hello everyone! I figured it would be appropriate to make my first “real” blog post about the most dramatic news in my life lately: that I will be transferring to Peace Corps Mozambique in September. After 24 years of service in Cape Verde, Peace Corps headquarters has decided to graduate Cape Verde as a Peace Corps post. This decision is the result of Cape Verde’s recent and rapid development and  lack of funding for what is a very expensive post to maintain.  Although I understand this reasoning and am excited to embark on yet another adventure in Mozambique, my parting from Fogo, the volcano I have called home for this year, will be bittersweet. However, I feel honored to have been a part in the final step of Peace Corps aid in Cape Verde. As I listen to stories from my older neighbors about how they lived in “tempo bedju”, (the old days), the recent developmental accomplishments of the country become apparent and I am grateful to have been a part of this beautiful country’s journey to where it stands today.  There are currently many newly trained teachers searching for work, and to know that one of these very capable and empowered Cape Verdeans will be taking over my job brings happiness to my transition.

                As I look back upon my service here, not one, but hundreds of moments come to mind which inspire me to continue my service in Mozambique. Talking and laughing as the sun rises over the mountain during our climb to harvest beans with the women of my community or holding a grieving widow’s hand as she wails for her recently deceased husband, but smiles at me because she appreciates my hand of support. Knowing that my neighbors, by now my Cape Verdean family, care to teach me their ways and protect me or talking with my students about their futures and dreams as we create works of art. The way that a student’s eyes light up as they finally understand a concept or hearing their gradual yet rewarding progress in their attempts to speak English with me on my porch. The way the women who taught me to carry 50 pound sacks of beans or buckets of water down the mountain on my head used to laugh with love when the water or beans slipped from my unaccustomed head, and how they would always have the time, if not at the moment, to appreciate and encourage my efforts to integrate into their way of life. The way my community would bombard me with home -made remedies when I was sick or teaching my host mother, one of the strongest and most inspirational women I have ever met, how to swim, helping her to conquer what seemed to be her only fear, the waves of the ocean.  These moments along with countless others with my host family, community members, and fellow volunteers and dear Cape Verdean friends have made my time as an English teacher in Cape Verde one of the most interesting, inspiring, and memorable periods of my life, and although I will miss and never forget these experiences, I am excited to make new memories in Mozambique.  Although the moment of departure will be tear –filled upon leaving my community, I knew that Peace Corps would involve the unexpected and am ready to embrace this moment as part of the adventure.

                I am grateful for the next six months that I have to complete my service in Cape Verde before transferring to Mozambique. I will not be leaving Cape Verde until the end of September and as of now, the volunteers on Fogo have many exciting projects in the works!  We are working on a leadership  and sports camps for local youth, on establishing volunteer groups to continue our legacy of service, on creating murals in our communities, on material and resource development to leave for those Cape Verdean teachers who will replace us, and on countless other activities before be leave! As we will be the last memory of Peace Corps in Cape Verde, I am preparing to make a tremendous push these next six months to leave the best and brightest impression of our service on my community, my island, and for Cape Verde as a whole. Thanks for reading! More updates later, and love to you all!   Oh and the picture is of another volunteer and great freind of mine Mi-Mi, and our wonderful host siblings during training!

Hello!

Hello! I finally made a blog! I know I haven’t been the best about keeping you all posted about my life here in Cape Verde, so I figured this would be a great way to keep in touch with all you wonderful people who care about my adventures! I’m currently living the Peace Corps Cape Verde adventure and will be posting some backdated posts to give you an idea of what my journey as an English teacher has been like so far, and then move on with current life adventures! AT this moment, I live in a rural community on the island of Fogo  in the Republic of Cape Verde ( for any of you who are really behind on my life, I joined the Peace Corps and have been teaching English on a volcano off the coast of West Africa for the last 7 months)! To start with, here is a picture of the sunset and neighboring island of Brava from my window! Love you all and I’ll be posting soon!