Change of weather.

Today was nice and sunny. Although this is nothing strange for Cape Verde, it did mark a change in the weather of this last week. The day started out slow, as most days do. I got together with my neighbor/friend Janine and we sat and had a nice cup of blackberry tea courtesy of my mom. We passed the time by people watching the people coming into the village. We would try to predict which of the two directions they would take at the split into town. When that game got old, we watched the fig tree and tried to guess how many leaves would fall in a period of five minutes. 13. This remained the pace of the day until my friend Niton stopped by and coaxed me to go with him for a run. We went, and it was exhausting. That exhaustion was perfect. To enjoy relaxation, one needs to be tired. Expending my energy really felt rewarding. Later that day I gave my English class again which we restarted on Monday. Monday we had 7 people, today we had 5. It is a good group though, and although they may never use English in their lives, I think we all at least have fun.

Words from friends

One of my wisier friends from back home gave me some well placed words today and for that I am grateful. Today was like any other day, however I managed to keep some good momentum by doing the right things. I fed myself fairly well today which kept my spirits high. I sweated out a good bit as I did a Ribeira run, and I got to give an English class today which had an excellent turnout of 7 people. If everyday were like today my service would be a complete success.

It's been a while

It's been a good time since I posted last. I haven't posted largely out of embarassment. The hail mary Jatropha project has fizzled. The information I was supposed to recieve about how to create such a biofuel came in the form of a facebook post, not the complete information package I was expecting. To do the training would require thousands of dollars, and I have yet to see any evidence that the product would be viable, especially at such a remote location. I have been toying with other ideas, but none have come to fruition. I have decided to set my sights lower, something I should have done a long time ago.

I am going for the easiest Peace Corps project imaginable, the World Map Project. It consists of organizing a group of people, getting 70 dollars worth of paint supplies, and spending a weekend painting a map on a wall. I've decided I can't fail at this. Although I've met with the youth group several times about this they remain unmotivated. The only thing that peaks their interest is when I speak of potential camping trips with other PCVs, because they imagine they will get to hit on the American girls. I am fundamentally disappointed, but It's no matter. I have decided to ignore the mantras we were taught during training and prepare to do this project on my own if need be. I figure if I start painting this thing myself, and others see that its more fun what they normally do they may buy into it. Worst case scenario, I'm out 70 bucks, but at least the community knows what the world looks like outside of Cape Verde.

I had some of my neighbors over to play darts today, and that was a nice relief.