End of May

Basic update of the things here

Computer donation project: Local government has promised us logistical assistance once the computers are shipped to the island of Santo Antao. Translation: If we get the $22,000 dollars to arrange, ship, ship again, inspect and transport the computers to the schools, they will accept them. Big thanks.

English instruction: After the average class size became .5 I decided to begin again with a different demographic. I started teaching English for tourism, and had a good number of people declare strong interest in the class. Wednesday's turnout: 5, 3 of which came upon my pleading and were just passing by, 1 of which was me.

Drip irrigation project: The minister of education laid down the first brick for the new resevoir tank last month. It is to date, the only brick there.

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New projects:

Study for the foreign service exam.
Study for the GRE
Cook every recipe in the Peace Corps cookbook
Eat the tomatoes I planted in February
Take photos of everything I own
Alphabatatize my TO DO list
Write another unpublished book

Suggestions?

Cooking

Cooking is important here. The time spent cooking is probably the easiest time to multitask that exists. Boredom is easy to withstand when your belly is full and the numbing presence of a food coma prevails throughout your body. Throw a cup of coffee on top of that and what was once tedius becomes "relaxing".

Street Value of a Bachelor's in Liberal Arts

My official country counterpart last night decided he would include me in something the association was doing. In a week or so, the association will be hosting a meeting to unite the other local associations to form a network of associations for greater bargaining power. An excellent idea. My role, as a college educated volunteer with experience in facilitation and running meetings has finally gotten a role in something the association is doing. I have been requested to wash dishes and help peel the manioc for the dinner.

Care Package

Today I recieved a domestic care package. It was well put together and contained a CD which had an arrangement of songs almost identical to a CD I was going to make myself. I rocked it as I played darts and contemplated what to do with the millions of hours I have left. Life is good.

Progress

Yesterday was stellar. I went flat broke paying my internet bill, but it was worth it. When I returned to Cha I spent the latter part of the afternoon setting up a dartboard. Normally this process takes a good 15 minutes in America where tools are easily at hand and all walls are made of wood. Here, on the other hand, the process is quite complicated. The people in my village are the definition of the word helpful. I recruited two friends of mine to help set it up. This involved drilling holes into solid rock and screwing a sheet of protective wood to the wall. Hours of borrowing tools all over town, improvising washers from wine corks and broken sandals, and keeping my worker's morales high with grog, cigarettes, and coffee the project was a success. I not only owe a gigantic thanks to all of the people in my town who helped me with this project, but also to my brother who magically knew the perfect gift for me and sent it to me without me even asking. My other brother, I owe much praise to as well, for he sent me the box of leathermans (leathermen?) which made installation possible. When I woke up this morning I felt extremely happy because I felt like I went to sleep in my house and woke up in my home. Throwing darts (for the first time in daylight in Cape Verde) brought me back to the priceless days of spending time with my college roommates killing hours aiming for that 20 times 3 zone.

Oh and my drip irrigation project finally got approved and they are laying the first brick today,

Tope De Coroa

About a month ago I crashed a seminar on drip irrigation that was happening in Paul. It has come to that. While I was there I met some international types (Canaries and Spanish). They mentioned in passing that they were gearing up for a backpacking trip to the highest point on the island(Tope De Coroa). When they found out (unaccidently) that I like to backpack too, they added me to the team. We left Cha De Igreja on a Saturday at the crack of dawn. The 5 of us went up and down mountains for the majority of that day. We took rest stops occasionally and I got to spend some time in Cha De Igreja's long lost cousin "Ribeira Alta". That night we arrived around 9 PM in the Boca de Alta Mira and we befriended the schoolkeeper to let us use that facility to lay down our bags.
The following morning we trekked to Ribeira da Cruz and continued through the beautiful 45 degree angled "Martiene" We kept going until we reached the side of my island that looks like a hilly Savanna with no evidence of water ever being presence there. In the middle of BFN we came across a house that takes visitors and we stayed the night.

After resting, and eating at the rest stop we started walking in the direction of the big hill (Tope De Coroa). The journey up was fun. We were observed on all sides by wild goats. When we reached the top, the air was so dusty the view was practically non-existent. We took our puctures and ate our goat cheese rations and then set off down the hill. The descent was way more fun, as you could run full speed down the soft rock mixture and it felt as if one was flying. The trip was visually unexciting, but the experience itself was quite fun.

Bwaaah!

Hell yeah! I don't know why I just fell like typing that...doens't have the same value as screaming it out loud, but the townsfolk probably think I have enough parafusos loose already.. Haha, I just did it anyways. Too be fair, my walls are cement and soundproof and no one really knows what that means here. Unfortunately, I have not found an equally enthusiastic Creolo phrase. It is probably like "Very Well" = Muito Bem! Just said enthusastically. My enthusiasm comes from an unknown source, but I don't mind waking up feeling my oates from time to time. I got up and I thought to myself..jeez Grant..you have absolutely no idea what you're going to do today (aside from tenatively translate a letter with the principal of the school). I was thinking about hiking down to the canyon today and looting an old washing machine frame that was down there. If I could powersaw the sides off, I think they would make great shelves for my work in progress bookshelf.

But Thomas, you might ask, why build a shelf out of scrap metal and tin cans when you have all your fora money accumulating and you could just go out and buy one the next time you're in Ribeira Grande. The answer, of course, is that if I bought one it would be hard for me to justify building one out of tin cans and scrap metal. Listening to funana in the morning is like drinking a coffee through an IV, and instead of going to just your bloodstream it goes to your soul too, the end.