Fun. Either You´re For It Or Against It.

I hope this post makes a bit more sense, and doesn´t sound as crazy as my last ones. Thanks for people who have sent me emails and letters! Keep them coming! You have no idea how happy I am when I see a letter in my mailbox. I´ve gotten three letters so far, and I can assure you, I reread them every few days. So, even if you want to write me to tell me about your day, that would seriously rock.

Within Peace Corps/Cape Verde, there are two basic types of jobs. You are either doing Community Development (which is where I am at) or you are doing Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). So, next week, the CDers are going to be presenting to the TEFLers something called the Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) which is basically a set of methodological tools created by Peace Corps so that Volunteers can do community analysis and really get a good understanding for the needs of the community. We´ve actually been having this argument in CD as to the best way to present PACA to the TEFL folks. I am on the side of Fun. I say we do something memorable for the TEFL folks, because they are going to be stressed with Model School that they have next week, and probably aren´t going to care about the usefulness of PACA. Other people in CD are all about trying to explain how PACA can be useful, and why TEFL should care. They don´t seem to understand that TEFL isn´t going to be caring about anything other than the students they are going to have to deal with!!! So, I have been a vocal opponent on the side of Fun, and I can also say that it feels really good to be forced to form arguments in my head. For like the past month, I´ve been meeting new people, learning and many other exciting things, however, I haven´t been using the part of my brain that involves coming up with arguments and defending my views. And just like you need to work out in order to
keep in shape, you need have some kind of debate/discord in order to continue to hone the finer points of argumentation.

So, some of my friends back in the states would say how I would argue for the sake of arguing. And in some ways, that was true. But it wasn´t just because I liked to scream and yell or whatever. I gain better clarity of thought when I can voice my ideas, and they get challenged by other people. Though in the echo chamber of my brain, I am always correct, I know that isn´t always true in the real world, but the only way I can discover this is by talking, discussing and arguing with people.

Of course, I finally told some people yesterday my liberal hawkish views on the liberation of Iraq, so that should probably spark more discussion. We as a group really haven´t talked politics much in the past month, and I can understand why. I mean, I am going to be with these people for the next two years, do you really want to tar relationships by having political disagreements? So, I was a bit nervous about having told people (I seriously think that the closer you ideologically/politically are to people, the points of disagreement that you do have are even more inflamed) but in the end, there really is no point in hiding that. It would probably come up at
some point, and there is always benefit to challenging people´s assumptions.

So, yah! for discussion and debate. In other news, now that I have been here a while, I´ve come to the conclusion that CV is on the Edge of Africa. That will be the catchphrase that I will be using in the future to describe CV. Physically and ´mentally´ it has links to Africa, but is still different enough that you can´t call it Africa, but this ain´t exactly the West either.

And for the first time since I´ve been here, I think I´ve gone like 5 days without being sick in some manner or another! I´ve been having upset stomachs on and off for the past few weeks, and then earlier in the week, I got a sore throat which I have finally shook. My host family probably thinks Americans are the weakest bunch of people, since we were all having health issues for those first few weeks. It´s pretty funny, I didn´t even know my fellow Trainees for a month, yet I was perfectly comfortable going up to any of them and talking to them about diarrhea that I had the night before.

I finished the book I was reading on feminism. It wasn´t what I was expecting, since I was hoping for a 3rd World focus, and the author was talking more about feminism and militarism. But it was interesting nonetheless. And in a bit of news that I am sure that my former coworkers will find especially shocking, the other day in class, I actually used the phrase "the patriarchy" in a sentence without rolling my eyes, or saying it with sarcasm in my voice. So I have one more book on feminism, which I think will be a bit more on topic.

Training. Well, we will find out our site assignments at the end of next week. I really don´t care that much where I go, I would just like to know where it is that I am going. So, I am sure the next time I update the blog, I will know where I will be off too. This past Wednesday was hump day for Training! We are over halfway done! (When I made the joke to some people that "It´s all downhill from here!" one of the Trainers who overheard me was like "ah hah hah! You have no idea!")

My mood has been in flux these past few weeks. Some days, I am super confident and sure that nothing will bring me down. Other days, I just want to hide in my room and not try to speak my crappy Kriolu to anyone. But yeah, we are actually done with language training in Kriolu, this week we started Portuguese! So, it´s a bit confusing since Portuguese is like the mother tounge of Kriolu. And for a taste
of Kriolu, I offer you:

Bon dia! Ami n txoma Jende. Modi ki bu sta? Ami n mora na Boa Vista. Ami n gusta di Kabu Verdi. Ami n ten venti cinco anos. Ami n levanta seti hora e toma kafe. Dipos, ami n bai pa skola e studia Portuguese. Ami n volta pa kasa onze hora e meia e kumi kumidi. Skola dipos, ami n bai pa barro ku amigos e bibi Fanta.

So, the funny thing about Kriolu is that there technically isn´t a right or wrong way to spell or write anything! So, though I could have said something that didn´t make any sense to someone from CV, they can´t technically say that I´m wrong!

But yeah, the language acquisition goes slowly. It´s just tough for me to have a full day of classes, and then go home and study more language. I just want to go read something in English, or not have to think about the day, ya know?

So, I have made some friends here. And in the greatest traditions of this blog, I won´t be using any of their real names. Instead, you can refer to them as "Sugarlips," "My Friend (Who´s Father is a Priest)," "No Pun Intended," "Monkey Bar," and "Da Geek." Of course, I know more people, but since I haven´t thought up names for them yet, I have nothing to say about them! :-)

We had a cultural event the other week, where the PCT´s cooked American food, and our host families cooked CV food, and we had a potluck at the school. I worked with No Pun Intended and My Friend (Who´s Father is a Priest) to make omelets. As some of you know, I am not that big into cooking in the U.S. and I really don´t care that much about food. But I can also say that I never thought seeing an omelet would remind me of home so much! You probably have never seen three Americans rave so much over some eggs, cheese, tomato's and green peppers. But it was great, and the food at the cultural event was awesome. Afterwards, there was some traditional CV dancing, and
then a lot of the Trainees got roped into dancing in the circle. Lucky for me, I avoided that fate. But again, it will be a while till I get those photos up (But I will give a shoutout to No Pun Intended because she kicked ass in the circle.)

I have also updated my flickr.com photos, so be sure to check those out. I also updated that page with things you can send, if you so please.

I have also started offering a service to my fellow Trainees. Since I catch the BBC World news on my shortwave radio, I end up writing what I hear and positing it on the wall in school for others, which people seem to appreciate. So, I do the news. It´s interesting how people will create work for themselves even when it´s not necessary. I don´t really get anything concrete out of doing it, but I am just happy enough to spread the information to the rest of us news deprived folks.

Well, OK, I have covered pretty much everything that I wrote down that I should touch upon. I hope that everyone is doing well. Drop me a line, I will probably check my email in the next two weeks, and would like to hear from you!