My Life in Nine Pages

Whoops, yeah, sorry about not explaining terms. I forget sometimes that Peace Corps lingo is like its own language that you must master in order to survive the two years. So here is a short translation.

IST - In Service Training. All Volunteers from around the country gather together for a week to touch base with each other and staff, talk about what we have been doing, what we can do to be more effective. Drinking will probably also be involved (Maybe.)

ET - Early Termination. This is when you wake up one day and think 'No, really, what am I doing here?' And this is followed by the realization that you actually aren't forced to stay here. Peace Corps knows that if you are unhappy or whatever, you can't be effective, so if you choose to ET, you get a ticket back to your home of record.

PST - Pre Service Training. The nine weeks (usually 12 in other Peace Corps countries) where you get language, cross cultural and technical training in order to prepare you for the first three to six months of service. Things like IST are another form of training that helps you along as you get deeper in your service.

APCD - Associate Peace Corps Director. We have three in Cape Verde, one for Community Development, one for TEFL and one for Admin. They handle the day to day things that Volunteers need to deal with.

CD - Country Director (or can also refer to Community Development, depending on the context). This is the Prime Mover. The One Who Is. It is the She (or He) Who Needs No Introduction.

So yeah, if you get tripped up on any other terms, let me know! And now, without further ado, my life in Cape Verde.

So yeah, I guess I haven’t said too much about me in recent days, I’ve mainly been going over my angst and whatnot. And what kind of PCV would I be if I didn’t spent some time transmitting the details of my life back to my friends, and random people who stumble onto this blog? After all, that’s like the second or third goal of Peace Corps, I don’t remember exactly which one.

So as you know, I live on an island called Fogo, which in Portuguese means “fire.” Cool, eh? It’s on the south side of Cape Verde, just to the west of Santiago, which is the island that I had PST on. The defining feature of my island is the volcano that last erupted in the mid-90’s. I am still not totally clear as to the topography of the volcano, since I have yet to be up to it (we were going to go this weekend, but weather hampered our plans) but there are at least two communities that live up in the crater of the volcano. The main town on the island (one of I think only three official cities in Cape Verde) is São Filipe. I haven’t had a real chance to explore it much, since it is like about a two-hour Hiace ride through gorgeous scenery to get from here to there. And the Hiaces only leave Mosteiros at 6 in the AM, and leave São Filipe at noon. And the Hiaces don’t run on Sunday. So, that really limits my options, since I can’t exactly go skipping work in order to hang out on the other side of the island. I’ve been there once using a Hiace, and another time, the Camara was nice enough to provide me and the Karate Catholic with a ride. But, I really would like to spend a few days in the town, exploring all that there is. Six hours on a weekend morning is hardly enough time to really get a feel for the place. Idealist, who lives there, seems to like it well enough, and she has a pretty sweet house.

So, Mosteiros is actually the name of the concelho, which is equivalent to what in the U.S., you would think of as a county. This concelho is about 1/3 or ½ of the island. I work at the Camara Municipal dos Mosteiros, which is the city hall for the concelho. There is a website for the concelho, which you can find here . Yes, and as you see, there are only like 10,000 people in the entire concelho. I got a feeling of claustrophobia when I read that. I mean, part of the reason I left the Twin Cities after the U, is because I thought Mpls was a bit small. Especially in the States, I couldn’t see myself living in a place without at least a few million people. There’s an intensity that comes with urban areas, and it’s something I need. So, these 10,000 people are spread out over a wide swath, so the place that I am living at, for sure has less than 10,000 folks. I technically live in Vila da Igreja. As I am sure some of you will find it amusing, the name of my town translates into “Church Village.”

Igreja is on the edge of the water. From my window, I can see the Atlantic, and I can hear it as long as I leave my window open. I need to walk about 30 seconds, and then I can be sitting, overlooking the water. The water is hypnotic and the waves are strong. I haven’t spent a lot of times around oceans, but even I can tell that this water isn’t something to mess around with. There are only two small beaches in Igreja, protected by coves that help shield them from the waves. The sand here is all black, because a lot of it came from the lava from previous eruptions. If you walk a bit away from my house, you can go walking on solidified lava that has created its own landscape towards the water. There is some sand, but a lot of the waterfront is black rocks and pebbles. The water makes this crackling noise as it brushes up against the rocks and then slides back into the ocean. There is trash here, but it is nothing like Praia or even Sao Dao. I mean, it is still bad here, and sometimes, I would like to get a big bag and pick up all of the trash myself. But that wouldn’t exactly be a sustainable activity, so it remains a dream until I can organize some sort of community trash pick up day.

So in front of me is the ocean. Behind me are these awesome hills. But hill isn’t exactly the right word. They aren’t big enough to be mountains, but if I wanted to get to the top of the hills, it’s a straight up vertical hike (or should I say climb). Some parts are passable, since you have to pass through these hills to get to the volcano, but from what I understand, it is the toughest part of the hike. (I really wish I could have photos that would go along with this blog entry, but I don’t have regular, sustained access to the Internet, and I have a backlog of photos from Sao Dao that I still have to get up. So, yeah, sorry about that.) So the town is scrunched in between these two wonderful natural phenomena that has been a result of at least hundreds of thousands of years of geologic pressures going one way or the other.

I live on the third floor of a newly built apartment. Our landlord is a Cuban, who has lived in Cape Verde in the past, as well as the U.S., and ended up marrying a Cape Verdean woman. She and their two kids just moved back to Cape Verde, and they all live in the apartment below us. And again, the place is new. No one has lived in it before. By Cape Verde standards, it is swank. By U.S. standards, it ain’t too bad. Me and the Karate Catholic each have our own rooms, there is a bathroom, and kitchen. The only slightly odd thing is that since the Camara actually is renting the place from our landlord, we do not have access to our living room, or the connecting bedroom (and half bath) at the front part of our apartment. This is because the Camara has stuck some municipal office there, so there is actually a working office with at least one or two people there taking care of business. So yes, to get to their office, they have to unlock our front door, come into our house, and then unlock the door to the living room. It’s a bit odd since it means that it becomes a lot easier for random people to have access to our apartment. I know my APCD is looking into it, and hopefully, we can come to a solution, which involves me and the Karate Catholic being able to reclaim the front half of the apartment. Because, right now, we don’t really have a shared space where we can hang out, you know? The closest thing is the balcony we have on the backside of the house, which overlooks the ocean. We usually sit out there, the Karate Catholic usually working on lesson plans or other sorts of planning, and me reading, thinking writing or fuming.

From the balcony, we’re also overlooking some construction. Our landlord is building a gym in the back, which should open in the next two months or so. Mainly free weights, martial arts lessons and a small pool. I’m totally looking forward to it and will probably be one of the first to sign up. There is a bar also on our “block” called Bar Suave. (I use the term block lightly since there aren’t really blocks here, not in the way you think of them in the U.S. Since there aren’t sidewalks, you’re always walking in the street.) The bar is cool, run by one of the guys who also teaches English at the local high school. If they had Fanta (which I have seriously become addicted to) it would be the perfect place. So, it’s not quite Fox and Hounds, but it will do!

So, domestic issues. Just like in Sao Dao (and I think it’s true for like all of the islands) you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet. So you basically have an enclosed wastepaper basket of some sort next to the toilet, and just toss the TP there. We actually do have running water for the whole day, which is pretty regular for this area. I don’t exactly understand how the water works, since I know we only get water pumped in from the city’s water department for like half the day, and for the rest of the day, we just use the water that is on the tanks on the roof, I think. It’s kind of random, because when it rains in the morning (I think the rainy season will go on for another month or two) the water usually stops working in the city working at like noon. I’m not clear exactly why this is, since you would think that rainwater would mean that we would be having more water and not less. So, that can be a bit annoying, since it means you’d have to bucket flush the toilet for the rest of the day. To save water (and this is something I did in Sao Dao too) when you take a shower, you basically turn on the water, get yourself wet, turn off the water, soap yourself up and try to rub off the dirt, and then rinse yourself off. I’ve forgotten what hot water feels like on my skin, and it will probably be a while until I remember, unless I actually want to try to take some sort of modified bucket bath in my shower. But I think someone pointed out in Training that hot water does a better job of cleaning your skin off. I’ve basically given up on the idea of trying to be “clean,” because it is tough here. It’s not like it is super dirty or anything on the island. And it’s not like the roads are all dirt (they are mainly cobblestone). But between the temperature and the general amounts of the dirt that is in the air, being clean is a very relative term.

We do not have a washing machine or one that dries. Much to my slight disappointment, I found out that our landlord will be hooking up one soon, he is just waiting on some tubing from the States. Yes, Posh Corps indeed. But for now, we don’t even have a washboard, so it is basically me up on the roof, getting clothes wet in one of the bins that we have, using a special kind of soap, and then just scrubbing the clothes. The water is nasty when I finish with it, heh heh, I have a good photo of that, but alas, it will be a while before it makes it online.

Food. I remember long ago posting on this blog that one of my fears about coming here was having to eat a lot of fish, which I am not that into. Well, praise Allah, that hasn’t been that much of an issue. First of all, when I was little, I actually did eat tuna, so I like it, and there is a lot of tuna here. And, though I hadn’t eaten Tuna back in the States in a while, I am pretty sure this tuna is better. I will be sure to bring some back with me. And secondly, the other fish that I have eaten here, hasn’t tasted that “fishy” and the preparation of it has been pretty good. So I can only think of one or two times when my host mother fed me fish, that I wasn’t too into it. Otherwise, it was all pretty good.

Right now, me and the Karate Catholic are a bit lazy when it comes to purchasing more cookware, so we have one huge pot and one medium sized pot (provided by the Camara) and some silverware and bowl’s. We’ve bought a frying pan, and that is it. We really need more stuff, but it costs a fair amount of money for this stuff, and for what we want, we probably need to get it from São Filipe. We’ve walked around some of the stores here, and haven’t been able to find what we are looking for. Like a strainer for noodles. That is annoying not to have.

So because of that, my cooking options are limited. For the first few days, I was going to a small store down the street, that sells electronic stuff, and was buying some fried chicken to eat. Better than KFC, I can assure you. But I figured I should start trying to save money, and eat less grease, so I started buying food to cook. At first, I was basically having spaghetti with some kind of oil. That got old pretty quick. So, then I found tomato paste and a few spices, and have been mixing it in with the spaghetti. When I feel like spending more money, I buy one of those wonderful cans of tuna and mix that in. So, is it balanced and healthy? Doubtful. Does it get me through the day? For sure. Fresh fruits and veggies are few and far between, so between that and my laziness, I haven’t been getting too much of those. I bought some oranges back in São Filipe, but they were a bit sour, and pretty small.

Even though people here have less issues concerning tossing trash wherever, I have decided that I maintain one or two of my imperialist Western standards and not litter. Mosteiros is actually better than Praia, since there are more public trashcans, and they actually have people who go around sweeping the streets. But one exception I have made to this is with food. What do I do with orange peels and the remains of the fried chicken that I had for lunch? I toss that over the wall of my apartment. As long as the food product ends up on some kind of grass or dirt, I am satisfied. I started doing that back in Sao Dao. My comfortableness with this started when a bunch of us were with a second year Volunteer in Praia. Someone was going to toss a rotting banana or something, and we couldn’t find a trashcan. The PCV said it was just find to toss it into the street, since it’s more than likely that something else (or maybe even someone else) would stumble onto it and eat it. So, it would actually be going to more waste if it was tossed into a garbage can. And I mean, I would think that food degrades at a reasonably fast pace so even if one of the three million street dogs that lived here didn’t get to it, it would be gone pretty soon.

Back to the kitchen, the only other things to note is that when we first moved into the place, we didn’t have a sink in there yet. Our landlord came around over the next few days, and installed it, which was interesting to watch. We have a gas stove, that is connected to a gas canister thing. So basically, you have to flip the canister on first, to get the gas flowing. Then you turn on the burner you want to use, and then you light the match and pass it in the general direction or the burner in order to get the fire going. The Karate Catholic makes rice a lot of the time, but since I refuse to acknowledge the possibility of making rice in anything other than a rice cooker, (which they actually sell in Praia) I am waiting to get one before I start cooking rice.

So, I think that’s about it for the apartment. I have decorated my room with postcards that have Monet, Van Gogh and prints from other Impressionists. Those postcards are one of the smartest things that I bought before leaving D.C. The mattress for my bed is actually foam, so it’s kind of an odd feeling. The floor has been more comfortable, and I think my body is getting used to it. The buildings are all made out of cement (or is it concrete? The National Building Museum had a very interesting exhibit about it, and it was talking about the differences, which I can’t quite remember right now), which I knew, but wasn’t thinking about when I tried to pound a nail into the wall. After getting like 1/6th of an inch into the wall and the nail started to bend, I suddenly remembered about the cement. We don’t have screens up on the windows yet, so I had to improvise one in order to prevent the flies from getting into my room. I have probably killed nearly 100 by now and ones that I wound and fall to the floor, I usually pluck off a wing before tossing them out the window.

So, to move back into angst mode for a second, life here is pretty easy on the physical level. It of course isn’t the United States, but it isn’t really that hard either. Most of the things that I have to deal with are inconvenient. But that’s all they are, inconvenient. None of them are worth complaining about anymore. No, I’ve now reached the point where I complain on a meta-level about how I have nothing to complain about.

The community here is interesting as well. For various historic reasons (I think because many Cape Verdeans from Fogo went on fishing ships back in the day that headed for the U.S.) there are strong ties to the U.S. in Mosteiros. In the sense that pretty much everyone has a relative in the U.S. (most likely in Brockton, Mass, which is outside of Boston, from what I gather). There are also lots of people here who are deportees. A deportee is usually someone who was born in Cape Verde or third country and goes to the U.S. with their families when they are very young. They aren’t citizens of the U.S., and then they do something that is illegal from the perspective of the U.S. government. From my understanding, since they person isn’t a U.S. citizen, they can’t just be locked up in jail or placed into a social service network. Instead, they get a ticket home to their country of origin, that being Cape Verde. So, there are a large number of deportees here, and in general, it feels like at least 1/3 to ½ of the people here speak English. This is not a good state of affairs for my attempts to pick up Kriolu. Sure, it makes things easier when I can speak English with people in order to get stuff done. But I need to learn the subtleties and intricacies of Kriolu, not dissect the finer points of an inner city Massachusetts accent.

And it is unfortunate, because many people here would prefer to speak English with us, rather than hear us try to butcher their language. Even when I speak in Kriolu to some people, they usually respond in English, and after a while, I just switch over to English since it means that I will be able to speak in something more than a 10 year old’s level with them. So, that is also tough. I really do want to get good at my Kriolu (and even my Portuguese) and it’s going to be more of an uphill struggle for me now.

I have actually also had the opportunity to practice my Mandarin here. Though there aren’t any Chinese people in Mosteiros, there are in São Filipe, and there are lots more in Praia. I guess in the past, Chinese people were here to do construction work and they helped build some of the major buildings in downtown Praia. More recently, they have opened up a wave of “Chines Lojas,” which basically translate into “Chinese Stores.” So you walk into a store, it has a random assortment of items, kind of like a dollar store back in the U.S. The stuff isn’t of the greatest quality, but because a lot of the stuff is cheaper, it means that more people have access to buy things.

What I really don’t understand is why there isn’t a Chinese restaurant or two in Praia. I guess that there used to be, but it shut down in the past few years. Though the food here isn’t exactly the same, I would say that there is enough general similarities that a Chinese restaurant would be popular among HCN’s. Even if not, you’d think there are enough Chinese people here, a restaurant could open up just to serve other Chinese people, and it should be able to break even. I didn’t really even realize until I got here that it’s weird in America to be served fish with the head still on it? I guess the only time I encounter fish outside of the house, it’s at Chinese restaurants, and not someplace like Red Lobster. So all the other Trainees were saying how disgusting it was to have the fish head staring at them at the dinner table, and I just had assumed that you’d keep the fish head with the rest of the body. Oh well, I guess you learn something new everyday.

It’s interesting, I wonder why it is that suddenly in the past decade, so many Chinese loja’s sprung up in Cape Verde. I can’t picture some random Chinese guy looking on a map, and saying, “Why, look at these nice little islands off of the coast of Africa! I think it makes sense for me to move there and open up a store.” I’m more inclined to believe that the Chinese government is trying to establish some sort of strategic foothold into Africa, and sending waves of businesses into the country is their first step in a very long ranging plan to gain influence.

So, there are a lot of Chinese people here. And no matter what kind of Asian you are, people will assume that you’re Chinese. My inner Chinaman just grins at that. Heh heh, finally the respect we deserve! Of course the only Asians on the planet are Chinese! You got us, what else do you need?!? But yeah, it can get annoying too, since little kids and other random people always call me “Chines!” I think I may have mentioned this before, but when people look at me, I always think that they think I’m here to scout out new sites for a Loja or something, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable. As Darney O’Malley (the PCV who has lived here for the past year) pointed out once, it’s an interesting cultural thing that when Cape Verdean kids see an Asian, they don’t just note that they are seeing an Asian person, and go on with their business. They will stand and stare for a bit, and then yell “Chines!” – not in a mean way or anything – at me. So it’s something to adjust to. I think in the future, when people yell “Chines!” to me, I’ll respond by saying, “Undi? Undi?” (Where? Where?)

But back to my original point, when I was in São Filipe one of those times, I was in a Chinese loja with Karate Catholic, and I asked the guy behind the counter, in Mandarin, if I could find a rice cooker on the island. He said no, and then asked where I came from. So we talked for a bit. I have to figure out from my parental unit, how to say “Peace Corps” in Mandarin, since I had to say it in Kriolu to him. But, I explained the concept to him, and I think he got the point. The next time I was at the loja, there was a very old Chinese man there, holding a child, and he waved me over and we talked for a bit too. He was interested in knowing if I had been to China before, and suggested that I visit, when I said that I had only been to Taiwan.

There are two Mormon Elders here in town too, also on two-year stints. I’ve talked with them once, but I am determined to find them again and hang out with them at least once. Of course, neither them or us traveled halfway around the planet in order to socialize with other North Americans, but I think it would be interesting conversation considering we’re all kinda in the same boat (or on the same island, I should say).

I haven’t cut my hair since Minneapolis, and it is starting to get long. I’m planning to get it braided in a way that I don’t know exactly how to explain in words. I really need to find a photo of it, but it wouldn’t be cornrows or anything. But I would take a small clump of my hair braid it together very simply, and stick a rubber band on the top. This would be repeated all over the top of my head, and then I would buzz the sides and back of my head. So the top of my head would be exposed in rows because the hair has been pulled together and rubber banded together. Does that make any sense? I can see it in my mind’s eye, but rereading my description, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Anyways, I hope to get that in the next week or two. The owner of Bar Suave said that he probably knew some girls in the next Vila over who could help. So, I think it will either end up really good or really bad. I will post the results on the blog for all to judge.

The town has the Camara, of course. Darney O’Malley works at the CEJ, which is basically a youth center. The Karate Catholic will start teaching English this week at the high school, which for the first time ever, will have an 11th grade. I am not sure in the past, what happened to kids going into the higher grades, but it looks like this school is trying to expand capacity. There are a variety of small stores here, which have lots of random things. Remember, since there is a strong connection to the States (with many relations living there) they get a lot of stuff from the states. How, you may ask? People in the states will literally send one of those big metal barrels (I could for example, squat in one and be sealed in) filled with stuff they have bought stateside. I have seen these barrels sitting out in front of the stores, and have seen storeowners pulling out all this stuff, direct from the States. So, it doesn’t mean you can get lots of stuff from the states, but if I really wanted some Skittles, I could go down to the Shell (gas station) and get some.

And yes, you probably wouldn’t think of a gas station as a major place to do your shopping, but it is if you’re here. Some of their stuff is a bit overpriced (it wouldn’t be representative of multinationals if it weren’t) but it’s not too bad. I can get ramen, spaghetti and my tuna there. They also sell wine and grogu, water, cereal and crackers. It’s also supposed to be a hangout place at night, where the youngins’ go.

There are a few bars in town, and more in other Zonas that I have not yet visited. But at many of the shops (like the place where I get my fried chicken) look just like regular shops, but you can go in and ask for a shot of something and they will be more than happy to pour for you. Then you just stand at the counter, or grab a seat, and hang out. I haven’t done that as much, and have mainly been sticking to the bars for now.

There is a small medical facility here, though I know if there is a serious problem, I should go to São Filipe. The Roman Catholics have a church here, so do the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I think the Mormons have something going on as well. No Humanist Community Center. Sigh. There are two squares in the town, where people hang out. Some continental Africans hang around there in the mornings, selling stuff. There is a newly opened pharmacy, and a Post Office which I’ve been hitting every few days for some of my mailing needs. They also have, hmmm...I guess the translation would be paper stores, which are basically office supply stores. But think of them being the same as a corner of Office Max or something. Notebooks, some pens and envelopes, that’s all. I had to go to São Filipe in order to get a highlighter and black permanent marker.

So, now that I am here, I am supposed to starting doing this wondrous thing called “integrate” and become accepted by my community (as a slightly odd) but overall beloved member who will be here for two years and leave with fond memories and come back to visit in the future. Of course, the only problem is that I have no idea how to integrate into the community. I’m not that quite of a guy, but I think I can get pretty shy/quiet around people that I’m meeting for the first time, and that language barrier doesn’t help. Nor does everyone going up to me saying “Chines?”

Which reminds me of a funny story when I was going to the post office a week or so ago in order to buy some postcards or something. I am there paying and this older woman, maybe in her late 30s or early 40s comes in and goes up to the counter next to me. She looks me over, turns to the people behind the desk and is like “Chines?” in reference to me. I respond in Kriolu that no, I’m an American, and Volunteer with the Peace Corps. I ask her if she knows about the Peace Corps, and say that we are Americans who go to other countries to live for two years and help people (yes, an oversimplification perhaps, but she got the point). She than said something very fast in Kriolu, which I only got like every third word or something. My brain, somehow, was still able to comprehend it, because I was like “Wait...did you say that when I go back to the U.S. after two years, you should come with me?” and she is like “Yes.”

So, to review, I’ve known her for like 24 seconds, and she already wants me to take her back to the States with me. You should have seen the look on her face when I was like “Sorry, after the Peace Corps, I want to go to Africa.” She screwed up her face and was like “Why?” and, again, since I am still a novice in the ways of Kriolu, I was like “I want to help people in Africa” and I could tell by the look on her face, that she thought I was nuts.

This also reminds me of a (not) integration story. I was leaving the apartment after lunch to head back to work, when some of the neighbor ladies around the corner flag me over. I’m thinking, “Yes, they want to meet me! I can start to integrate!” and was quickly trying to review basic small talk phrases that I would need. So they wave me over, and there are like six of them, varying from teens to senior citizens. They say something quick in Kriolu that I don’t get, and then they slow down and ask me what language I speak, so I say English, and a bit of Kriolu and very little Portuguese. Then the teenager just looks at me, and is like “Do you have money?” in accented English. Crap! They just called me over here for money! I respond, that no, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, and therefore have no money. One of the ladies seems to know what the Peace Corps is, and she accepts my explanation. At that point, I’m a bit depressed that they weren’t actually interested in me, but more the dollar bill sign that I must have pasted someplace on my forehead, so I was just like “Sorry, I’ve got to go” and left. I really should have stayed and asked them all their names and still tried to have a conversation with them. But I was so flustered and a bit hurt and I just wanted to get out of there. My day, which had been going well until then, took a bit of a nosedive.

But yeah, there have been times when I’ve been walking with the Karate Catholic and Darney O’ Malley and little kids will just come up to us, and probably the only line they know in English is “Do you have money?”

So, this is only nine pages in a Microsoft Word document. I have covered a lot, but in other ways, I’ve only scratched the surface. I also know that My Friend (Who’s Father is Priest) once wrote a ten page email to her friends, in less than a four hour period while we were at an Internet Café, so I am suffering from a bit of writer’s envy. There are so many things that I just don’t know how to express, or am too embarrassed to express, or can only express to RPCV’s who’d feel my pain (yes, Buttons, that means you).

So, that urge to ET has died down, now it’s more or a low roar in the back of my head. Back in Training, we elected two people from our group to be “Peer Support,” who you could call up and talk with if stuff was bugging you. They’re there to listen and all of it’s confidential. I ended up calling one of them just to see how life was going in Assomada, but it ended up turning into her providing some peer support, which helped me out.

Oh, I don’t think I mentioned this before, but pursuant to Peace Corps regulations, I have given the CD a link to this site (that is also the reason I have that disclaimer up near the top). So, despite the fact that I would have been self censoring in general – since I have no real interest in making Peace Corps or Cape Verde look bad/stupid – having the CD checking in occasionally also helps. But, welcome! Feel free to post comments anytime!

Hmmm...for those who are curious, my general vacation plans as they stand right now are to go to the continent next summer. The timing of that will depend on when some of the TEFLers will have their breaks from school. We’ll probably only have time to pass through three or four countries, but I can’t wait. And this is far, far off in the future, and very subject to change since I don’t know what I will be doing after Peace Corps, (will I go back to the U.S., or move to Africa?) but right now, I’m planning to go through the Mideast after COS. I’m thinking UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel. Maybe Egypt and Morocco too, but I might be able to swing through as part of an Africa trip. Iran would be nice too, but the visa requirements are pretty complicated for those with an U.S. passport. And of course, my name doesn’t help matters. I am still not sure if I am going to come back to the States for a vacation or not. I don’t consider Peace Corps a job in the traditional sense, so it seems odd to take a vacation to go back home, since, technically, this is supposed to be my home now.

And I guess in general, the only thing I miss from the States are friends. Everything else from the U.S., either I can get little snippets of it here ( i.e., the other night I was in a bar with a satellite hookup and we saw an episode of The Man Show. So that was disturbing) or I don’t really care that I don’t have it anymore. But I just think about all of those good times that I am missing with friends, and that makes me a bit sad.

Well, I do feel like I have a lot more to say, but I should probably draw this to a close, since I am starting to lose steam. Hmmm, I’ve been at this for four hours, with a break in between to go watch a football game (when I speak of football from now on, I mean the thing in the U.S. we call soccer. When I speak of American football, I am talking about that thing that ended each season with a Superbowl) and have dinner. And I am sure that My Friend (Who’s Father is a Priest) was much more eloquent in her email than I am in my post. But yeah, if you have any questions about my life as it is, drop a comment or an email, and I will try to get back to you in a bit. I still have not hit my stride with letters and emails, and I do apologize. I am still unclear if I will be getting regular email access or what. Now I really do wish that I had brought a laptop with me, since I could work on stuff offline. Now, it’s always rush, rush, rush, when I am going through email. But yeah, I really do appreciate those letters that people have been sending. Even if you wrote a letter to me only going over what you did over a three day period, I would find it very interesting.

Maybe in a future post that I have some time to pound out, I’ll tell you about some of my friends that I made in Training. I think I will start with Team Chaco. More Later!