Three Months at Site.

Wow, when I was working on my community map over the weekend, I realized that I have been at site for a bit more than three months. That means I have been in country for five months. That means come January 8th or so, I will have been Cape Verde for six months. That means I am basically 1/4th of the way through my 26 months of service. When I look back, I am amazed how quickly the time has passed. Though most time markers really are just arbitrary – a way to create order from chaos – I’ll probably still get all reflective about it next month. I’ve learned a lot, gained a few insights into myself, and still haven’t done jack for the people or nation of Cape Verde. Oh well, I guess two out of three ain’t bad, eh?

Book Review:
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. Hmmm, sequels are always hard, because the creator becomes so self-conscious about what they’re doing, they end up overreaching. So, the book was good, but not as good as the first. Fielding has to reach into some somewhat whacky storylines in order to give Bridget sometime to do. Now I’m interested in seeing the movies. But what I am really interested in doing is getting Portuguese language copies of this book, distribute it to a cross-section of maybe 100 women in Mosteiros, have them read it, and then tell me if they have anything in common with Bridget Jones. I’m pretty sure if the women here could meet Bridget Jones, she would get laughed at. A lot. She might also get smacked once or twice for her trouble. And then laughed at some more.

Book Review II:
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace. Yawn. The only reason I finished this book was because I started it. The only reason I started it was because it was turned into a movie directed by Tim Burton. However, after reading the book now, I am sure I will skip the movie.

Photos:
I have actually updated my photos up to right about Swear-In. Amazing. Soon, you will actually be able to see Fogo. I am trying to clear as many photos as I can, because I’ll probably be taking a lot when I am up north. Plane leaves for Praia on Friday. Woohoo. They just got a new international airport there, which should be cool. Of course, I hardly remember the other airport anyway, so I guess it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Where I Spend My Waking Hours:
Ya know, I realized that I haven’t really been talking a lot about my work. Part of the reason is that I feel that it’s not that different from the States, so I never really feel like going into it. However, I realized some of you might actually be interested in what I am doing, now that I am no longer getting pimped out for Humanism.

I sit at the Câmara’s Multimedia Center. Right now, all of our multimedia consists of a lot of Portuguese language books, a few English books provided by the U.S. Embassy, a TV with a VCR/DVD combo, and three computers. Two of the computers make up the actual Internet café (an XP and 2000), and the third computer (XP) acts as the server for the Internet café program.

This program works, but is an invasive, demanding, unyielding piece of crap from Eastern Europe. It has too much control over the two other computers. We had to reinstall it after some problems with the databases, and the version we are running now is full English, instead of half English, half Portuguese. So that makes it a bit easier for me, but the program still sucks. But it is also the only program I have seen being used here in country.

So, we have our happy little Internet café. The major problem with it is that the connection is bad and breaks at random times. For some reason, if I am using a browser on the server computer, the connection is much more likely to break than if I use the two in the other room. I don’t understand why that is. It’s also using DSL of some sort, but still connected through the phone lines. I did not know that was possible, but I guess that is why I came to Cape Verde, to learn new things.

So, this is now my home base. I work here with Lady N, who actually is the one that takes the money from people. Because of Peace Corps rules (as well as my own desire not to be sitting around here all day), I cannot handle the actual money that people use to pay for their time. So they brought Lady N in. Before this, she was the assistant to the secretary of the President of the Câmara. Even though I haven’t been formally practicing with her or anything, my Kriolu has been improving because of forced interactions with her.

So other than keeping up the computers and watching over the program, we have just finished cataloguing all of the books in the library. There are a little over 700 books that are not entered into an Excel spreadsheet. I have this really bad feeling that the next step will be to put the books in order by subject. Of course, the books are not in the exact same order as their listing in the spreadsheet, so that will make it even more miserable.

The books are not for loan, if you want to read them, you have to stay here. The idea is that during the day, the outside room with the books can be a study area for people who want to read. Then at like 4 or 5pm, we turn on the TV and throw on a video. That has not happened yet, but from what Toes tells us, that is the plan. What they are planning to show, beyond crazy action flicks, is beyond me. There is not big selection of DVD’s here, ya know? Toes was saying stuff about educational videos, but where are we going to find educational videos in Portuguese. Oh wait, that sounds like something a Peace Corps Volunteer can work on…

I got asked by the Cãmara to help come up with ideas for the Christmas party that they are going to be having this Thursday out in front of the Câmara, mainly for elderly people. They are also planning events are five different kindergartens in Mosteiros. I thought and thought and thought, and I couldn’t come up with any ideas to add to the ideas they already had in place (cultural stuff, people signing songs, snacks, etc). They already have all of their bases covered, and then they ask me if I have anything to add. I ever went online looking for Christmas party ideas, and realized that there is very little information on the Internet for Christmas party ideas in the developing world.

So, I was determined to contribute something, because I thought I would look extremely stupid if I could not come up with anything. I mean, I’m supposed to be here working for them, and I can’t even come up with one idea? I ended up telling the Verador in charge about how we should get someone to dress up as Santa and give out gifts to everyone who came to the Câmara. I knew this idea was a no go from the start, because of various logistical issues, but I had to say something. I figured getting shot down was better than having nothing at all. At least I could say I was trying to contribute something. But yes, I was shot down, very nicely, in simple third grade language (not because he was being condescending, but because that is all I can understand) and he pointed out various logistical issues that would get in the way. But he said, that is a good idea for next year.

The Câmara has been doing a social survey of all of Mosteiros. I am hoping once I get back from vacation, I can go out with people as they do their surveys. In addition, I am supposed to be putting all of their data into an Excel spreadsheet. Now that I think about it, it really would be better to put this into an Access database. There are only a few roadblocks in that idea, mainly the ones about me not knowing how to make Access databases, and me being worried that the people here will be able to correctly operate it. I don’t want to make something that people 3 years from now have no idea how to put new information into.

So I think Excel will have to do. Another problem is with the survey’s themselves. I still don’t really read Portuguese well, and the handwriting on some already appear illegible to me. If I were English, I could guess, of course. But Portuguese? Yeah right. I hope Lady N is prepared to help me with this. I am sure she will be enthused.

I keep thinking about that festa for Women’s Day. I keep thinking about it and doing very little. I am hoping my vacation gets me more pumped up for action. I have the names for some people here who supposedly work on women’s issues in town, or represent some women’s organizations or something. So I hope to talk with them and get going on that.

That is all I can think of that I am doing. I hope to start Kriolu tutoring once the new year begins. I have this vague idea of taking Portuguese classes at the high school next fall (they offer night classes) and I need to download a study guide for the Foreign Service Exam. I also need to start thinking seriously about where I want to go next summer in Africa.

So, that’s all I got.