In A Small Sign That...
...there might perhaps be a bit of culture here in Mosteiros after all, the Centro de Juventude (youth center) has been having theater groups come in from different zonas around Mosteiros and São Filipe to perform on their roof. It would be nice if I could actually understand what’s so funny that everyone’s laughing about, but even though I didn’t, it’s was still nice to be there.
As you’re waiting for the theater to start, there’s music in the background, and of course, some dancing. For the past few nights, this has been dominated by a guy named Zé, who is apparently from São Filipe but has found his way to Mosteiros. He is, as Cape Verdeans would say, dodu, which they mean crazy. Not crazy in the sense of being wild and unpredictable (though he is those) but in the sense that he needs psychiatric help. Even if he were in Praia, I don’t know if he could get the help he would need, so for sure he isn’t going to get it here in Fogo. So, he’s just out and about. Dancing in his crazy way, saying things that are apparently very funny, and possibly getting arrested the other night (I couldn’t quite tell who they were throwing in the back of the police truck).
The night that someone got tossed into the jail in town, was also the night of the OMCV’s festa for Cape Verde’s Women’s Day. Of course, when I got the invite to attend, I thought it would be a dignified affair, like a reception, with food and people talking, and then the OMCV lady doing a short presentation about women, OMCV, women in Cape Verde, or some combination. I even spent time before the event thinking up questions to ask people about the state of women’s affairs in Mosteiros, with the hopes of maybe getting some sort of group going or something once problems have been identified.
However, as the day slipped into night, I started hearing loud music coming from the roof of the Centro de Juventude, where the event was to be held. I realized that, no, it wasn’t going to be a “reception” or anything of that sort, it actually was going to be a regular ole’ Cape Verdean festa, the only difference was that it was sponsored by OMCV. So, though I’m always down for a festa, I was not amused by the fact that I don’t know how seriously they’re taking women’s issues.
But instead, it was an interesting opportunity to see who was willing to pay 1000$00 (about 10 bucks) to attend the event. I was curious to know if they came just because it was another party to attend, or if they were actually more progressive and ideologically supported the mission and aims of OMCV. Some of the older, retired men who had lived in the U.S. were there, a few of the teachers from the high school, a surprising number of cops, and a bunch of younger women that I have seen here and there.
So are these the more cosmopolitan sophisticates who inhabit the town, or just those who have the means to attend the party (which did have good food and music)? I hope to answer this sometime before Sept of 2007.
Overall, I would have to say that two days ago was probably the best day I’ve had in recent memory. I actually spent time interacting with Lady N and her sister Nice. They gave me a small sliver of hope that I won’t spend the next year and a half sitting around and talking to no one. I was enlightened in the realms of the Adventist religion, as well as relationships in Cape Verde.
By the virtue that I’ve been sitting outside in the square a lot studying for the FSWE, I’ve also been interacting a lot more with some of the kids who live in Igreja. They, of course, have less inhibition to talk to me compared to the adults, but they are also a bit harder to understand since they mesh words together a lot more. They always want their photos taken, of course, but I’ve also gotten them to teach me some card games, and I might try teaching them 13 sometime.
And I just realized the other day that one of the kids that I really like, his father is this annoying man who comes into the Internet café every once in a while and used to always pester me when sending his emails. Now that he learned how to copy his messages from Word into the text field of his webmail, he keeps telling everyone that I taught him that. But in reality, I didn’t. Someone else must have, but he insists on continually giving me all the credit. This is also the same guy who always used to ask Darney O’Malley if he liked baby goat. So, I was surprised that this guy was somehow able to attract a woman, and even more surprised that he has kids. I can’t hold it against the kid who his father is, but I will just have to make sure never to accept an invitation over to their house for dinner.
There is craziness going on at the high school between teachers and admin, and I have been hearing tidbits about it from Farafa. Now that I’ve been around Farafa more, I’ve learned more about his personality and his worldview. Seeing him react to what is going on at the school really reminded me about what my life was like at the AHA. High on the idealism, low on the pragmatism. Of course, the me from the AHA would look upon the me of today and probably conclude that I had sold out. Before coming to PC, I told myself that I would do all this differently, by playing the game. Unfortunately, for the most part, me “playing the game” has meant that I try to dissuade people of their idealistic, perfect world hopes and dreams about how logical we should all be in pursuit of the greater good. Instead, if people are getting screwed over by the powers that be, I’m only focus on ways to screw them back, I no longer bother with advocating trying to hold reasoned dialoge. Which, I guess I tried doing a little bit of that at the AHA too.
I actually had this weird dream last night about the Humanist movement, probably spurred on by the fact that I got a package from the AHA in the mail yesterday (thanks, ya’ll). In my dream, I was on vacation from PC and I ended up in one of CFI’s offices, and Tom Flynn was there. I asked him if I could get some free back issues of Free Inquiry for me to bring back to Cape Verde. He said sure, and took me over to this disorganized shelf and grabbed a bunch of random magazines and passed them off to me. As I looked closer, most of the issues were older ones from the 80’s or 90’s, and I stuck them back on the shelf. By the time that I got the ones that I hadn’t seen, there were only one or two. I shook my head and told him something along the lines of “Well, Fred doesn’t keep his magazines in any better order.” Flynn yanked one or two other magazines out of my hand, and said “Well, he doesn’t need to know about this.” Then he tried to charge me for the magazines!
As you’re waiting for the theater to start, there’s music in the background, and of course, some dancing. For the past few nights, this has been dominated by a guy named Zé, who is apparently from São Filipe but has found his way to Mosteiros. He is, as Cape Verdeans would say, dodu, which they mean crazy. Not crazy in the sense of being wild and unpredictable (though he is those) but in the sense that he needs psychiatric help. Even if he were in Praia, I don’t know if he could get the help he would need, so for sure he isn’t going to get it here in Fogo. So, he’s just out and about. Dancing in his crazy way, saying things that are apparently very funny, and possibly getting arrested the other night (I couldn’t quite tell who they were throwing in the back of the police truck).
The night that someone got tossed into the jail in town, was also the night of the OMCV’s festa for Cape Verde’s Women’s Day. Of course, when I got the invite to attend, I thought it would be a dignified affair, like a reception, with food and people talking, and then the OMCV lady doing a short presentation about women, OMCV, women in Cape Verde, or some combination. I even spent time before the event thinking up questions to ask people about the state of women’s affairs in Mosteiros, with the hopes of maybe getting some sort of group going or something once problems have been identified.
However, as the day slipped into night, I started hearing loud music coming from the roof of the Centro de Juventude, where the event was to be held. I realized that, no, it wasn’t going to be a “reception” or anything of that sort, it actually was going to be a regular ole’ Cape Verdean festa, the only difference was that it was sponsored by OMCV. So, though I’m always down for a festa, I was not amused by the fact that I don’t know how seriously they’re taking women’s issues.
But instead, it was an interesting opportunity to see who was willing to pay 1000$00 (about 10 bucks) to attend the event. I was curious to know if they came just because it was another party to attend, or if they were actually more progressive and ideologically supported the mission and aims of OMCV. Some of the older, retired men who had lived in the U.S. were there, a few of the teachers from the high school, a surprising number of cops, and a bunch of younger women that I have seen here and there.
So are these the more cosmopolitan sophisticates who inhabit the town, or just those who have the means to attend the party (which did have good food and music)? I hope to answer this sometime before Sept of 2007.
Overall, I would have to say that two days ago was probably the best day I’ve had in recent memory. I actually spent time interacting with Lady N and her sister Nice. They gave me a small sliver of hope that I won’t spend the next year and a half sitting around and talking to no one. I was enlightened in the realms of the Adventist religion, as well as relationships in Cape Verde.
By the virtue that I’ve been sitting outside in the square a lot studying for the FSWE, I’ve also been interacting a lot more with some of the kids who live in Igreja. They, of course, have less inhibition to talk to me compared to the adults, but they are also a bit harder to understand since they mesh words together a lot more. They always want their photos taken, of course, but I’ve also gotten them to teach me some card games, and I might try teaching them 13 sometime.
And I just realized the other day that one of the kids that I really like, his father is this annoying man who comes into the Internet café every once in a while and used to always pester me when sending his emails. Now that he learned how to copy his messages from Word into the text field of his webmail, he keeps telling everyone that I taught him that. But in reality, I didn’t. Someone else must have, but he insists on continually giving me all the credit. This is also the same guy who always used to ask Darney O’Malley if he liked baby goat. So, I was surprised that this guy was somehow able to attract a woman, and even more surprised that he has kids. I can’t hold it against the kid who his father is, but I will just have to make sure never to accept an invitation over to their house for dinner.
There is craziness going on at the high school between teachers and admin, and I have been hearing tidbits about it from Farafa. Now that I’ve been around Farafa more, I’ve learned more about his personality and his worldview. Seeing him react to what is going on at the school really reminded me about what my life was like at the AHA. High on the idealism, low on the pragmatism. Of course, the me from the AHA would look upon the me of today and probably conclude that I had sold out. Before coming to PC, I told myself that I would do all this differently, by playing the game. Unfortunately, for the most part, me “playing the game” has meant that I try to dissuade people of their idealistic, perfect world hopes and dreams about how logical we should all be in pursuit of the greater good. Instead, if people are getting screwed over by the powers that be, I’m only focus on ways to screw them back, I no longer bother with advocating trying to hold reasoned dialoge. Which, I guess I tried doing a little bit of that at the AHA too.
I actually had this weird dream last night about the Humanist movement, probably spurred on by the fact that I got a package from the AHA in the mail yesterday (thanks, ya’ll). In my dream, I was on vacation from PC and I ended up in one of CFI’s offices, and Tom Flynn was there. I asked him if I could get some free back issues of Free Inquiry for me to bring back to Cape Verde. He said sure, and took me over to this disorganized shelf and grabbed a bunch of random magazines and passed them off to me. As I looked closer, most of the issues were older ones from the 80’s or 90’s, and I stuck them back on the shelf. By the time that I got the ones that I hadn’t seen, there were only one or two. I shook my head and told him something along the lines of “Well, Fred doesn’t keep his magazines in any better order.” Flynn yanked one or two other magazines out of my hand, and said “Well, he doesn’t need to know about this.” Then he tried to charge me for the magazines!
posted by jende turtle at 1:27 PM
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