In Praia, Making the Most of It.
Well, I have been in Praia for a week now, working PST and doing my bit to try to school the newbies for the next two years of their lives. This new group is not only much larger than my group is (33 to our 15), they are very young, with most people being under 23 yrs old. The female to male ratio is also skewed high in the favor of many beautiful ladies, and there are no married couples. So, very different from my group, or even the group before. Though I think it is more of a stereotypical PC Training group. Site announcement occurred the day before I arrived in Praia, and praise be, no new PCV's will be coming to Mosteiros! This is good, since really, we don't need any new Volunteers at our site, me and Farafa are more than enough. But four new PCV's will be coming to my fair island, one CD-enviro dude up in the crater of the volcano, a female CD in the new concelho, and two female TEFL's about 20 minutes outside of Bila. Servant of the Mind will be one of the TEFLs living outside of Bila, so that will be nice, since we kind of know each other all ready. Well, she probably knows more about me than I do of her, since she’s gotten through a fair amount of this blog. I am excited for the newbies, and am happy that some cool people will be moving to Fogo. One of the things I like least about being on my island, was that there wasn't really the opportunity to see many other Volunteers. But with these four, spread out over the island, I will now get a chance to see more of Fogo, and get to know some new people.
So, I am hoping to be able to fly back with them after Swear-In, which is easier said than done. I am still trying to get permission from PC, and what is truly annoying me is that I think it's a good idea for me to fly to Fogo with the newbies, the newbies think it's a good idea for me to fly with them, my APCD thinks its' a good idea and the CD thinks it's a good idea. However, even though we are all in agreement, I still cannot get anyone to commit to taking this course of action. It's all about having someone else approve it. So, this is a bit annoying, since I would just like to get it taken care of now, before the flight gets filled up and I can't go with them. It was really helpful with Darney O'Malley was able to come with me and Farafa when we came to Fogo, and I would really like to do what I can to help out the new people.
I have been at Training for a week, and I am walking this fine line between wanting to believe their idealism and desires to make a difference in the world, and wanting to crush their hopes and dreams with the cold, hard reality that awaits them. I am very much mindful of the fact that my life this past year, has been *my* life, and though I can probably offer some insights into their lives in Cape Verde, I know what they will have going on is different. I appreciated very much last year when I was in PST, and heard honest answers from the PCVs who were around, and I am trying to do the same.
I already had to skip a day of Training since I had this horrible day of diarrhea which had me running to the bathroom like every 45 minutes. Pooping water out of your butt is a really weird sensation, and I hope it is a very long time before it happens to me again. I am thinking I had bad schwarma the night before, and that did me in. So, I spent the day in the Transit House, watching movies, trying to work on my PACA presentation, and willing whatever microbes were causing me such annoyance to depart my body and not return.
Speaking of PACA, I was originally slated to give a short 15 minute presentation to the two VocEd guys tomorrow morning. However, on Friday afternoon, the VocEd coordinator comes running up to me and tells me how the TEFL coordinator heard about my presentation, and though that it might be a good idea for TEFL to get into it, so now I have to do the presentation for like 15 people. Which is fine, but I was kinda hoping for the more laid back atmosphere of me sitting across from two people and going on random tangents for 15 minutes or so, but now, I have to go back to the Transit House later today and actually plan a bit to make it a more formal presentation. Oh well, it will be a chance for the TEFLs to do a Community Map, which should be fun. I think Monkey Bar will be helping me out on this one, so it should be a good time.
Now that I’ve been talking with the new Trainees and thinking about my previous year here – and thinking about my life in general – I’m feeling like I am too much of a generalist, and have no specific, particular field of expertise that I can offer people.
So, I actually haven’t had much of a chance to enjoy Praia since every day I am out on the street by 7:40, hoping that the PC land cruiser will pass by and pick us up, instead of having to catch a hiace to Sao Dao. The one time this previous week that the land cruiser did drive by, neither the driver or the PST Director were actually on the lookout for us, so they missed us anyways. We were not amused.
I have had a chance to visit the host family, and they are doing well. Mom insisted I come by for lunch every day this week, so that will be nice. She is way too nice to me, considering I was sitting around like a lump on the log when I was around last summer. I now also have a new sister, since they placed a female PCV with family this year. So, all is well on the domestic homefront.
Monkey Bar commented last night how he thought it was crazy that Servant of the Mind had read so much of my blog, because I’ve “written a book,” according to him. So, with this in mind, I will stop. I hope to get the rest of my stories from Africa up in the next few days, but we will see. I think I won’t be uploading photos for a while, since I think the connection at the office is slower than in Mosteiros. Oh, for the record, I have now established an electronic beachhead on Myspace.com, so search for me by name, and let’s be friends.
So, I am hoping to be able to fly back with them after Swear-In, which is easier said than done. I am still trying to get permission from PC, and what is truly annoying me is that I think it's a good idea for me to fly to Fogo with the newbies, the newbies think it's a good idea for me to fly with them, my APCD thinks its' a good idea and the CD thinks it's a good idea. However, even though we are all in agreement, I still cannot get anyone to commit to taking this course of action. It's all about having someone else approve it. So, this is a bit annoying, since I would just like to get it taken care of now, before the flight gets filled up and I can't go with them. It was really helpful with Darney O'Malley was able to come with me and Farafa when we came to Fogo, and I would really like to do what I can to help out the new people.
I have been at Training for a week, and I am walking this fine line between wanting to believe their idealism and desires to make a difference in the world, and wanting to crush their hopes and dreams with the cold, hard reality that awaits them. I am very much mindful of the fact that my life this past year, has been *my* life, and though I can probably offer some insights into their lives in Cape Verde, I know what they will have going on is different. I appreciated very much last year when I was in PST, and heard honest answers from the PCVs who were around, and I am trying to do the same.
I already had to skip a day of Training since I had this horrible day of diarrhea which had me running to the bathroom like every 45 minutes. Pooping water out of your butt is a really weird sensation, and I hope it is a very long time before it happens to me again. I am thinking I had bad schwarma the night before, and that did me in. So, I spent the day in the Transit House, watching movies, trying to work on my PACA presentation, and willing whatever microbes were causing me such annoyance to depart my body and not return.
Speaking of PACA, I was originally slated to give a short 15 minute presentation to the two VocEd guys tomorrow morning. However, on Friday afternoon, the VocEd coordinator comes running up to me and tells me how the TEFL coordinator heard about my presentation, and though that it might be a good idea for TEFL to get into it, so now I have to do the presentation for like 15 people. Which is fine, but I was kinda hoping for the more laid back atmosphere of me sitting across from two people and going on random tangents for 15 minutes or so, but now, I have to go back to the Transit House later today and actually plan a bit to make it a more formal presentation. Oh well, it will be a chance for the TEFLs to do a Community Map, which should be fun. I think Monkey Bar will be helping me out on this one, so it should be a good time.
Now that I’ve been talking with the new Trainees and thinking about my previous year here – and thinking about my life in general – I’m feeling like I am too much of a generalist, and have no specific, particular field of expertise that I can offer people.
So, I actually haven’t had much of a chance to enjoy Praia since every day I am out on the street by 7:40, hoping that the PC land cruiser will pass by and pick us up, instead of having to catch a hiace to Sao Dao. The one time this previous week that the land cruiser did drive by, neither the driver or the PST Director were actually on the lookout for us, so they missed us anyways. We were not amused.
I have had a chance to visit the host family, and they are doing well. Mom insisted I come by for lunch every day this week, so that will be nice. She is way too nice to me, considering I was sitting around like a lump on the log when I was around last summer. I now also have a new sister, since they placed a female PCV with family this year. So, all is well on the domestic homefront.
Monkey Bar commented last night how he thought it was crazy that Servant of the Mind had read so much of my blog, because I’ve “written a book,” according to him. So, with this in mind, I will stop. I hope to get the rest of my stories from Africa up in the next few days, but we will see. I think I won’t be uploading photos for a while, since I think the connection at the office is slower than in Mosteiros. Oh, for the record, I have now established an electronic beachhead on Myspace.com, so search for me by name, and let’s be friends.
posted by jende turtle at 1:34 PM
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