Right, well, I am back in Mosteiros...
...and surprising as it was to me, I am really happy to be back. I don’t know if this is because of the enthusiasm I saw with the Trainees – which bring back the hope that I might actually accomplish something at site this year – or just my desire to get away from having to deal more with PC, but I was practically ready to call my APCD on Monday morning and beg for him to let me come back to Mosteiros.
I ended up spending four days in Sao Filipe, and during that time, took taxies to all of the new sites, and tried to check out the housing situation. I was a bit surprised by myself. Though I consider my Kriolu language skills to be crap, I was able to basically get by and take care of what business I had to. Though I am not at that point where I am able to have deep, intimate conversations with people in Kriolu, at least I know I can make it if I really have to.
And even though my APCD sent me back to Fogo with the specific mission of checking out the new housing for the newbies, the other APCD (we have one APCD for each sector) still ended up sending Farafa to Ponta Verde to check out the site for the TEFL Volunteers. I did not know this until I was at Ponta Verde for the second time, and the landlord was telling me about a “blanca Corpo da Paz” who was also around checking out the housing situation. It had to be Farafa. But why would PC send me and him to do the same job? It is going to cost them a lot more in transportation and other costs, since both of us were travelling around the island, trying to check stuff out. But what can I do? I just work here.
So yeah, the newbies arrived and all was well. I bought them some candy, since it was the only thing I could think of as a welcome to Fogo present. Some of them had some housing problems initially, but I think as of now, everything is good. But I am not sure, since I cannot get in touch with anyone, since none of them have phones yet. I think we will have them all over soon, as a welcome to the island thing.
It was a fitting welcome back to site, when the hiace from Sao Filipe almost got into a typical Cape Verdean traffic accident. By typical, I mean that it involved cows. Tilo’s got an older, more run down hiace which is unable to take the cobblestone road as fast as most of the others on Fogo. Despite the slowness, he’s a good guy and doesn’t squeeze people into his hiace like some of the other drivers, so I ride with him when I can. In his old style hiace, the seats aren’t all bolted to the ground with a seat at the end of the row that flips up – allowing access to the further back rows. Instead, the entire row is hinged together, and the hinges let the bench seat be arched forward, creating space for you to slither to the back.
So as we’re driving along, I’m sitting in the far back row, with one kid and two teenage girls in the row in front of me, and then some older people in the first row. Tilo and two passengers are shotgun. We’re puttering along at the usual Tilo pace, when suddenly he throws on the brakes and we all slam forward, including each row of bench seats. My bags end up under the seats in front of me. People bang their shins badly against the metal bars that hinge the seats together, though there is no blood.
The culprits are cows that had been crossing the road from one field to another. There was this rise in the side of the road, so it wasn’t possibly to see the cows until they started to cross the road. Of course, this near accident leads to a lot of shouting between Tilo and the owner of the cows, an guy who looked older than the volcano.
I don’t know why, but I took this almost accident as a positive sign that I will be having a good and productive second year. It was just the kind of amusing welcome back to Fogo that I was looking for.
I ended up spending four days in Sao Filipe, and during that time, took taxies to all of the new sites, and tried to check out the housing situation. I was a bit surprised by myself. Though I consider my Kriolu language skills to be crap, I was able to basically get by and take care of what business I had to. Though I am not at that point where I am able to have deep, intimate conversations with people in Kriolu, at least I know I can make it if I really have to.
And even though my APCD sent me back to Fogo with the specific mission of checking out the new housing for the newbies, the other APCD (we have one APCD for each sector) still ended up sending Farafa to Ponta Verde to check out the site for the TEFL Volunteers. I did not know this until I was at Ponta Verde for the second time, and the landlord was telling me about a “blanca Corpo da Paz” who was also around checking out the housing situation. It had to be Farafa. But why would PC send me and him to do the same job? It is going to cost them a lot more in transportation and other costs, since both of us were travelling around the island, trying to check stuff out. But what can I do? I just work here.
So yeah, the newbies arrived and all was well. I bought them some candy, since it was the only thing I could think of as a welcome to Fogo present. Some of them had some housing problems initially, but I think as of now, everything is good. But I am not sure, since I cannot get in touch with anyone, since none of them have phones yet. I think we will have them all over soon, as a welcome to the island thing.
It was a fitting welcome back to site, when the hiace from Sao Filipe almost got into a typical Cape Verdean traffic accident. By typical, I mean that it involved cows. Tilo’s got an older, more run down hiace which is unable to take the cobblestone road as fast as most of the others on Fogo. Despite the slowness, he’s a good guy and doesn’t squeeze people into his hiace like some of the other drivers, so I ride with him when I can. In his old style hiace, the seats aren’t all bolted to the ground with a seat at the end of the row that flips up – allowing access to the further back rows. Instead, the entire row is hinged together, and the hinges let the bench seat be arched forward, creating space for you to slither to the back.
So as we’re driving along, I’m sitting in the far back row, with one kid and two teenage girls in the row in front of me, and then some older people in the first row. Tilo and two passengers are shotgun. We’re puttering along at the usual Tilo pace, when suddenly he throws on the brakes and we all slam forward, including each row of bench seats. My bags end up under the seats in front of me. People bang their shins badly against the metal bars that hinge the seats together, though there is no blood.
The culprits are cows that had been crossing the road from one field to another. There was this rise in the side of the road, so it wasn’t possibly to see the cows until they started to cross the road. Of course, this near accident leads to a lot of shouting between Tilo and the owner of the cows, an guy who looked older than the volcano.
I don’t know why, but I took this almost accident as a positive sign that I will be having a good and productive second year. It was just the kind of amusing welcome back to Fogo that I was looking for.
posted by jende turtle at 3:11 PM
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