Ponta Where?

Spent an exhausting weekend in Ponta Verde, doing a whole lot, and nothing at the same time. Went to a house-building party (no, not house warming). A family who is building their house got all their extended family together (well, mostly men) and had a wild afternoon of laying cement on the second floor roof. Though they started out sober, many bottles of what looked like bootleg ponche were being passed around. By the time we had left and come back, there was much drunkenness to be had by the men, though they still seemed to be able to lay cement pretty well.

I had gone off with Servant of the Mind and She Who Runs From Dead Pig to watch Borat, which was amusing, but probably would have been more amusing if a) I hadn’t read stuff beforehand about the funny scenes and b) I wasn’t living in Cape Verde. Though I haven’t seen many new releases, I’ve read a lot about them from magazines that people send, and for the most part, the hype I am getting is not matching the funniness or greatness of the actual movie. Is this me having higher expectations? Or have I been outside of mainstream American culture for too long that I am missing many subtle things that give it a richer and deeper context?

And some of the things Borat was saying about life in Kazakhstan, not like it was the same as what life here is in Cape Verde, but there were some general parallels

A group from Brava that is more or less famous also came to perform and we went to watch them. I was a bit disappointed since the song they’re best know for is one they didn’t sing. They did a lot of covers, which, in my understanding, is perfectly acceptable practice in Cape Verde, and in Cape Verdean music tradition, is actually a sign of respect for the original artist. Many of Lura’s songs, I learned one night over a bottle of wine, are covers of many other artists.

Other than that, we drank, talked a lot, and gave each other shit (well, maybe that was more just me and She Who Runs from Dead Pig). Speaking of which, did you know that candle wax kind of acts like an accelerant with a candle? Well, I didn’t know that before this weekend, since I never really spent a lot of time thinking about candles, however, I can assure you now, I am well aware of the role that wax plays in fire, thank you very much!!!

So, I am back in Mosteiros now, with a bit of prospect of work, since Pedro, a friend of mine at the Câmara just finished overseeing a survey done of the entire concelho, and I might be able to help out with putting all of the data in order or whatever. We will see.