home pics blog Cape Verde

Day 63 - 4 September 2005 the mantra 2 more weeks...1 more week...6 more days...the mantra has been slowly evolving over the weeks. the weeks of diarrhea, the weeks of reporting to our parents, the weeks of class, the weeks of language, the weeks of watchin everythin we do to prevent any offense to our ever so hospitable small town host community. the weeks of excitement and the weeks of tension and the weeks of drama are all nearing a conclusion. seems like we’ve been here for months & months, and it’s only been 8 weeks. 8 long weeks of long walks, of the same type of food, of the same pampering (which I don’t mind, but I want to help out in the house too). in 1 week, I’ll be able to cook, clean, work on my own schedule (that I arrange with my community partner). no more 8 hours days of sittin in a multitude of classrooms, listening, learning, speaking, writing, rolling our eyes and making jokes to break the monotony. no more complainin ‘bout trainin...Grasas a Deus! I can’t wait to get to site and learn yet another dialect (almost another language I hear) of Kriolu that nobody here has taught us. at least I’ll be strugglin out on the street or in the store with real people tryin to decipher what they’re tellin me while tryin to construct my own terrible attempts for comprehensible sentences. at least I’ll be doin it at my own pace in a way where I’ll be learnin practical knowledge. I’ll be again learnin to live with a roommate, a guy who’s already been around for a year who will hopefully teach me the ropes in my new city. I’ve heard mixed reviews about him from different volunteers from last year, which is makin him even more intriguing to me. we’ll see how that goes. and I can’t wait to cook my own food, whatever it might be depending on the resources that will be available there. and the scenery, the mountains I will climb! the coastline I will follow! the water I will admire and the sky I will nearly touch at the mountaintops will all become so familiar to me. I’m already enthralled by the crazy hiace ride thru the mountains to the north and will take full advantage when I go to visit my deep north homies. oh the mantra is in full effect...6 more days, then the number will just keep shrinkin. I’m sure it’ll reduce to hours just as the site announcement countdown did. I can only imagine... <--- Tarrafal                13 fever! --->