home pics blog Cape Verde

Day 74 - 15 September 2005 home at last! finally! in my beautiful (home)town, a place I can finally call home. with a home to actually call home too. a room of my own, a place where I can cook & clean on my own, go out and find groceries, and yes, not understand the people around me. the Sentaton Kriolu is pretty different to the ears, while all the cognates are there, the other elements of the sentences are different as is the entire sentence structure (or lack thereof). the actual sounds comin out are so hard to discern when conversing with folks from here. my roomie said he had a tough time at first too, and still isn’t the best conversationalist in kriolu. we’ll see how that works. so my roomie definitely has a lot to say which is cool cuz I like to listen. I feel like he’ll be guiding me for a while showin me the ropes around here and translating for me. poor guy. that’s not his job, but for now, that’s just how it works. so I’ve basically figured out where to get groceries, where to pay our bills and how to acquire water, both for the house and for drinkin (yes there are two different sources). I even helped him install our TV antenna on the roof and find the channels on the TV while he’s shown me how to use the dialup in the house and wash clothes the old fashioned way (by hand). we’ve even cooked a few meals together (since at least one of us has to cook at least two meals a day). I met my community partner at the youth center and have started to accumulate things for my room and our house. we definitely need some decorations around here and a few other household items. my bed is missing an integral part and I don’t have a few things I’m guaranteed as a volunteer (things happen slowly here). I’ve paid to have my phone setup, but am still waiting for them to drop by an install it. I’ve figured out how to withdraw money from the bank and how to send a letter at the post office, and how to sleep after lunch- something I probably shouldn’t get used to. the first night we went to the girls’ place on the other side of town cuz the family next door to them cooked them up a PHATTY meal of tuna and potatoes with rice with peas & carrots, as well as a flan-like dessert made of queijo (cheese). it was scum-diddly-umptous. they sent me home with half the leftover dessert and some fresh marmel-ade made with a local fruit, marmel. it’s good stuff on toast. their house is HUGE and super new lookin compared to our modest bachelor pad...hahaha...it’s a very comfortable home. theirs looks huge and white and somewhat empty cuz they just have sooo much space. I like our place, I just need to get some stuff to spruce it up... so basically all I’ve done so far is try to run errands in the mornin, then make and/or eat lunch, pass out for an hour or two, update this site, and figure out how much I’m spendin on food, etc. and I’ve already finished the book the Mimi & Mary gave me- THANKS A BUNCH YOU TWO! next week I’m supposed to report in to the CEJ and see what my "boss" has got for me, or whatever...who can say? I really gotta figure out why I can’t connect to our ISP here with my modem. if I could I would be so on top of email right now. durn it... <--- the trek                what a week! --->