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Day 261 - 21 March 2006 the boyz Mane & Cecil it’s great helping folks with computers. giving them programs they can use to learn to type or games they can entertain themselves with...whatever their thang may be, I’m glad I can help them out. especially when they take me out for drinks afterwards. I helped my former student Mane the other day by giving him this typing program so he can better his skills and more important get his son into learning young so he can have mad typing skills when he comes of age. I also hooked him up with a few games and emulators so he can enjoy his brand new computer to the fullest. attaboy Mane. then he takes me to the store. pretty much like a tiny corner store in the states, but without all the gangsters hangin out in front of them with their 40’s in hand. I mean, c’mon, they don’t even sell 40’s out here! and nobody has enough money to be a gangster! so we meet up with another friend of Mane’s and run into Cecil, another friend of a friend who I know from before. in fact, Cecil once brought my roomie and I to that very store for a beer a while back. what a coincidence! so we’re chillin, talking about whatever. I jump in when I can with my broken Kriolu, and Mane just keeps askin "mais un pé?" and his buddy and I look at each other and make gestures about his "just another drink" nonchalantness, which of course we follow up with a subtle lack of an response, meaning yes in Mane’s book. eventually Cecil gets hungry and gets a piece of fish and draws up a scheme to fry it right there in the tiny store. he asks the clerk for a plate, then gets a few small rocks and puts them on the plate, pours some grogue on the plate, lights it with a match and balances the slab of fish on the rocks. right there on the floor of the entrance of the store! BRILLIANT! people are comin in & out buyin things for dinner or whatever and we’re just standin there watchin the fish cook. eventually the clerk says move it to the wooden desk here so it’s not in the way of the shoppers. I’m just thinking oh crap, wooden desk and buring alcohol...grrreat. but they do and nothing spills so it keeps on cookin. it actually turns out to be pretty durn good after a good 15 minutes or so. now I know how to cook out when campin here in a land lackin wood. grogue baby! not JUST for drinkin! so we eat up and chat some more, break open a bottle of wine (we’ve already had a few beers), and enjoy the growing strength of the later afternoon wind. after the bottle I decide to take off before more alcs find their way into my hand. Cecil gives me a box set of older Hitchcock films to check out (Hitchcock in Cape Verde? who woulda thunk?) what a great way to spend a couple hours of a late afternoon after class? <--- Ides of March BEWARE!                Chã de Igreja --->