Killer Cars

I’ve been at site for a little less than a month now and am jotting things down as they seem new to me. I haven’t fully settled in and am still trying to establish a routine. There are things I have gotten used to, yet there are still things I have yet to tap. Suffice to say, in some ways I am not a newcomer but I still got a lot to learn.

I have begun my job at the CEJ. I work for about 8 hours and go home for lunch. I have an office with an old computer but I won’t be spending much time in there unless I have some real desk work to do. For now, I have been just ‘there’ just to get my face known and observe. This is exactly as it sounds.

The first week or so there weren’t many visitors as most of the youth were probably out enjoying the last few weeks of summer before school commenced. It started to get busy once afterwards, and I just watched the daily life of what goes on in the CEJ. The center here is small, with only 6 computers, a small room that serves as a library, a ping pong table, TV, seating, a barely used kitchen and tables lined with information booklets. Therefore, there really isn’t that much to do to keep anybody busy, and hence I spend almost all day just watching life inside, and occasionally peeking outside at the main road. The ocean is always in view of the main road, so that’s always cool. Kids come and go and hardly anybody stays longer than an hour. Also, there are 2 young girls who primarily work at the center to keep it running and kept. I have been trying to keep out of their way while I also get to know what they do.

From what I observed, those that frequent the CEJ come for different reasons. Some go just to play some ping pong or checkers either before or directly after school (it’s located very close to the high school and I think a pre-school). Some others are looking for a place to hang out before returning home, watch some TV or use the computers to type letters. For the ones that are just hanging around, there is information on different topics such as drugs, AIDS, underage sex, and also this is the place to go if you are looking for free condoms. The days can be long sometimes and then I start to remind myself that my observations of Calheta should not be just tied to the daily functions of the youth center.

In my understanding, youth centers in Cape Verde were created because the youth of Cape Verde (under 25) is the majority of the population of the country. Most of them don’t work or are in school and the center provides a hub for them to get together and along with special projects, bring themselves together for the betterment of the community. I’m still processing how the center is viewed on a community level, and even how the center stands on a political map (they are loosely linked to the government and I have trouble understanding how they get funded). Hence, my work at the center is more and more different than you would think of working at like a YMCA, where its image is more private and feels like a club of sorts. Here the youth of the country are a very big deal, as they will shape what the country will soon be more than the man at top.

On the downtimes when the center is quiet, I go through resources, books left over on how to teach computers in Portuguese, and any stuff left over from the previous volunteer. I begin to realize how much work can be done once I see what has been accomplished before and what steps were taken to get there. I’m starting to develop ideas, but don’t think I have the necessary language to discuss it with anybody yet. I could go down the path that was taken from the volunteer before me, but that would seem expected of me, and I can’t just take over someone else’s work. For now, I will have to keep observing more and getting more Peace Corps resources to look over. Any ideas I have will have to sit on the backburner as I still try to understand how Cape Verde and even Peace Corps for that matter, works.

I haven’t done much work as far as my living situation. The apartment is still barebones and I still need to get the phone line to dial out and internet for the house. It’s starting to appear cleaner but water likes to leak out in the bathroom and kitchen everyday. I have to sweep the floors frequently, as dust accumulates on anything the eye can see. There are swarms of ants in some of the rooms and every once in a while I have to chase out a cricket. For these dust and insect reasons, I’m starting to think that having a part-time maid will make my life simpler and show me the ropes on how to keep a clean house. Doing so would probably leave me more time to be out in the community and be more effective in my work.

Adding to the dust and insects, there is a group of kids that come by to hang out and visit my roommate Adam. There are either inside watching TV, playing cards or out in the front playing soccer. I have been somewhat apart from them as they seem to be in their own world and after seeing kids all day at work, I want to stretch out a bit. I’m also growing more and more distant of them as the numbers seem to increase each day and they have started knocking on our door before any of us wake up. Eventually, once I feel the house is settled I won’t find them in the way as much and they eventually realize that I am just like all the other adults in town.

My health has been somewhat stable. I’m still tired everyday and I don’t know weather it’s the malaria pills or that I’m not getting any sugar or caffeine in my diet. I still find the weather too hot to do any type of excercise and I don’t feel the urge to wake up early enough yet. Besides the walking to and from work, there isn’t much going on and I can feel losing muscle mass. I hear there is a weight gym in town, but haven’t had anybody show me just yet. Maybe weights is all I need as there is little chance I will go running in this town.

Contrary to any habit I had in the states, I have started drinking unfiltered water from the town tap. In Africa, generally drinking unfiltered or non-bottled water is a huge no no for health reasons. But so far the running water in the some of the homes in Calheta, such as mine, aren’t that bad. It’s always been clear and I haven’t tasted anything metallic or fishy as of yet but I have been mixing it with juice concentrate so I can ignore the taste. Others have told me that if you want to start drinking from the tap, you have to train your body a little at a time. Well, on my first days, I pounded the water back and luckily have been fine. It took my body about 2 days to train itself to handle the water without having stomach problems, but I was never really worried that it would get me sick. Now coming from someone who can tell the taste difference of Evian, Poland Spring and even horrible Aquafina, my standards have been extremely lowered.

I have begun cooking, albeit not in good variety. It’s hard to put the time in making balanced meals for one person and to buy food you have to go to around 4 or 5 people to get all the ingredients you need. The PCV Cape Verde cookbook that we got during training has been very helpful and it shows how you can make something out of nothing just like the locals here have. I might be thinking about sharing dinner with a small family if I pay them a small sum, but I need more time to see how well I am at feeding myself (which right now, I think to be pretty poor).

Also, I am in a little state of culture shock as to how Cape Verdeans place value on food. It is as if the only extra costs you pay are for transportation of food, and not the service or the labor it requires. How this works is that if I eat out locally, (which is very cheap at around a dollar and half) I am certain I am paying for the cost of the ingredients, the cost of its transport, and a little over. They don’t put any value on time or service and that little money they make as a profit is just enough for them to live on a normal level. Hence, most of the costs of eating out will cover drinks that have to be imported from other islands or even as far away as Portugal. So in another thought, I have trouble thinking I should cook for myself when I could get just the same deal eating out.

The concept that Cape Verdeans don’t put any value on time or service also applies to bars and alcohol. A drink served at a bar is exactly the same cost as buying it off of the shelf at the store. Drinking is part of culture here in this country, but once I am here at site I’m starting to think it will run me up a huge tab. People will remind you that drinks are cheap at a dollar for beer, but when you compare it to the prices of food, and other services, it starts to become very expensive.

Think in this context. For the price of haircut, I can get 2 beers. For the price of very big meal, I can get 1 and a half. For the price of me to get to the capital city on an hour long hiace ride is another 2. The effect of beer is not worth the price when you finally figure out how expensive it can be. If I kept the same drinking habits as I did in the states, my allowance for drinks will greatly outnumber my allowance for food, and other things I might rightfully need.

For that matter I have decided to cut down on drinking while I am at site. While I did drink modestly during PST, we were paid so little it didn’t matter to save any of it. Now that I’m starting to get my living allowance, I can’t fathom spending money which would rather be saved for travel within the country. Plus, as my position at the youth center, it’s probably best I limit my time drinking in town.

As far as town goes, I think most people have gotten used to seeing me. I have become a regular face at the youth center, and people have stopped introducing themselves. During town festivals, I get encountered with locals who have heard and even met me, but I haven’t had the time to memorize their faces. These people can be as famous as local musicians who know I am new face to someone who claims they were in my house just the other day. Because I am so absent minded I forget names and faces all the time. As a joke, I’ve probably met everybody here at least twice as even today I can’t remember their names.

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, I am starting to enjoy the independence for once. I read about 3 books at a time and sometimes delay things for days before I decide to do them. The peace and quiet does come at night, but so far I have been using this time to play video games on my laptop. It’s probably hurting my integration into the community, but I need one step at time to really keep it from overwhelming me. Plus, I’m sure things I do alone will eventually bore me and that will be enough to force me out of the house. If I get internet, hopefully that will be the only thing keeping me inside, and even then, with any luck I can restrict myself.

For the future, we have certain things lined up. The holidays are coming and it should be interesting to see how it goes down here. I will probably move into my new room once our 2nd roommate goes back home. By then, I will feel like the place is mine and not just a bed and things. The weather is starting to get cooler so I should be going out more and more, and my language is starting to come to a good enough level. I’m looking forward to what Cape Verde has to offer in the next months, and seeing what I can accomplish at site. For now, I should probably enjoy the first leg and relax as I observe and enjoy being “the new kid in town”.

There is a Peace Corps proverb that says “each day better”. At least that’s how I remember it. As much as I have said that time slows to a crawl in this country, having a good first month at my site has really sped up the time. More and more that Peace Corps proverb is right and I can be pretty sure it’s all downhill from now on.

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