cabo verde (4/9/03)
so, i'm back in senegal. made it in one piece. you know you are have made a home when you look forward to coming back to dakar even tho ur having a fun and relaxing trip to an island country of beautiful people. what can i say, i missed my ceeb bu jen (fish and rice).
i really couldn't have asked for a better trip tho. we arrived to praia on the island santiago last saturday night. we foudn our hostal....which was definitely the cheapest hostal there...judging by the leaky plumbing, the room lights that didn't work, and the funky smell coming from the window...but besides that, it was quite comfortable, and clean, and i slept well. they had real matresses...not foam. living the highlife! that night we walked around a while...5 of us went...and met many people. the people are as sweet and as open as the people in dakar...but hte pace of life is much much slower. and we had this uncanny ability to run into everyone we met at least twice.sunday morning we got up early (partially thanks to the time change) and went to the old city where we hiked up to the old fort and took beautiful pictures. the contrast of mountain and beach is breathtaking...i hadn't realized how much i had missed hiking. then we ate a 3 hr lunch on the beach before an american cruise ship arrived and all it's passengers noisily took over the island and tried to buy everything with dollars. who are these people? we decided to take advantage of these mindless drones by convincing them to buy many trinkets from our new senegalese friend we had met a few hours earlier. the senegalese are everywhere. all you have to do is speak to them in wolof and you have a new best friend. we would be hanging out with her quite a bit. later that afternoon we went to the supermarket where me met a girl in the peace corps who lived in assomada, an inland city we would be visiting the next day. she invited us to stay at her place. sweet! monday, we rented our car and headed for assomada, making lil stops on the way. we tried to find the national botanical gardens but ended up riding around for an hour before giving up. we were directed to a kindergarden (apparents botanical garden and kindergarden sound the same when you are speaking spanish to people who only speak portuguese creole). our endeavor ended us in a valley that houses a small village. this is when the car got stuck. instead of trying to get it out, we decided to take the opportunity to meet the locals and chill with the cows. it was fun sitting back and watching the villagers go along with their daily work. i hope my black and white pics came out. then we commenced the daunting task of rescuing the car that was parked on a rocky incline. success but not without some major scratches (luckily, the rental agency didn't notice). we headed to assomada where me met with kelly, our new peace corps friend, and her peace corps roomies. treated them to dinner and talked forever about the peace corps and cabo verde etc. at the moment i'm thinking i want to join the peace corps but i change my mind everyday. besides, i think my experience would be wholly different if i was sent to cabo verde than if i was sent to say, turkministan.
the next morning we went to kelly's classes. she teaches english to highschoolers, and had the time of our lives. the students were so receptive. we learned a lot about cape verdian youth. then we headed to the beach at tarrafal where we would spend the next 2 nights enjoying the clear water...i swam a lot of laps, laughing at the portuguese spear fisher who scared the daylights out of me when he emmerged from the water in scubadiving gear, wetsuit, harpoon, flippers, and goggles. he came out of no where and he had a hitleresque moustache. weird. his wife looked like a lobster...guess she didn't realize the cabo verdian sun is much more intense than the portuguese sun. i also read one of the most amazing books ever "lief of pi" if u get a chance, read it. i also ate lots and lots of steak...tuna and beef steak. yummy.
thursday we headed back to praia where we chilled until saturday. friday we ran into the same senegalese lady and hung out with her at her market, speaking wolof and having a good ol time. it was interesting to see her passport. she had been to an amazing number of countries. she implores me to go to tunisia. why lookie here, that was next on my list. thurday night we had met a brit working in praia and then ran into him on friday. we woudl hang out with him the whole evening. the brits are very amusing. strange humour. had us rolling. we topped off our week by watching 8 mile. don't ask..it was the only thing playing and was the first american movie i've seen in english since getting here. not as bad as i thought it would be alhto it was easier to understand the portuguese subtitles than the soundtrack since there was something bizarre going on with the sound.
saturday i returned home to find the most beautiful belt on my bed..a present from my host parents who had just gotten back frmo niger. they know my style. so that was my week in a nutshell. u got hte quick version.
i look forward to another charged week. lots of going out since it's my bday soon. this means indian food. ooh la la. that's all i'm gonna say. anwyay, hope to hear frmo yall soon. kisses
maya
i really couldn't have asked for a better trip tho. we arrived to praia on the island santiago last saturday night. we foudn our hostal....which was definitely the cheapest hostal there...judging by the leaky plumbing, the room lights that didn't work, and the funky smell coming from the window...but besides that, it was quite comfortable, and clean, and i slept well. they had real matresses...not foam. living the highlife! that night we walked around a while...5 of us went...and met many people. the people are as sweet and as open as the people in dakar...but hte pace of life is much much slower. and we had this uncanny ability to run into everyone we met at least twice.sunday morning we got up early (partially thanks to the time change) and went to the old city where we hiked up to the old fort and took beautiful pictures. the contrast of mountain and beach is breathtaking...i hadn't realized how much i had missed hiking. then we ate a 3 hr lunch on the beach before an american cruise ship arrived and all it's passengers noisily took over the island and tried to buy everything with dollars. who are these people? we decided to take advantage of these mindless drones by convincing them to buy many trinkets from our new senegalese friend we had met a few hours earlier. the senegalese are everywhere. all you have to do is speak to them in wolof and you have a new best friend. we would be hanging out with her quite a bit. later that afternoon we went to the supermarket where me met a girl in the peace corps who lived in assomada, an inland city we would be visiting the next day. she invited us to stay at her place. sweet! monday, we rented our car and headed for assomada, making lil stops on the way. we tried to find the national botanical gardens but ended up riding around for an hour before giving up. we were directed to a kindergarden (apparents botanical garden and kindergarden sound the same when you are speaking spanish to people who only speak portuguese creole). our endeavor ended us in a valley that houses a small village. this is when the car got stuck. instead of trying to get it out, we decided to take the opportunity to meet the locals and chill with the cows. it was fun sitting back and watching the villagers go along with their daily work. i hope my black and white pics came out. then we commenced the daunting task of rescuing the car that was parked on a rocky incline. success but not without some major scratches (luckily, the rental agency didn't notice). we headed to assomada where me met with kelly, our new peace corps friend, and her peace corps roomies. treated them to dinner and talked forever about the peace corps and cabo verde etc. at the moment i'm thinking i want to join the peace corps but i change my mind everyday. besides, i think my experience would be wholly different if i was sent to cabo verde than if i was sent to say, turkministan.
the next morning we went to kelly's classes. she teaches english to highschoolers, and had the time of our lives. the students were so receptive. we learned a lot about cape verdian youth. then we headed to the beach at tarrafal where we would spend the next 2 nights enjoying the clear water...i swam a lot of laps, laughing at the portuguese spear fisher who scared the daylights out of me when he emmerged from the water in scubadiving gear, wetsuit, harpoon, flippers, and goggles. he came out of no where and he had a hitleresque moustache. weird. his wife looked like a lobster...guess she didn't realize the cabo verdian sun is much more intense than the portuguese sun. i also read one of the most amazing books ever "lief of pi" if u get a chance, read it. i also ate lots and lots of steak...tuna and beef steak. yummy.
thursday we headed back to praia where we chilled until saturday. friday we ran into the same senegalese lady and hung out with her at her market, speaking wolof and having a good ol time. it was interesting to see her passport. she had been to an amazing number of countries. she implores me to go to tunisia. why lookie here, that was next on my list. thurday night we had met a brit working in praia and then ran into him on friday. we woudl hang out with him the whole evening. the brits are very amusing. strange humour. had us rolling. we topped off our week by watching 8 mile. don't ask..it was the only thing playing and was the first american movie i've seen in english since getting here. not as bad as i thought it would be alhto it was easier to understand the portuguese subtitles than the soundtrack since there was something bizarre going on with the sound.
saturday i returned home to find the most beautiful belt on my bed..a present from my host parents who had just gotten back frmo niger. they know my style. so that was my week in a nutshell. u got hte quick version.
i look forward to another charged week. lots of going out since it's my bday soon. this means indian food. ooh la la. that's all i'm gonna say. anwyay, hope to hear frmo yall soon. kisses
maya
posted by maya at 7:02 PM
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