Tarrafal sta sabi!

Well, I have finally made it to my site, Tarrafal on the island of Santiago. It is a cute little town perched next to the beach, with a few seaside restaurants I can use as my outlet to unwind for the day or think about life here in Cape Verde. For the next month or so I am living with Cameron and Nico, the other two volunteers here in Tarrafal. My house is not quite ready and time moves rather slow around here. Our house is located behind the enormous church found in the plaza. In a 10 minute walk from the beach to our place you experience the atmosphere of beach/Rastafarian life, a remote little plaza that somewhat resembles South America with tropical plants and mountains in the background, then you reach our neighborhood and you feel like you are in fact, in West Africa. My day consists of going to the agriculture fields, and conversing with the local farmers and my coworkers to improve my language while trying to learn about their farming techniques and various projects. I have started collecting materials to begin a small greenhouse so I can learn to plant tomatoes in the atmosphere here. Tomatoes are of great importance to Santiago and one of my projects will be working with the local producers to find techniques for better marketing and production strategies. When I am not in the fields I am enjoying a swim in the ocean, laying out on the beach, or I “txiga”. To “txiga” in Cape Verde, is to walk around the streets saying hello to whoever you see (normally people are just chilling on their front porches everywhere) and if they say, “txiga, txiga!” then you simply sit down with them and shoot the breeze for a couple hours.
For the time being, that is life here in Cape Verde! I will update once I have moved into my permanent house, or in a month…whichever comes first…probably the first month mark, ha. I have however, seen my house and it is merely a 500ft walk to the beach! Tudo algens fika bazof!

Im beaching it!

so i will officially be living on the island of SanTiago in the city of Taraffal in 2 weeks! I will be working a little south of Taraffal in Colonato for an agicriculture association. They produce mandioc, tomatoes, peppers, covi, ect. They are a huge agriculutre association on SanTiago! They also make Grogue which is the main rum drank here on the island. it is made from sugar cane and is exactly like the cachaca i had in brasil, ha! not sure yet of my exact projects but i know i will be working with irrigation systems and implementing a greenhouse on the site. when you are in the field you can see the beach, awesome! Tarraffal is located on the north west coast and is the primary beach town on santiago. i will be only a 2 minute walk from the beaches! the beaches are white sand with pristine blue water and rock formations that reach out ino the ocean. lots of schooling fish swimming around, sea urchins and starfish! it is a great place to go snorkeling. the beaches also have small fishing boats where the local fisherman sell fresh fish of all different colors and species. my site is only about 15 minutes from the national park too!!

language is going great and i feel prepared to move to my site in 2 weeks. i will have two other volunteers living in Tarrafal too, Cameron and Niko. They will be living just a few minutes walk down the road from me. Both are teaching language at the schools there. my host family stay has been a great experience and expect to visit them throughout my service. as of right now, my best friend in Cape Verde is my 4 year old host family brother! talking to him really helps with my kriolu. here is an example of how kriolu goes: n kre kumpra porku dipos n ta poi porku baxu di bu kama. this sentence says i want to buy a pig and put it under your bed. its a running joke i have with my lil brother. good times.

thanks to everyone who as written me! once my pre service training is over, in a couple weeks, i can start writing everyone back! yall have no idea how much the letters mean to me!

N gosta d-vida!

family, friends...its been about a month now and i am still loving every minute of this experience! right now i have 4 weeks of pre service training left before i head to my respective site for the next 2 years. where that site is, i do not know...but will find out this next wednesday, whoop! pre service training has me living with a host family near the town of Assomada. there are about 30 other trainees here as well. i have language classes about 4 hours a day, mon-fri as well as cultural development, business, etc. i get to do various activities on the weekend like go to the beach, (which is gorgeous!), hiking at the national park, enjoying a festa or just hanging out with my host family. right now i am learning kriolu, which is a mixture of portuguese and inland african dialects. after i have fully learned this language i will be learning how to speak portuguese. once my pre service training is complete, i look forward to being able to communicate on a more personal basis. hope this finds everyone well! ti logu!

Keep On Moving

I'll be in Boston for a Peace Corps conference on July 13th, then on a plane officially headed to the island country of Cape Verde the night of July 14th! Once there, I will be doing a 9 week cultural and language training course on the island of São Tiago. My job title is Environmental Education and Awareness - Jr. SED Advisor. The program entails Community and Small Enterprise Development (SED).