Life for the last 7 months: A little catching up to do.

First off, I'm sorry. I apologize for keeping anyone who is truly interested in my life and my experience out of the loop; it wasn't my intention. But you know one excuse leads to the other, I´ve had all this work, I want to focus on integration first, my internet access hasn't been good, blah blah blah. Truly, I have had to time to keep up with this and haven't, my bad. But you know, you start telling yourself that you're really busy and could be doing so many better things till you actually convince yourself and you feel really busy. The mind is pretty powerful. I know that now.

But also I've learned a lot more things for in these 7 months. I'll give you all a quick recap.

My first two months in Cape Verde were spent in Picos, a rural town on Santiago, the largest island of Cape Verde. There, I lived with a family, learning the ins-and-outs of capeverdean life. This period also served for intensive training: learning Kriolu, different skills that may be needed and other cultural aspects. Overall, these 2 months were great, busy, but great. I shared a lot of time with a great family, who cared for me like a son. Once my host-mom even convinced me that I was sick. Weird, but impressive. My host-dad took me out on runs and included me in his yoga-style workouts that sometimes included nun-chucks, which was very funny. Many other stories came from this two-month period that seems so long ago, but most importantly I became fairly fluent in Kriolu. Which probably was the intention of the Peace Corps.

After these two months my life became a little less capeverdean. I moved out, went to my site and gained some welcome independence. Which means that for the last 5 months my daily diet has differed hardly any, and I've eaten truck loads of cereal (maybe literally). But don't worry, I take vitamins. Job related news, I work at a public youth center. I love the job. It is very community oriented, so I meet a lot of people (mainly youths), and I have a lot of freedom. For the most part I'm teaching computer classes right now, which I'm surprised to say that I like because I hate computers, but the kids/adults are eager to learn about computers and easy-going. Also, I'm working on some side projects that are in the beginning stages: environmental campaigns, cultural fairs, and some other things. But, that's mainly it.

My home is nice. Tile floors, electricity, running water (half the time) and a good location. My community is fairly big on capeverdean standards; it may be the 4th largest city in Cape Verde. And I have no really complaints about it.

Some thoughts that have developed since arriving at my site:

-I'm not sure people from the suburbs really know how to be apart of a community

• we spend a lot of time trying to avoid one another rather than spending time together
• time that is spent together is rather insignificant and usually small talk
• but I won't say that the desire isn't there, it just needs a little boost.

-Why does the society that has arguably (probably not even arguably) caused the most damage to the Earth in our planets history send young ambassadors across the world and call them development workers? All that we know how to do is to destroy something, right?

Harsh thoughts, I know. But, there is a lot of time to think here and, so far, this is what I've come up with.

Please comment. Hopefully some interesting conversation arises.

All the best and I will try my best to keep this thing going,

Jeff