Wow

I LOVE IT HERE.

The more time I spend here and the more I get to know the city, the more I love it! I love that I am now capable of finding my way around on my own and I love being so indpendent in a foreign country. It is exhilarating :-)

Well let´s see. I feel like there is a lot to update.

Let´s start with my english class. My english class is so cool. I have about twenty students and they are such a riot. It is hard to keep them quiet sometimes, but class is always a blast. We have class every night from 8-9. Last Friday I made them some chocolate chip cookies and they were AMAZED. Everyone was like ´What ARE these? YOU made them? They are SO good!´ hahahaha! Last week I had them get into groups and each group was supposed to design their own hotel and then tell the whole class about it, in English (obviously). I meant for this to be a short activity that would only take one class, but they were SO serious about it. Everyone wanted the english to be exactly correct and to make detailed drawings of the hotel and everyone was SO nervous to present in front of everybody (which is why I made the chocolate chip cookies as a treat for after they presented). They are great :-)

Yesterday was Dias das Crianças, or, Day of the Children. And it is a legit HOLIDAY. Everyone gets of school and work. How crazy? Why don´t we have a childrens day in the states?! We have mothers day, fathers day, and no childrens day! Anyway, so in the morning we went to Laginha (the city beach) and played alllll morning long. A few people from class met us there as well. It was nice to spend the morning with some new friends. They taught me some beginning capoeira (a type of martial arts) and then we swam in the ocean for a long time. Then I went out teaching with the sister missionaries. They are so great and I really love teaching with them. I am going again on Friday!
(this is Laginha in the evening)


Making someone into a mermaid is MANDATORY for every beach trip. Hehe

Today I went SCUBA DIVING. For the first time in my life. Roney (also member in the church) took me down to São Pedro where he teaches and he taught me everything I needed to know in the pool and then we ventured out to the ocean for about an hour or so. It was amazing. I love the ocean, it is such a different world. So peaceful and relaxing. I could spend all day under the water. I can´t wait to go again!

Also, I have a new friend here. President Hobson. He was the first mission president to live here in Cape Verde. He is here for the next month working voluntarily with the Ashby Foundation. He is such a sweet man and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with him. We just started meeting in the mornings for an hour or so to study the scriptures and starting this week I am going to help him with some of his Ashby work. He is great company.
This is James, President Hobson, and me