Quick update

Good news. By mid Wednesday morning I was feeling a ton better, which was perfect because I got to go to Praia Grande with my friend Sergio! That beach is PERFECT. Perfect perfect perfect.

Today Nelida and I and a couple of our friends went down to Sao Pedro and hiked to the light house and to a cave! It was also spectacular. Here is so beautiful. Sad to leave.

Tomorrow is my last day! Then off to Praia and Fogo!!! Gotta run, no time!

I´ll post pictures and update more when I get home! Or if I have time tomorrow.

SEE YA!

Ugh

Today, I am sick. The most sick I have been since I got here. It´s just been me and the bathroom all day long. COME ON BODY. My last week here?!?! Really?!?!

I have my class party tonight. I hope I feel betttterrrrrrrrr.

Cape Verde keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter. I have never sweated so much--especially when I´m out walking with the sisters. This is resulting in a nasty zit break out. Oh well.

Well I have a week and half left in Cape Verde, Less than a week left in Mindelo, and two days left on English class. Where does time go?!

Everyone keeps asking me if I am going to come back soon and all I can say is, I sure hope so. I´m getting sad realizing that I won´t see so many of these people that I have come to adore for a long time, if ever again. It´s a hard realization. I wish I had a bunch of money and I could come visit whenever I wanted.

I hope I fit in everything I can this week. So far the week should go like this:
Monday: SOS village, lunch at Nelida´s, São Pedro beach, English class, James´ birthday party.
Tuesday: Prison, baking baking baking with sister Goff for my class party, Out with the sister missionaries, and then Classsss party!!!
Wednesday: PRAIA GRANDE. The most beautiful beach! And then Outreach, which is like a young single adult program here.
Thursday: Last lunch with elder and sister goff, Sister missionaries, and present shopping.
Friday: Last trip to Laginha beach, Last lunch with James and Karina, Finish present shopping, pack, Outreach, Final dinner. :(
Saturday: flight to Praia. :( :( :(

BAH, I can´t believe it´s my last week in Mindelo!!!!!

Anyway, last week I went to the SOS village with a peace corp volunteer. It was basically like a day care for children. A place for kids in need to play, eat a meal, and have activities. I´m going to go back on Monday with Nelida for some activities planned for the kids.

I talked to the peace corp volunteer for quite a while and learned all about it. Shoot guys, its looking like I´ll be joining the peace corps after college.

Story from this week. So I was sleeping over at Nelida´s and we had turned the light off, but I needed to check the phone for something. As I was reaching over to get the phone I thought I felt something on my arm, but I dismissed the thought because I assumed it was just one of my bracelets. I then realized I needed the light on, so I got up and turned it on and then looked over to my bed to see a CEM PÈ CRAWLING ON MY PILLOW. A cem pé in english is a centipede I think, or a milipede. In anycase, they are bad here because if they bite you, you get swollen and sick for three days. After I discovered it, and ran out to Cajo (nelidas brother)for him to kill it, but I couldnt remember what they are called so I just kept repeating ´mil, mil (thousand, thousand) cem, cem (hundred, hundred´ and making weird wiggly hand motions. Somehow he knew what I was talking about and he and his dad found and killed it. But now the WHOLE family makes fun of me everyday because of the weird wiggly hand motions I made. Hahaha.

Also, yesterday I went scuba diving again, and saw TWO sharks. Yes, TWO sharks. They were less than five feet away from me. SO cool. They were nurse sharks though, and apparently nurse sharks aren´t even remotely dangerous, so no worries dad.

Um, I´m sure there are a thousand other things that I have to tell everyone, but I keep forgetting because I keep trying to remember the things I have to do in my last week. Sorry! I´ll try to post some pics tomorrow!

Yay!

Today is the hottest day that I have experienced here so far. I go out with the sisters in a half hour and I am a little scared about all the sweat that will come. BUT GUESS WHAT?! Today I got a package from Jake!!!!


Packages are seriously the best. Jake included all sorts of freaking cool stuff:

solar powered calculators
Paper
colorful pencils
pencil sharpeners
Colorful erasers
a mini U.S. constitution
Batteries
2 LED Flashlights
A filtered water bottle
And a Quark tactical flashlight (which I am SO excited to use)

Dear Jake, thank you thank you thank you! I have the perfect place for a lot of these school supplies. I´m going to the SOS village this week to work with the children and the peace corps and I am positive they could use a lot of this :)



A quick pic from the weekend:


The past weekend was spent at Nelidas again. We have so much fun. Dance parties galore, food, and the beach :)

PS. there is a water problem in the city and a ton of houses are with out water right now. Our house has been without water for two weeks now. The Goffs ran out today too. AY! Luckily the office and Nelida´s have water for showers and bathroom using.

NatiRuts

This week a popular Reggae band, Natiruts, has been in Mindelo. I met João from Portugal last Monday who was here hanging out with the band, and by getting to know João this week, I also had the opportunity to get to know all of the band members. Last night was their concert and Nelida and I got free tickets and got to chill with everyone backstage before and after the show. It was soooo fun. In fact, this whole week has just been so much dang fun. All of my new friends from Portugal and Brazil left this morning and I am so sad. I hate realizing that all of these amazing, fun, cool people that I am meeting over here I will probably never see again. I only have three weeks left here and the end is coming far too quickly for me.

(Ps it was awesome that all of them spoke pure portuguese. No creole!).

Unfortunately I only took a few pictures with Nelida before the show and then I left my camera, but I´m going to try and have João send me his




(Random pic from last week.)This is a common occurrence here in Mindelo: Random groups of people storming the streets with their drums and dancing.

Fourth of July Weekend

There were so many great things about this weekend and one bad thing:

The fact that my debit card decided to stop working on Saturday. And my credit card. and that I was left with 5 dollars. In a foreign country. By myself.

Let´s just say, I freaked out a little. Luckily, my parents are angels, and called the credit card company Monday to get it fixed. And I have a new debit card on the way. PHEW. But let me tell you, I was really worried those two and a half days that I did not have any money.

Anyway, Friday and Saturday night I slept over at Nelida´s house. It was so fun. Friday was her graduation from highschool, so she and all of her classmates stormed the streets dancing. It was SO cool. The had the drums going and the graduating class paraded through the streets for about a mile, blocking all traffic. They were all dancing and yelling. Her family and I went to Fun D´Mar for pizza and then got ice cream. Then we headed back to her house, and talked and slept. Saturday was filled with talking, lot´s of eating, lot´s of walking, reading, and music listening--and more eating. Oh and some worrying because that was the day my card stopped working. Nelida and her mom were so sweet to me though, they made me feel a lot better. Her mom is HILARIOUS.

Sunday, we went to church. They are in a different branch, so it was cool to see another branch in action. (PS I got to play the piano for sacrament. I´ve never done that before!). THEN I went to the Goff´s house to celebrate the 4th of July. We had cheeseburgers, potato salad, fruit salad, chips, and corn. AMERICAN FOOD. Wooo hoo! Then we had icecream and cake :) oh man, it was so good. Americans easily have the best food, recipes, etc. Choir was cancelled at the church (well it wasnt actually cancelled--no one came) so the Goffs and I went to the city square and listened to the band play :)

Monday was the independence day of Cape Verde! So all the stores were closed and everyone had of work. James, Karina, and I spent the whoooole day at the beach :)
all in all, a pretty dang good weekend (minus the money scare).

Last month

Okay, I have been here for almost exactly two months now. I am in my last month. As I predicted, time has gone by fairly quickly. This week I really missed my family and best friends though. But here is what I realized today:

I am capable of anything.

I am a strong, beautiful, smart American girl and I just realized that I am capable of so much more than I ever thought.

I can fly to an African island, not knowing literally a single person, and live there for three months. I can even make friends on an African island-- friends who speak another language and live a completely different style of life (in fact, pretty sure I´m having a sleepover with Nelida tonight). I can navigate the bus system on an African island. I can navigate the streets of an African island. I can do anything.

Good day. Good realizations. Hope I´m not seeming egotistical. Have a good weekend!

Missionaries

Have I talked about the sister missionaries yet? Well I adore them. I go out with Sister Smith and Sister Alves every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and I always have the best time. I am starting to pitch in thoughts and scriptures into the lessons a little more everytime I go out with them, which makes me feel cool. Like I could maybe someday be a missionary. We will see...