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

Things I love about Cape Verde

1. As previously stated, the food.
2. That EVERYONE greets you with a kiss on either side of the cheek
3. That there are no drying machines here and everyone has a colorful array of clothing hanging up outside to dry
4. How fashion and style hold no importance. If you clothes don´t match, who cares! No one knows or cares about designer jeans, expensive shoes, and looking the best.
5. No one wears makeup.
6. In general, everyone is incredibly kind.
7. Everyone is humble.
8. The students in my classes have a strong desire to learn. They write down everything I say and write on the board.
9. It is required in the public schools that everyone learns French AND English. These kids come out of highschool being fluent in Portuguese and Creole, and also knowing some French and English. That is incredible to me.
10. That James and Karina consider me family.
11. That most of the students stay after class to joke around with each other.
12. That taxi´s always only cost 150 (about 2 dollars) escudos no matter where you go (as long as it´s in the main city) and 180 escudos at night.
13. The bus system. I don´t know why, but I love it.
14. That the other night a random young man gave up his seat on the bus to me so that I wouldn´t have to stand.
15. That there are breath taking views no matter where you are.
16. The COLORS! Everyone paints their house or building a vibrant color. It is beautiful! Bright blues, purples, oranges, greens, pinks, and reds everywhere!
17. The importance people place on healthy life style. I go to the city beach 95 percent of the people are either swimming laps in the ocean or playing soccer on the beach. I go out in the evening and 50 percent of the people are on a walk or on a run. You look at the soccer fields and there is either a game, practice, or people doing their own exercise on the field. It´s very motivating.
18. That James and Karina are related to about 60 percent of the city and they aren´t actually related to half of them by blood. Just by love or respect.

more to come.

Catfish bay

On Saturday Karina, Anastacio, Anastacio´s little sister, Jodi (she is in my english class and is awesome), Sharonly, and I ventured down to Catfish bay. It was BEAUTIFUL.

People here don´t like to to swim in the waves with the currents and everything, so they put a ton of rocks down to kind of block it and create an amazing huge natural swimming pool.

We only got to stay for about three hours because we had to head back for Karina´s sister´s baptism--which probably saved my skin. It was discovered that I failed to bring WATER PROOF sunscreen, I only brought the normal daily kind (am I an idiot or what?). Seriously, I have never been so sunburned in my LIFE. If we had stayed any longer I think my skin would have caught on fire. So for the past three days my skin has been in an incredible amount of pain. It´s just starting to kind of go away and the peeling is about to begin. Yikes.


The crew

Haha. For some reason my jumps always look this this...arms spread over head, legs spread open behind, and mouth open.

The water is so freaking crystal clear

:) How beautiful, huh? There is also a beachy sand part where people can hang out, but we like being at the end of this dock (I dont really know what else to call it) so that we could jump in and already be in the deep end!

All of the sudden a helicopter and plane appeared out of nowhere. Anastacio said that sometimes Nato runs some tests over here. It was so cool. The helicopter did about three rounds and then came down really low to us and they all were waving and did some tricks for us! If you enlarge the picture you can see the pilot waving!

COOL

Today Karina, James, Sharonly, and I ventured down to the city beach in hopes of some good swimming. When we got down to the beach, it was apparent that a whole school was down there on a field trip of some sort and they were ALL looking at something and oohing and ahing. So hurried on to the beach and saw that Three HUGE turtles were being released into the ocean! James said that they are endangered and so they were raised out of the ocean and when they have matured, they release them back into the ocean. We got to see each one enter the ocean and begin his life there. It was SO COOL. Unfortunately I didn´t bring my camera with me--I really wish I had!

Food

Have I mentioned the food here yet? I thought I was going to lose weight. FALSE. I am gaining by the day. Let me list of a few of the great foods I have encountered

1. Kit Kats. Kit Kats here are infinitely better than in the states. So much more creamy.
2. Apple Fanta. Who would have thought there are other flavors than orange? Well, there are, and the apple flavor is BY FAR the BEST. I drink almost a liter a day.
3. The rice. The rice is softer, bigger, and very tasty. I could eat the rice all day.
4. Home made yogurt. Karina makes home freaking made YOGURT. DElicious.
5. Maria Cookies. I don´t really know how to explain them. It tastes like a graham cracker, in the form of a cookie. I eat a package a day.
6. The chicken. It´s legit chicken guys. There are a lot of bones, but it is good. It might just be the way that Karina makes it. Karina´s cooking is awesome.

There´s so much more. Believe me, I will be adding on to the list.

Bad news

I came home yesterday and Enzo was gone. I guess we decided not to keep him. I miss Enzo.

Enzo

On Sunday we got a puppy. We all kinda came up with names-- bobby, joey, chichi, etc but I started calling him Enzo and it has stuck. I´m not exactly sure if we are keeping the dog or not, but we have had him for three days now and he is SO cute. I have absolutely no idea what kind of dog it is, probably a mix of a million of types. Enzo is adorable. Except when he is crying...then it´s a tid annoying. He LOVES to play. but he also loves to pee in the house. One time he peed in the house four times, WITHIN the hour.

Karina and I gave Enzo his first bath yesterday, cause he really really stank. He didn´t enjoy the bath very much, but when we finished, we wrapped him up in a towel and he slept for hours on my lap. A D O R A B L E.






And here is a pic from one of the first days of class :)Twice as many people are in the class now. More people keep showing up every night.