August 17, 2001

So, I made this list of things that everyone would like to know about, things that were trivial, and then I got deathly ill yesterday, which was even more eventful. I felt sick in the morning, and then in the afternoon someone drove me 4 blocks home to my host family's house to rest. Within one hour, I had a 103°F fever, chills, and a horrible headache, accompanied by diarrhea and vomiting. I was sure it was food poisoning, considering the electricity goes out so much here and things just aren't properly refrigerated.

I had my host mom call our PCMO, Peace Corps Medical Officer (American, 30s, 2 year old son), who is very nice when she wants to be, but also very incompetent. Needless to say, they haven't renewed her two-year contract, so she'll be leaving this December. She stuck me 5 times trying to give me IV fluids, and then I begged her to wait for the nicer, Cape Verdean nurse to come. The other nurse took 3 times to get it in, and by that time I had already drunk a liter of rehyrdation salts on my own. Let me tell you, when you are being stuck in your arms and hands, you will beg just to be able to drink something with your mouth! My host mom was freaked out because I was moaning and in soooo much pain for my headache, due to my extreme dehydration. She was a godsend and applied cold compresses to my forehead, neck, and stomach for 3 hours to get my fever to go down.

Just a few hours after I had arrived, I was able to walk out of the medical office and go home. The whole incident freaked me out a bit because it made me realize how crippling a virus or food poisoning can be when you least expect it. It occurred to me that Kevin and I, both rural, will have to request cell phones to use for emergencies because it could get bad if such a fever ever got out of control in some rural, mountainous area. Note to self: buy an electronic ear thermometer because the mouth one is impossible to read!

Ok, so before I got sick, this week actually started out on a good note. I LOVE lobster, and my host mom invited me to her sister-in-law's birthday party. I get there, and there's this small card table with no food, just liquor. I'm thinking this is going to be some night. Then they bring out this pot of lamb stew, and one relative explains I can eat that, or the LOBSTER they will be serving. Cape Verde has a huge colony in Boston where about 100,000+ Cape Verdeans have lived since the 1600's. It was interesting to learn that Cape Verdeans were never slaves, although these islands were a transfer point for slave cargo. So, Cape Verdeans have always been fishermen, carpenters, managers, etc. At the party, there was a couple on vacation from Brockton, MA, so we chatted up a storm about the USA. They wanted to give me a good hostess impression, so they kept serving me lobster and explaining things to be about Cape Verde. Midway through the meal, a herd of cattle walked past the patio. I couldn't help but revel in the fact that I was on this island, eating lobster, with cows grazing next to an upper class house.

My host mother was shocked a few days ago when they announced that over the weekend 2 people had drowned at a nearby beach. It's very interesting that nobody knows how to swim here. My host mom says she always takes someone who can swim with her when she takes my younger brother Giorginho to the beach in case he needs to be rescued. Nobody has pools here, so it's difficult to learn to swim in an ocean that's quite violent at times. The riptides and currents are very strong. PeaceCorps trained us on how to escape such situations. I think it would be neat if a volunteer gave swimmming lessons at the US Embassy Pool as a secondary project because it's definitely a service that Cape Verdeans could use, not to mention that they need lifeguards. There are so many unemployed youth that they should train them to be lifeguards and pay them something to get them off the streets. Earlier this week, as part of the Community Development training, we took a hiace (YAH-SEE), or minivan, out to the countryside to visit this town with a fruit jam factory run by women. It's only actually about 5 women who make their own marmelades: mango, papaya, sweet potato, some sort of cherry, coconut, etc. We got to question them about their profits and history as a small business. The boss seemed a little hesitant to divulge such information in front of her women employees...made me think maybe she was keeping some of the profits for herself.

We then went to the town's pottery guild, which I thought needed a lot of artistic improvement. The pottery was something you'd find in a cheap furniture store on some ugly coffee table. The colors and designs were set back in the 80's. I was surprised to learn that they had some Japanese apprentice because things were far from being beautiful. I schemed up designs for mosaic tables and chairs with designs of Cape Verdean countrysides or the ocean and boats.

Afterwards, we had the driver take us to Rui Vaz, this small village in the mountains. Within 30 minutes, the air was cooler, the houses more sparsely placed on the hillsides, and fog covered the road. The cliffs were so steep with no walls to keep our van from rolling down into some ravine. The other volunteers in the van kept joking to me, "Opps, look, it's Elektra's house!," as if inferring I would be in a rural area just as remote as what we were seeing. Amazingly, groups of 10 people where spread among the hillsides, planting seeds for the coming rains, and they would rise to wave at us as we passed.

People in Cape Verde have recently been scandalized by this Italian hotel owner on another island who is being racist and won't let in Cape Verdeans to his resort. My mother was infuriated and said that they should shut down his hotel. Apparently, investigative reporting is new here, but they showed a video on the news of two wealthy Cape Verdeans with African skins tones trying to enter the hotel and the guards stopping them. We talked about this in class because the hotel is good in the sense that it's providing new jobs for Cape Verdeans on that deserted island, but it's bad because they are also exploiting them in various ways. My mother exclaimed, “This won't be the last we hear about that hotel. We'll tear it down!” Plazas. You think they are just a place to hang out, but there are social rules associated with them. Whenever your family tells you that you are going to the plaza for a visit, they really mean that you are going to walk around it in circles for 3-5 times to be 'seen' by others. It's quite funny. This is how Cape Verdeans like to socialize. I mentioned this phenomenon to other volunteers who have been here for a while, and they said it's a normal thing for every island, every city, ever town. You circle the plaza at night and hook up with friends, asking them with discoteca they're going to, even if there's only one in the town!! My village is so remote that we'll sit out at night and rock the babies to sleep while telling stories of how Cape Verde used to be.

I keep dreaming up what my house will look like, and the faces of the people I will work with for the next 2 years. I'm reading a book called 'Under the Neem Tree' written by a Peace Corps volunteer who was in rural Senegal from 1985-87. I can completely relate to her experiences already. I recommend that everyone read it. I bought my copy at Half.com before coming, although I'm sure most libraries have it. All of her mention of the street vendors and her post remind me of Cape Verde, even though she was there so long ago.

Keep in touch, and keep sending me emails everyone. I relish each one, and will respond next week to ones I received today because my hour is about to end here at the Internet cafe.