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Where do I begin… let’s start this journey in Picos, and the goodbyes that I had with my family there. The time is 7 p.m. and I am returning from a day in Assomada with other Peace Corps volunteers, and surprise surprise, there is no power. As I walk up the dark, lonely dirt road to my house for the last time I hear nothing… no Funana, no Batuka, and not many voices. Believe me, this is very odd. As I enter the house my mom says to me “we don’t have light”, obvious as it may be, generally worth stating in Cape Verde. As I enter the living room I see candles burning everywhere, and everyone that I had meet over the past 10 weeks was in the living room with massive amounts of food and of course, the pigeons that had been given to me as presents were made into soup! Disclaimer: I had been asking for pigeon soup ever since I received my first pigeon in week 3. The soup was incredible; the people all had a good time, including me. We talked all night about my first day here and how completely incompetent I was, my mother actually has a pretty good impression of me from the first day that I arrived! It was done, I was packed and ready to be picked up the next morning. It was a very surreal realization, that I would not have them as my support anymore, and that we had grown incredibly close. When the Peace Corps car arrived my mother looked at me and said: “I will have a longing for you and you will always stay in my heart”. This made me a little teary-eyed, all the memories of the past 10 weeks came flooding back, all the memories of my family in America the day they left me at the airport, I remember my mother, surprisingly strong, say: “stay safe, I love you”. I now have two mothers in this world, that’s pretty lucky.

Continuing, all 24 trainees swear-in and are now volunteers. We, the 11 Small Enterprise Development volunteers, hurriedly meet with a counterpart that will be essential to our time in Cape Verde. Then off to Boa Vista I go. As I arrive I am met by a guy who has my name written on a piece of paper, correctly, and we talk about Boa Vista and Sal Rei and where the best places to go are, where I should never go because of the “thugis”. I arrive at my apartment and ask myself: “am I really in Africa”. This place is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and this is probably the most environmentally conscious population on Cape Verde, due to the very large population of sea turtles that visit here. So when I tell people that I am starting a new national park, people are genuinely interested. Many people here that I have had interactions with speak kriolu similar to what I learned during my time on Santiago, which is a huge relief. These first few days have been hectic, trying to get moved in and settled. Danny, my new roommate, and I have hired a very nice lady, Filo, to clean our clothes and house, and occasionally make us food, but I am tired of the constant irregularness that has been pre-service training. I just want to make my own food, and today Danny and I made tortillas… they were delicious. As the sun was setting in Boa Vista, Danny and I walked to the “loja” near our house, we sat on the cobblestone street listening to Mourna and singing along to the American songs that the people hanging at the loja could play. Here I am… home.

And so with the inaugural tortilla, beer, and Mourna I am a Peace Corp Volunteer in Boa Vista, Cape Verde.

To: Mourna Lovers Everywhere
From: Boa Vista

Dos simana

Here I am now… week 8, of a 9 week pre-service training. Much has happened since my last entry: the most important being my island announcement…. Boa Vista!!!! I am very excited about this to say the least. The country director here says that “they” were very excited about me long before I arrived, because of my background in sand dunes. Yikes. I hope they aren’t too disappointed with my minimal knowledge with dune systems, and sounds like I have a large amount of studying to do in the area of sand dunes and starting a national park. Oh did I not mention that part? Yeah, so Cape Verde wants me to help start a national park on Boa Vista as my primary assignment!!!!!! Double Yikes!!! Do they even know my background??? Last time I looked at my resume, it said nothing about even working in a park, let alone starting a new one. But hey, this is going to be one hell of ride. I accept the challenge that has been laid before in the true Peace Corps fashion; blind and broke.
I have been able to keep in touch with several people from back home. That has been nice, and helped keep me normal. I thank you everyone who has been sending me letters, it’s nice to receive a piece of mail. It seems such a simple thing, but mail makes you famous around here. Oh and when a care package comes… all the trainees gather around and watch the one person open the package and examine each item as it exits the box. A funny site, 23 adults gathered around the one who has a box.
So back to my site announcement, I will be the first volunteer on Boa Vista along with one other volunteer, Danny. I don’t know much about him other than he’s from California, knows how to surf (go figure, right), and will be teaching English in Sel Rei. He seems like a cool enough guy though, I mean he is in Peace Corps. That has to say something about him. One thing that I can see potentially being a problem is our difference in job. Danny will be very structured with an 8-5 type of job, where my “job” may not technically exist for some time. We are warned as Environmental volunteers to become very flexible and not to expect much to happen in the first year at site… triple yikes! But if this is my calling, if this is how I can save the world, through a national park, than that is exactly what I am going to do. I guess I could explain the project a little better; as part of a global initiative in conjunction with the U.N., a few environmental organizations have identified the important ecosystems of the world. As Cape Verde develops and becomes a bigger player in international business, they want to become part of the global solution as well. They have committed to 6 national parks throughout the islands, 3 of which exist already and are quasi-sustainable currently. As for the other three, this is where the three environmental volunteers from my training group come in. Sarah Chang will be starting the park on Sal, Scott Benton will start the park on Santo Antão, and of course, yours truly on Boa Vista.
My final project for PST is fast approaching… Scott, Sarah, and I are planning a nature hike to Tabugal here on Santiago with the youth of a Village near Scott. We will hike and each talk about different things that are important to the environment, I will be giving my talk on biodiversity. Should be very interesting given my limited language skills and the new vocabulary I need to learn how to pronounce. Giving a science talk in another language is like giving a talk back home, but you just can’t use any of the word you would normally use! I gave a short talk on photosynthesis to youth a couple of weeks ago, and it went well enough all things considered. But I am sure I didn’t sound credible as I sloppily stumbled over words. Oh more fun news; the language skills that I currently have, will essentially be useless in 2 weeks… northern Kriolu is that different. But hey I am a member of the Peace Corps, and last time I checked I’ll be here for two more years, that’s more than enough time to learn the language. Hopefully, by the time my parents come to visit I’ll have a solid grasp on language.
Well I guess I will leave you with the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
To leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a
garden patch or a redeemed
social condition, to know even
one life has breathed easier
because you have lived—this is
to have succeeded.


To: Those who care
From: Cabo Verdi, with love