Fogo Festa

At the beginning of May I visited the volcano island of Fogo. There was a big festa/party the week of April so a couple of volunteers were visiting. I arrived in Sao Filipe, the capital, the last festa day. The festa was kind of weird, it was centered around horses doing tricks in the middle of the plaza. I personally did not see the appeal. I was informed that this final day most people were tired and the party was not as big as it had been. Sao Filipe itself was a like a smaller version of the capital of the island I live on. However there were noticeably less people moving about: washing clothes, braiding hair, selling produce, etc. In Sao Filipe and for every other part of the island I visited, you could always see the Atlantic Ocean. In Sao Filipe everything was either straight up or straight down since Fogo is a tiny circular island, with the volcano in the middle. There was a perfectly clear view of the island of Brava from Sao Filipe, it seemed close enough to swim to.

The highlight of the trip was the climb up the volcano. We drove from Sao Filipe to Cha das Caldeiras on a long dusty cobblestone road that took hours. Cha das Caldeiras is the town at the foot of the volcano where a fellow PCV lives. There was no dirt ground (I wanted to write grass then realized there’s no grass anywhere in Cape Verde) only black volcanic rock. We spent a night at his house, watched traditional music in a bar by candlelight. I had the honor of dancing with an old man with a cane who afterward gave me a strawberry candy. We woke up early the next day to hike up the volcano. The hike took longer than anticipated. The height did not make me nervous and I did not have much trouble climbing up grappling for rocks. Although, after talking with some friends I think I have a tendency to not realize situations that are dangerous or daunting as a way of avoiding getting freaked out. We had sandwiches at the top and climbed down. When you go down, there are old lava flow fields that you can run down. It was really wild. Later that same day we stupidly decided to go on another hike estimated at 3 hours from Cha das Caldeiras to Moisteros through a riberia filled with fruit trees and views of the ocean. We left too late in the day. It got dark when we were about half way through the hike and when I had decided to separate from the group I was with and do a little trail running. Luckily I met up with the other group and we made it guided by cell phone lights.

The next day I spent in Moisteros, a town on the opposite side of the island from Sao Filipe. There are a lot of deportees from America and several people there spoke English (actually a lot of the people on the entire island spoke English). This made the town feel more American than any other town I’ve visited in Cape Verde. We were able to find several American food products (French vanilla coffee cream, Dijon mustarde, Country-time lemonade). We had planned to go to the ocean but as it tends to be on Fogo, it was way too rough that day and since no Cape Verdeans were in the water we thought it best to not venture in it.

After Moisteros we went to Cova Figueria, a town where were three female PCV’s live. We had a relaxing night with amazing food (enchiladas, brownies, cookies!) and a couple of drinks. We headed back to Sao Filipe the next day and left for our island with goat cheese and coffee (products that Fogo is renowned for) on Saturday. Upon arriving back in Santiago, I felt rejuvenated and ready to work (thanks largely to the advice of one other PCV) and since being back this last week have actually found myself busy. I have been working with the local government visiting houses that need to be repaired before the rainy season, taking photos of damage and surveying the families. Sunday, I am suppose to finally do the first agricultural survey, fingers crossed my counterpart shows up so I can have her help doing it.

I am attempting to buckle down over the next few weeks and get some work done before I head to the U.S. June 28, whether or not it will actually happen is always a great unknown. I will say that I am feeling more content these days. The man that I live with has been in Portugal so it has been just me and the older woman, Dominga. We have been eating lunch together every day, roasted coffee together and ground it. Soccer has always been helping me relieve stress and we have a tournament beginning next week. We had a game a few weeks ago on a sand/dirt field and I played much more forcefully than when we play on the cement/plaque floor and my teammates were all impressed. I cut up my leg badly on rocks there which since has served as a battle scar and my teammates are constantly looking at to see how it’s healing. I was congratulated the next day in Praia. It took me a few minutes to understand what the man was congratulating me for, when people from my town approach me outside of town it can be disorienting.

I am spending today relaxing in my house, I did some laundry and plan to study for the GRE. The power went out about an hour ago so I no longer have the option to procrastinate and watch movies on my computer. I am planning to go watch the boys’ soccer game later in town and do some grocery shopping.