My Sunday "adventure" ... (5th of September 2010)

My Sunday "adventure" started as I wandered around Calhetona.

... I like to walk around and "feel" the village atmosphere ... with its smells, sounds ... specks of colour ... here and there ... in the middle of the unfinished concrete houses, ... the people ... those I have already met and those, whom I have seen a few times before but whose daily activities don't facilitate the conversation ...

I often try to put myself into these people's shoes and wonder what it is like to have to get up very early every morning to face the daily difficulties of an ongoing sequence of gestures ... in which  they are commonly "helped" by their children ... the many children  one stumbles onto in almost every corner ...

 Children, who always seem to greet us with a smile ...

Children playing (Left) in Calhetona (Right).

Meat vendors preparing the pork meat to be sold (Left). Washing clothes in a bucket and puting them out to dry on top of a pile of stones. (Right)

 Local pigsties, which are sometimes "located" on the roof of the houses.

The long awaited trip to Praia Baixo beach, one of the nicest beaches on the eastern coast of Santiago island had to be cancelled, as Sibylle was taken ill with flu, so Gherard, Beat and myself decided to head towards the Southwestern areas of the island.

As we drove off Calheta, the weather started getting worse and we soon found ourselves  under heavy rain. To be able to climb up a small hill to photograph a huge treee in Poilão I had to get my sandals off and walk up barefoot, holding myself firmly to the shrubbery. Walking down proved to be even harder as I simply slid down the muddy hill.

Poilão and a group of children picnicking under the huge tree in Poilão (Right).

 

Picos landscapes showing the often dry brownish colour turned into green, following the early

 September rainfall. 

As we reached Jalelo Ramos, a transportation van was blocking the road access. We were told we would have to wait for something like two hours until they had substituted the wheel, once they didn't have a spare tyre. I then started talking to two young girls, whilst Beat had gone off to buy some biscuits and water from a local peasant and Gherard assessed the situation regarding the "inoperative" vehicle.

A group of local men  then decided to lift the vehicle and move it to one side of the road to allow our van to drive down. We were soon on our way towards Rebelo de Baixo, to unexpectedly find out that the road had been cut off because of having been flooded ... so we had to head back up the hill with the aggravated problem of having had to collect a few heavy stones and have Beat sit on the back part of the van, in order to balance it in our climb up the hills.

(The photos underneath illustrate the sequence of events)

Beat sitting on the back of the van

It took us another  two hours to get back to where we had started and by the time we reached "home" we were tired ...  wet ... but happy ...

What an adventure!!!...

Going to the beach ... or the joy of simple pleasures ... (4th September 2010)

Calhetona beach

I had been wanting to take a group of children to the beach for a while and although I hadn't had a chance to do it in any of the previous trips to Calheta, I was determined not to allow anything (not even the wind that had just started to blow fairly strongly) to keep me from doing it this time.

Having bought bathing suits for everyone of the girls (Tarine, Simone, Neuza, Leinira, Ivanilda, Justina) and a pair of shorts for Eduardo, we headed to Calheta beach around five in the afternoon and just took to building sand cakes using the plastic moulds, spades and water sprinkler I had brought along.

They were just thrilled ...

Neuza (Left) and Justina (Right) with their new bathing suits on.

Simone (Left) and Ivanilda (Right) with their new bathing suits on.

Eduardo (Left) and Ivanilda, Neuza, Simone, Tarine, Justina, Eduardo and Leinira (from left to right) making sand cakes.







We finally made it to the sea, where they all played for a while (with me getting worried about Eduardo swimming away), until the girls decided they would like to have mermaid like photos taken ... and so they did.

Playing around in the sea

Leinira (Left) and Tarine (Right) in their mermaid like photo shooting poses

Neuza (Left) and Justina (Right) in their mermaid like photo shooting poses

Eduardo swimming ashore (Left) and the girls having a "shower" at Sibylle's (Right)

Different phases of the "shower" session.

We ended up our "trip" to the beach (just across the street) at Sibylle's garden, where the children who were still around were entitled to a "bucket" shower, which they found to be really amusing ...

The joy of simple "pleasures" ...

Cape Verde, Calheta de São Miguel - Collecting the presents ... (4th of September 2010)

I reached Calheta de São Miguel on the 3rd of September and the children, whose "Godmothers" had sent something for them (mainly clothes and school material) were told to gather at Sibylle's around 04H00 P.M. to collect their presents.

 I believe the pictures speak for themselves ..., though around here, children don't seem to show their emotions the same way children in Europe do. They lower their eyes ... and become silent, as if trying to adjust to the fact that they were given something, which is, in fact, quite unusual. It is only when they start walking with their new clothes on or even in the way they hold the school material or dolls they have been given, do we realise how happy they are.

Sandra's "protegée"  Nessinha with me (Left) and with her great grandmother and grandmother (Right) wearing one her new outfits.

Nessinha between her great grandmother and grandmother wearing another of her new outfits.

Carla's "protegée" Leidina with her sister holding her new doll (Left) and wearing a new outfit (Right).

Leidina wearing her new "baby doll" pyjamas (Left) and one of her new dresses (Right).

Leidina wearing her new bathing suit and skirt, whilst holding her new doll.

Maria João's "protegé" Eduardo wearing his new outfits.

Eduardo being shown the new school material I bought for him.

 Fátima's "protegée" Tarine with her presents (Left) and wearing her new dress and sandals (Right).

   My "protegée" Leinira and Isabel's "protegée" Justina (Left) with Paula's "protegée" Ivanilda (Right) wearing their new outfits.

Surama and Sérgio's "protegées"  Simone (Left) and Neuza (Right) wearing their new outfits.

An unusual demonstration of affection on the part of my "protegée" Leinira.