It is now February meaning I only have 7 more months in Cape Verde. The surreal feeling I initially had is starting to come back again. It is like I have been living in a different world for 2 years, and I am afraid that when I go back to America everything will just seem a distant dream. The language will be forgotten, the faces that I now see everyday will eventually fade away, and all those defining cultural aspects ( the food, the music, the small town personalities, the smells, the landscape) will be a blurred memory. More than ever, I see how life is just a long series of fleeting moments that we are continually trying but failing to grasp. I am trying my best to take mental snapshots of everything and everyone so that ten years from now, I will still be able to look back clearly on everything I saw and did.
I have begun having “America dreams” too. (Mostly involving buffets and holidays) I had a dream it was Christmas and all my friends and family were gathered around a table covered with a complete spread of American food. I had another dream at Golden Corral and yet another dream at a wedding where I was eating all of the hord d’ourves. Then I always wake up in a panic, unsure if I am lying in my comfortable bed in Virginia or if I am still on my bare mattress on the floor in Cape Verde. I am ready to leave, but not quite ready to let go.
I do still have some projects planned. We should be able to move forward with the youth center by the end of February. The completion of the center will provide a proper venue and thereby open the door to other projects: the painting of a world map mural, the development of a “mini-cinema” using a projector, a weekly art class for the kids to promote creative thinking, and a formação series in which I would invite important figures and organizations to come in and speak on important issues.
Your last few months of service is kind of like your last few months of Senior year, also called the “Senior slump”. I often must battle a lack of motivation not only on the part of community partners, but on my part as well. I only hope and pray that I will be able to overcome all the opposing obstacles so that I may best serve my community in the time I have left.