My Experience in Cabo Verde

Nick Mather

Before getting to Cape Verde, my idea of what it would be like can be adequately described by looking at neighborhoods such as Kobon and Inferno. From pictures I had seen of the island nation. I was expecting to live in one room concrete shacks with dirt floors and no electricity or water. I was quite nervous about the experience, but also very excited. When we landed in Cape Verde and I saw the city of Praia, I was overwhelmed with how wrong I was. For the most part, Cape Verde is pretty developed with a main city center including plazas, stores, and government buildings. This is not to say that there weren’t areas where living was as simple as a one room house with little amenities. The toughest part about arrival was how late we were, and being shoved into a new environment where communication is difficult, and not knowing how the locals live. When I got to my house in Palmarejo I was surprised at how nice it was. My house has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, which both include showers and toilets (not working of course). We also had a nice kitchen and family room. My host family was also very accommodating. I lived with a group of students of the university, and most of them had some English in high school. Two of my host brothers, Higino and Alberto (Nivo), were really interested in learning more English, and while they encouraged my development of the local language, Creole, they wanted me to teach them more English. Over my stay we had many conversations about the differences in life between Cape Verde and the United States.

I really enjoyed the times where we went places as a whole group, but also valued and enjoyed the times where Richie, Ashleigh and I just roamed around the neighborhoods, exploring what they had to offer. On the second day we were supposed to get to know our neighborhoods, exploring what each neighborhood has and how to get to and from our houses. Richie, Ashleigh and I got lost in Kobon, where Ashleigh lived, and it ended up being a great resource to getting to know the area. We walked around Kobon and the surrounding neighborhoods of Palmarejo and Cidadela for several hours, and our knowledge of navigation greatly increased. Knowing how to get around the neighborhoods was very helpful because there aren’t many roads that go through some of the neighborhoods, especially in the informal neighborhoods. We were also able to find many interesting things such as building techniques and different ways of life of people who don’t live on main roads. We also felt more comfortable exploring new places that we would not have entered otherwise. I feel that Richie, Ashleigh and I had a great experience and explored the majority of city on our own time, and in turn experienced an abundance Cape Verdean culture.

In my neighborhood of Palmarejo, there was a stronger feeling of security and infrastructure than there was in other neighborhoods. Due to the fact that Palmarejo was a government planned community, there was a somewhat successful infrastructure. Lighting and electricity were good in Palmarejo. In my house we had one ceiling mounted light fixture in each room, fifteen total. Unfortunately only eleven had power, but those that didn’t work were not needed. We also had plentiful power in the outlets, every room had at least one outlet, and some rooms had two. On the streets there were street lights, but only in the public areas, such as around the university and the main square. In the residential areas of the neighborhood there weren’t many street lights, but with the lights on the houses and the few street lights there was enough light to have a sense of safety. At night my host family didn’t want me to walk alone through the streets, but when you think about it that is not different than here in Milwaukee. Although I felt safe walking alone between the university and my house, I only did so during the day. But even at night when I walked with other people, there was never a situation that presented itself to be even remotely dangerous. The only thing that was bothersome on the streets during the night (during the day as well, but more so at night) was the vicious dog packs that roamed around. This was probably the thing I disliked the most about my whole experience in Cape Verde. If a dog started to come at you with seemingly violent intentions you had two options: pretend to throw a rock at him and hope he goes away, or actually throw a rock at or near him (NJ urged using squirting water at the dogs, but I found that this only makes them angrier). The lighting had little effect on the dogs as well; weather you were in an area with great street lighting or an area that was pitch black, there were always dogs.

Food in Palmarejo was easy to come by. There were many little stores that sold water and other snack type foods, and the grocery stores were within 350 meters of my house, easily walk able. My host mom (or host sister as I viewed her because we were all students and all the same age) went to get food every day after school, so it was very accessible and convenient. Water was similarly accessible. In my house and in most houses in Palmarejo, we utilized two water barrels and one water cistern. The water barrels were 221 and 183 liters, and the cistern was 3312 liters. We rarely used the water cistern as a water supply, as the two water barrels were never emptied. At least once a day we actually had running municipal water. At that time, we would fill the barrels to the top, and it would be more than enough water to last until the next time the water was running. I never saw the barrels more than half empty, so I assume it would take the seven members of my family two days to empty the barrels, equaling roughly 28 liters per day per person for everything from showering, flushing toilets, cooking, laundry, and cleaning (we always cleaned the floors with water and a mop). In most neighborhoods there is a public water station where you go to get water by the bucket. In Palmarejo we had this amenity, but I never saw anyone using it, so my assumption is that the majority of houses had the same running water, or were able to utilize running water of a neighbor. Waste management was also a plus in Palmarejo. Every morning (except for holidays) a municipal garbage truck came through the neighborhood honking its horn to announce to the residents that they should bring out their garbage. I didn’t figure this out until the second week I was there, because the truck came very early down my street. I was curious one day because we always had a trash bag in the kitchen that would be filled at the end of the day, but I didn’t know where it went. We also had a bucket under the sink where we put all the compostable items such as food waste. I asked Nivo what they do with the garbage, and he explained the garbage truck, and they give the bucket of compost to their neighbors as food for their pig. Municipal garbage collection was a common thing in the government planned communities, but in the informal neighborhoods there was no collection, and the garbage just collected on the streets. In Kobon for example, which was right next to Palmarejo, there was no garbage collection, and the “streets” were filled with garbage. Going down the hill to Kobon brought an instant odor of rotting garbage and human waste.

As in the rest of Praia and Cape Verde, design revolved around the use of concrete blocks. All the houses were made out of these very brittle blocks, and I only saw the use of cast in place concrete on newer developments of municipal buildings. In Palmarejo and other government planned neighborhoods, most houses were also covered with a cement plaster, which gave the house a more uniform appearance. It wasn’t until I was measuring my house that I noticed how ununiformed the cement plaster was. Where some points of a wall might carry a thickness of about 27 centimeters, other points varied between 25 and 28 centimeters. You could very easily see the beveled and bowed appearance of a wall section. Although uniform, this appearance was common and made the houses look more developed. Many houses were colorfully painted and had additional façade treatments such as metal grating and sun shading. It was common to also see houses that didn’t have any treatment on the cement blocks. This was a typical view around the city as well. One house would look very complete with painted plaster and thoughtful façade treatments, while the adjacent house would only be concrete blocks and holes for windows. I found out that this may be due to the house being a new construction, or the owners scamming the government claiming that the house is not complete therefore not having to pay taxes on it. In the informal neighborhoods such as Kobon and Inferno, most if not all houses had no façade treatments and were solely concrete block houses. Many windows were just openings without glass, but if there was glass, the window was operable. In my house we had glass windows that were operable with a decorative metal screen that provided security while the window was open. Most windows also had a fabric curtain on the interior of the house, so the window could be open to allow ventilation but be visually covered. Another common practice was the use of light wells/mini courtyards. In my house we had three of these, providing natural lighting to the interior rooms, as well as a means of cross ventilation. While the front windows or doors were open and the doors and windows to the light wells were open, there was a steady breeze flowing through the house. Although I found this to be comfortable, my host family was often cold due to this breeze, and would only leave the window open for short periods of time just to temporarily cool down the house.

Being a government planned neighborhood, access to public transportation was easy and plentiful, and social gathering places were within walking distance. Next to the university was the main area to find a bus or taxi that would take you into the main neighborhood of Plateau. I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus. Being at the “front” end of the route, there was always a spot on the bus, and by the time we got to Plateau the bus was over filled. When I came back to Palmarejo, bus number ten would take me back to the university. If there wasn’t a bus or a spot on the bus, taxis were glad to take me directly to my house. In other neighborhoods taxis and buses don’t go past the main road. In Kobon, Ashleigh had to be dropped off a block from her house, and taxis and busses wouldn’t even go into Inferno. The most difficult part about transportation was the fact that there are no addresses for houses, there aren’t even street names. You would basically have to tell the taxi driver which neighborhood and a landmark near your house, and then direct him through the streets to your house. Night life amenities were also plentiful in Palmarejo. While I never went to the clubs or bars in my neighborhood, mainly because my host family was extremely studious, I noticed the many clubs during the day as I walked or bussed down the streets.

When we weren’t exploring the neighborhoods or doing school related activities, we took day trips to various locations around the island. Rui Vaz was one of my favorite places to go. The first time we went it was like going to a whole new world. There wasn’t much dust, the “forest” was lush with beautiful trees, and the mountains were amazing. I wrote in my personal journal about how being on top of that mountain was a breath of fresh air, and all the worries about being on the island were just wiped away by the amazing scenery. The second time we went to Rui Vaz was on a camping excursion where we were able to experience the sunset over the mountains and the coast. It was truly amazing. The downside to being on a mountain top was the 30 mile an hour winds, which made it quite difficult to set up our 200 pound military tent. Naya, who was a wonderful host to the whole group, doesn’t have a grasp on how to go real camping, where you bring only the bare essentials and live off the land. She was convinced that we needed enough food to feed an army for a week, when we were only going for a night. She even went as far as demanding a tea time.

Another trip was to Porto Madiera. This was an overnight trip, and the expectation was that we would be staying in a hotel. Well when we got there we were disappointed to find out that the people of Porto Madiera only found out we were coming two days before we got there, and that the hotel wasn’t actually built yet. The guys ended up staying in an old school building, accompanied by a rat and fierce dogs outside the school. The girls stayed in houses. It would seem that the girls had it better than we did, but the girls shared their rooms with hand sized spiders! We all were very disappointed, and came to the conclusion that had we known we were staying in a school and spider infested houses, we would have been fine with it. But going there expecting a hotel was not soothing.

We took other trips to the beaches around our neighborhoods, as well as an amazing beach in Terrefal. The ocean was so clear and refreshing, nothing like the murky cold water of Lake Michigan. It was cool to see the volcanic rock formations along the coast. You could even see the layers of rock that were created either by different eruptions or but different segments of one eruption.

One of my favorite opportunities of the trip was staying with host families. My family was amazing. I feel that our friendships are so strong as to say that we are family. It was really hard leaving them on the last day, and I hope that it won’t be the last time we see each other. It was interesting how the family was run. Even though they were all students, there was still a traditional family role played by the women. It seemed that the ladies of the house did the majority of the cooking and cleaning, as if they were the wives or mothers. It was quite different to life here in the US.

Overall our travels to Cape Verde were amazing, and I wouldn’t think twice if given the opportunity to return. Between studying their design practices, traveling around the island and seeing the landscapes, to the friendships we created within our individual families, this experience is one of my most treasured.