The `Yas`or little bus that takes you out of Praia to Assomada, into the interior of Santiago island is refreshing. Suddenly the crammed, stifling concrete buildings of Praia opened up to reveal a mountainous interior, green rolling crevaces spekled with little shacks. It was as if I was in one of those IMAX 3d movies...where you know you are on solid ground, stuck in your movie seat with spilling popcorn, but still you feel like you are going to fall over with the widescreen landscape shots. Here it was the same oximoron- crammed inside a little van, sweating profusely as your legs squash next to a woman with her baby... and yet the vast upcoming countryside makes you fall in disbelief.
THe people here are friendlier. They seem to respond more generously with their "bom dias" and hellos. I have run into one of the peace corps volunteers that i met my first night in Praia (they were celebrating the "despidida" of one of their colleagues... any excuse for a party). I got to talking with him and his host aunt. Clarizia. I asked her if she like to dance, wondering if she had any connections for my mission to encounter dance and arts.... she said she sometimes dances while she sells her candy. I demonstrated. Like this? SHe laughed. Yes. like that. I encountered sarcasm for the first time in Cape Verde. Ha!
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