First Week of Work


For the first week of work, it was awfully busy: I felt sometimes like a "chicken with its head cut off." The very first day of work for Mackenzie and I, it was a bit slow: we were given two articles to discuss regarding our suggested subject (Water Productivity on Santiago Island) - but we met a lot of cool people who worked at INIDA and connections are key for success.

However, the second day of work, oh my goodness.... We met with Angela about our concerns and interests in the topic and she gave us another article (this one in Portuguese), but she also sent us into Praia to gather data from ANAIS, the federal institute that distributes water production licenses. We had to go that day since a meeting regarding the new administration (and thus the potentially new director) would take place the next day and she could be removed. The director was incredibly helpful and I'm glad we went. She was able to give us a lot of data and highlight issues we probably want to investigate in our paper. She was also able to direct us to other sources for information she did not have. We, then, went on to visit the National Library, where a mini art exposition was being held, and then to UNI-CV where we took over Paulo's office in order to have a space to check-in with Prof. Banzaert. I'm glad we did: we came out assured that we were, at least, heading in the right direction. Near the end of the day, we met with Candida, who was the original-original contact for Wellesley in Cape Verde, and we thanked her for help in paving the road for such an internship.

The third day, there was a bit of confusion regarding where we, "the Americans" as we've been dubbed, should be. We eventually ended up in a meeting regarding a Portuguese development organization (SKAN) that works in Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Brazil and Mozambique. Their projects sounded pretty cool and we might want to look into it for future collaboration projects with Wellesley. In the afternoon, though, we met with the members at ECCA to discuss our ideas of bringing ECCA students to help us collect information for our paper at INIDA - and they were receptive but also hesitant about pursuing projects that are not small. The professors also brought up a good point regarding student shyness, especially with foreigners or foreign language, so that is something to keep in mind. They also invited us to the first round of student presentations the following day. Hopefully we will be able to attend.

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