The Cape Verde Diaries

 

I sit on my balcony overlooking the old cobblestone streets I once walked. There is this constant meow coming from somewhere inside a palm tree! How in the world did this cat get up into this palm??!!! A foolish feral brown tiger cat stares back at me from this giant palm hoping that I will help rescue him.  When he realizes that I am powerless, he kamikazily drops nearly 3 stories and lands softly onto the grass.  I hope those Cape Verde Sparrow eggs were worth the meal!  A dog walks around the roof barking at the annoying kid below who is antagonizing the poor pooch. A man pounds away with his hammer on the concrete blocks, not really making anything but noise. A Senegalese woman walks with her children to school in her flowing and bright purple dress. At the other building, a woman hangs up her clothing on the roof to let the dry windy air of Sal do its work. 

I try to read for a bit, but I am deep in thought.  Everything in my life has changed and it feels like being here again is somehow oddly appropriate as if to end the chapter I began 25 years ago. We were supposed to come back here together, but life doesn't always go according to our plans, does it? So I carry her ashes with me. Before Peace Corps, I had never thought about settling down.  After Peace Corps, all I wanted to do was settle down and buy a place with a permanent job. Maybe be with someone long term?

I walked to our old home, now surrounded by a library and church. But the place that once had so much life, was now boarded up and vacant. 

My time in Cape Verde changed me. My time with Sydney transformed me.  At the time, Sydney was a little older than my age now and had just retired.  She had lost her husband and the love of her life several years before her retirement. After she retired from the postal service, she decided to join the Peace Corps and never looked back. She reflected often, but enjoyed living in the present. And I got to celebrate and witness that new chapter with her. 

She was an artist and creative soul.  How she could make something out of nothing always fascinated me!  Our home on the island of Sal became a home to so many people...and as a cat whisperer, my feral roof cat became our house cat who helped us garden and clean the water tank. Ms. Kitty then had many not-so-feral cats who all took care of our cockroach problem real quick. No pesticides required.  Just cat food and a lot of love. 

Over our time together, Sydney became friends with my Grandma(via the computer and letters).  Both were around the same age and both had similar life stories. From so many, including Grandma and Sydney, I learned that life is not over when you lose a spouse.  It just begins. And often in a different direction that you hadn't expected. 

So after ending my high school teacher career, buying a house, and being married, I find myself here with Sydney again, in spirit. Right where she began all those years ago.  It's an odd feeling.  The things I wanted; I had or still have. But there was a promise that a younger me had made to myself of the future. To live in Mexico or Guatemala or Panama or somewhere crazy like New Zealand. Maybe not on the ocean but somewhere in the hills of Antigua, Boquete, or Oaxaca. My younger self couldn't afford to take a job in Mexico because I had so much student debt...and then debt. Now I have none of it.  I am close to retirement and I see corn tortillas and green salsa in my future.

"Do it." Sydney would say with that laugh. "It's exciting." She was always a creative push to my cautious pause.  I like to call those pauses my "Chuck Rohrer" moments which means to say that I hear my Dad say to me, "I don't know. You be careful." It's because of him that I learned the importance of retirement and saving for it. No matter where I am, his voice is always in the back of my mind reminding me to be responsible (and that's a good thing). Taking chances is a whole other matter. Without risk, there is no flavor. No knowing what a true fresh corn tortilla with delicious eggs, chorizo, frijoles and salsa verde would taste like. I knew I was different very early on in life and had a great big curiosity. Sydney was a like soul and encouraged me to take chances. She also deeply loved nature as I do. 

At the beginning, and end, of this road here in Cape Verde, I see it all. I won't be coming back here again. At least in this lifetime. My heart belongs to the Americas. Last summer when I stood on that hill with Heidi overlooking Wellington, I thought, "I'm in love." Why couldn't I live a life somewhere else outside the US? So many people do. I have a few years to get my affairs in order. The one thing that I do know is that Sydney did put a lot of work into that next chapter.  As I revisit our old home, I leave her ashes in the places that were significant to her and to us. The salt mines, our home, the Santa Maria beach and our school where we taught. 

Full circle? What about birding?  Why yes. That also has a story.  I had no clue what birding was.  I just know I loved birds.  Sydney and I both loved them.  She would always say...and when I say "always" I mean ALWAYS, "I just love them!" I sat drinking my coffee with my Portuguese friends every morning before work on the island.  But on this particular day, I got there before they did.  I sat in my chair watching this sparrow jump around my chair back in 1999 at the then new Bom Dia in Espargos.  I had my pencil and pad and sketched out the bird noting the rufous tones of the head as it moved around my feet. I didn't know that this is what some birders do or that this was even a thing. On the island of Santiago, I fell in love with the Grey-headed Kingfisher and attempted taking awful pictures of the bird, mesmerized by its color and personality. Years later, after all is said and done, I know better now that I was an emerging birder. The seed was just beginning to sprout. It just took my friend Kathie Brown to awaken my powers as an international bird sleuth. 

The Cape Verde Sparrow is plentiful on the island of Sal. It's also an endemic which makes it uniquely special in that it can only be found on the Cape Verde Islands. It looks like a House Sparrow but the calls and movements are so different. However, this bird is in the same group as House, Spanish, Italian and Eurasian Tree Sparrows. They are known as the Old World Sparrows. It will most likely be the first bird you see exiting the airport on Sal. Or Eurasian collared dove.  

Cape Verde Sparrow(Iago Sparrow) on left and Spanish Sparrow on right. Notice the dark black bib of the Spanish Sparrow.  Also note the complete rufous head of the Spanish Sparrow

Transition takes time. And new chapters take time to sort out, but the process has begun. What's that expression?  When one door closes; another opens.  And it's very true. For those going through these similar changes, know that you are not alone. Everyone processes differently. For those of you who have been through these transitions already, you're smiling to yourself understanding that it's a process we all have to face at some point in our lives. 

Senegalese women give me the side eye.  I couldn't help it.  Their clothing and manners are so elegant here. 

Cape Verde has become for me the place that I need when my thoughts are all jumbled. It is a quiet place hidden from the world and its troubles. After this trip and my next, I will be changing how I do my birding moving forward. I have found that birding alone can be a very special and spiritual thing.  The constant tick tick of a birder searching for lifers is great for most.  But for me, when you are constantly ticking birds off the lifer list, you are also cheating yourself of all the other amazing experiences around you. If I miss a few birds because I want to slow down, then so be it. I have found my birder's voice and after this summer, how I bird, moving forward, changes.   Days of the group collective are over. It's a matter of quality over quantity. 

One of my favorite dishes and a Cape Verde specialty, Cachupa with its local delicious beer, Strela.

We'll explore some incredible birds found on the island of Sal over these next few weeks while enjoying a beautiful vacation saying good-bye to my dear friend Sydney. Until next time.....