Santiago, Cape Verde

At the end of December, Sylvinho and I planned our first trip to Africa, on an archipelago called Cape Verde, in my case, I traveled with only a five liters bag… Before going there we had to make a stop in Lisbone, Portugal. We only stayed there for two days, so we capitalised on the opportunitu and toured the city on an electrical scooter, and then, I’ve prefered going out by scooter than by car. In addition, it was Christmas, and the lights were very beautiful. It was a rather pleasant experience.

We got to Santiago, Cape Verde, far away from the others more touristic islands. During the nights, it was quite warm it was dry season. Back in France it’s winter and so weather is really cold, it was the first time that we felt so much warmth in December.

Finally, I took our Kangoo to our house, which was situated in a sugar cane field in a town called « Cidade Velha » (old town in English or Sidadi in Creole). The town was a symbol of peace and human warmth. Today, the town is a part of the world heritage site of UNESCO.

On the first day in Santiago, we got up very early so that we would have time to discover the island, we started our tour driving over the roads, muy cheveres, but, I had to be careful of the animals that often walked across the road at anytime… But first, before taking the roads and going deeply in the island we had to get out the house, at this moment I understood why the car was moving so much last night, in fact, to get in/out the house we had to pass by a former river with big rocks but of course without any water, even if it was funny passing by it was also hard because sometimes the car was sliding, even more that the path wasn’t wide, so after five days we had to reinflate the tyres.

Also that day, Sylvinho wanted to find some colorful stairs, so we’ve been looking for them for some hours while at a view point I saw them reflecting from a window.. so I said: « Ok follow me, I know where they are. » They weren’t as beautiful as we expected but we reached our goal.

By the end of the day, we were at the beach waiting to see the sun going down. There were also guys working out, I mean like cross fit, They asked me to join them, I couldn’t refuse… We didn’t only work out but we also talked a lot, so, we planned to meet up again another day to play football.

Before the football match, we had to visit the others towns on the island, the town with a very warm atmosphere from the houses to the boats or the pirogues like in Gwada, I remember one that according to what I saw seemed to me more or less indigenous, even though the dog and even more the dog cubs were not shy at all, I also remember that there was one following me and trying to catch my leg to piss on it…

In another town, as we got there people started to greeting us, there were also some guys who where dancing to creole sounds, on the beach, some kids surrounded a shark skeleton, which, to me seemed like a nurse shark. Then, up in the town, a pig was living its life in the streets where the women were talking.

The last stop that day was in another small town. There were guys playing football, It’s amazing to see how active these people are. They always seemed to be involved in some sport or activity. But these guys in particular played really well. In fact, one of them even asked to join us to them. Everyone was fierce and skilled. The game was so intense that a player punched another one. We didn’t expect that because even if we saw that they were in trouble, they speaked creole and we understood nothing… Afterwards they went back to the party while Sylvinho and I were saying goodbye to everyone because were were going back to Cidade Velha. Even if we saw that there weren’t a lot of tourists passing by, the guys were very welcoming to us.

We went back to Cidade Velha to meet the guys from before for a football match as promised. It was hard to play on the sand, but I love these kinds of matches, moreover there was a player on the rival team who seemed drunk to me, he’d fall down everytime he fell down even if I didn’t push or touch him but I could even smell the alcohol on his breath… After the match, Ivandro asked me to have a race with him by the sea, so, we threw ourselves in the water until a rock far away the beach where we stayed a moment us three talking and enjoying the sunset one more time.

As you know (or not) Sylvinho and I are involved in the fight against climate change. Consequently, I’m in contacts with an NGO based in Australia called « Adventure bag crew » Their mission is to pick up trashes all around the world, in all types of places, whether it’s on the beach, in the forest, or the jungle. We thougth about clean up a beach in Cape Verde.

So, one day Sylvidinho and I chose the beach that seemed the dirtiest to us. We saw it on the island, after parking the car we went down to the beach, there were kids there with their parents playing. We decided to start on the opposite end. After a while, the kids came to help us out, and I gave them trash bags. By now we weren’t two but a team of seven guys… They gave us so much energy just by helping out… Together we picked up six hundred liters of trashes. Their parents were quite curious and so they enquired us more about the movement. They were surprised and happy to hear that we have been doing something against climate change and chose their beach.

What I love it’s only an act, but also a movement that joins people from all the world with a common interest, saving our planet. Moreover the trash pick-up, a teaching happens naturally. I’d call this a life lesson. In fact, we didn’t have the feeling to waste our time doing that. Now, I missed this moment.

At the end of the trip, I was driving through the island when suddenly Sylvinho saw a beach that caught his attention. So, we decided to park the car. We had to go through some grass and pass a lot of trees in order to reach the beach which had black sand. We stayed there for more or less five minutes before going back to the car. We were very surprised when we saw two policemen around our car.

-« Where are you from? » They asked. -« From France. What’s the matter? » I answered. -« You cannot park your car on the left, only on the other side. » -« But its a parking space, and there isn’t anyone else on the other side. » I said. -« It doesn’t matter, you have to pay a fine. »

Honestly, that was ridiculous and what I found particularly discomforting was that, there were other people there, but they only focused on us… We had to pay a very high fine. In fact, a friend of ours told us that a fine as high as that doesn’t exist on the island.

With that experience I wanna say that in these time we’re having revolts, and people are enraged, it’s important to note that racism isn’t only an issue that affects black, It doesn’t matter the skin colour, or country, racism can reach everyone. The ennemy isn’t the police, nor is it blacks against whites. The ennemy is ignorance and fear.

We had a good time over there, even more in Cidade Velha, a town where nobody judges nobody, a town where we felt that relationships are very important things. Thanks to all Cape Verde!

Thanks for reading.

Lucas.

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