March 3rd - CARNIVAL

if you are watching a parade make sure you stand in one spot. Don't follow it. It never changes. And if the parade is boring run in the opposite direction. You will fast forward the parade. - Mitch Hedberg

This past week was Carnaval. The city has been openly prepping for the event for the past month. Every night, in a lot by my apartment, the Flors de Mindelo have practiced their routine. From what I understand there are three or four different groups that compete for the title of Carnaval King and Queen. I couldn't have imagined the amount of preparation that goes into the parade. By the end of the month I could set my watch by the songs they played every night while practicing.

Last week a few of the second year volunteers came up from Santiago. It seems like most first year volunteers go S.Nicolau the first year and then S. Vicente the second year. Our Carnival is more Brazilian and commercial, and S. Nicolau's is more traditional. It was really fun having other volunteers around. Especially since the ones that came are pretty tight and all very amusing. You could just sit back and listen and they'd have you on the floor laughing within five minutes.
The Santo Antoa volunteers didn't make it until Monday thanks to some boat difficulties. Luckily they still made it for the main parades and celebrations. We were also lucky in that the Sal ladies missed their flight and unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, they had to stay an extra night. All in all a really good mix.

The parades started the weekend before Carnival and continued up until Wednesday morning. They party until the last possible moment. The big parade is on Tuesday and started around 12 and lasted all day into the night. My favorite group - Flors de Mindelo (just for territorial reasons) won the competition, although to be honest I kind of think that the float shaped like a castle kind of tipped the cake. The Flors had the orange and red float (complete with a fireman) - I don't have a pic of the castle just yet.

That's pretty much Carnaval in a nutshell. Obviously there is more to tell, but I'm tired of typing and I feel like the week was epitomized by a million small fun little things that would be really hard to generalize and explain.