Journals 2006/2007

Mike Lampert
West Salem High School, Salem, OR

"Infrasound (low-frequency atmospheric acoustic) monitoring" October 3 - 18, 2006

Journal Index: October 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11             12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18

October 8, 2006
Sunday

The day began late at eight. I awoke early, read and then heard the church bells sound from the Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, a Roman Catholic Church built in 1872.

A beautiful alley way leads to the main church in Maio.

I had breakfast with the others at the B&B. It is nice to hear real Italian and watch how they decorate and entertain. We sat in the backyard court with the herb garden nearby. It is all very beautifully done. Most of the houses in Maio look nicer inside then out.

The bed and breakfast is a beautiful Italian home.		Our host Ihrma gives Eric a huge kiss.

Prof Hedlin and Clint head out to the site to check GPS coordinates. Each element of the array is carefully mapped. Today is their first day off after six straight 12 hour days. The phone and internet (if you can call it that), is down again so little work can be done. I walk to the pier, talk to Alberto the guard there, I am amazed he knows where Oregon is. I watch the kids fish, they use a wooden board with their line wrapped around it and a hook. If you wake up early you can catch small chum easily to use for bait later. A large ship comes into port and I am told to leave. I walk about and find goats walking about randomly. I have no idea how they know which goat belongs to whom. I walk past the salt piles drying near a brackish pond.

When the boat comes in all the locals grab pails and scoop the fish out to bring home.		There are goats roaming on every street.

Back in town I walk back to the café. A new guy in town named Claude who is from Switzerland is here. He has a book on LSD and is here to discover himself. He has many theories on religion. We talk for a couple of hours. This poor guy lost his girlfriend to a stroke. He speaks English which makes my job listening easy. It is interesting how we tend to group ourselves according to languages. Later I walk the town and bump into Stefanie the Peace Corps worker. We go over and see her high school. It is run down, undersized, works in morning to evening shifts of six days. She has three hundred students to teach! They live behind the church and where the water pressure is not too good so water is hauled up there in a barrel. It did not look so great. I head back to sit on the beach and think, rest in the hotel and read. Then I go to dinner at 8 at Paulo's. We have a traditional Cape Verde dish, beans, sausage and corn known as Cachupa. It is great as usual. Then we head across the street for ice cream at the English place. I hope this week I can be helpful to the group, it is very hard to break into someone else's system and these guys want to move fast. The evening walk brings beautiful singing from the church; nearly 80% of the islanders go to church.