Adventures on Amnesia Lane

I find that my morale is best calibrated when I allow myself to check back in with familiarity from time to time.

Which is probably why I always enjoy coming back to Cape Verde.

I may not speak Portuguese or Creole, but I always feel immensely pacified when I come to this archipelago in the Atlantic. I know it sounds silly, but the fact that there are more Cape Verdeans in New England than there are in the actual country means that my coming here is a bit like being home. 

My high school art teacher, Mr. Vasco Pires, he was Cape Verdean. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Rose, our local vegetable farmer is also Cape Verdean. Many of my classmates throughout Mashpee Middle School had Cape Verdean last names, and it's only now when I am familiar with the motherland that I understand those kids also looked distinctly Cape Verdean. I may no longer be living on Cape Cod, but you drop me into Praia where I spy people wearing pro sport tees bearing names like Ortiz, Brady, and Pierce, and I feel more than comfortable with my surroundings.

And speaking of familiarity, I'm not completely on vacation out here. I'm doing some things that hearken back to my actual day job- even though I kind of hit the pause button on that part of my life over two years ago....

We're talking about coming back into contact with American-made floating metal things that shoot ordnance and serve up pre-frozen delicacies called 'sliders'.

Ahh yes, nautical nostalgia. I know you think that I'm your typical resettled Surface Warfare Officer who only remembers "the good times" (and I don't, believe you me), but I really do miss being at sea.

And yes, believe it or not, being able to play dress up from time to time during this tour helps to keep me balanced. Or at the very least, it keeps the perishable skill of how to put this outfit together fresh in my mind....

See? It's just like being back at home. This trip affords me free boat rides, and I swear this harbor looks exactly like Buzzard's Bay...


Shhh...don't anyone, but I think that I might actually like the Coast Guard more than the Navy....

Okay so this day wasn't exactly an unbridled homage to comfortable surroundings and Stuff Megan Likes. I may love my sea legs, but I still don't love hauling myself up and down jacob's ladders. At least this fantastic cutter had a fairly low freeboard, and I didn't lose my footing and drop into the drink.

Dad, if you haven't figured it out yet, I am doing this blog entry just for you. I'm not big into showing off my pretty aquaflage to the greater public. I do, however, like getting a lift from the great crew of the Medium Endurance Cutter FORWARD.

And this little boat ride provides me with another perspective of this island- a neat glimpse that I never would have otherwise seen. Unless of course I was a FORWARD crew member and just conducted a West African deployment...and I'm not about to volunteer for that kind of craziness familiarity. Again.


So that's kind of it. The beauty of this tailored scholarship that I am doing is that I get to play a little Navy at the same time that I am doing my research. And it all ties in together more neatly than I ever would have imagined.

Now all I need is for my paper to write itself and then I can focus on getting back to The 11th Island.