LAJUV-SV

Hello friends,

The group of volunteers

I would like to share with you one of the most important steps on my leadership journey, this step was to join the LAJUV-SV. The LAJUV-SV is the mother of Youth Associations of Sao Vicente (Cape Verde), as this is made for them and represents them nationally and internationally. It is an association independent of all party organizations, religious or other nature, non-profit organization composed of young people and aims at training and development of youth and youth associations.

Talking about STDs

The LAJUV-SV aims to develop cooperation and solidarity between the youth associations on the basis of the implementation of initiatives related to the problems of youth, foster youth training with a view to their social integration and better training of Youth Associations; Promote Exchange and cooperation with associations, national and international organizations that pursue the same objectives.

The Leader - Helmer Fortes

I would recommend you to take a look at their blog, the following link http://lajuv-sv.blogspot.com/2009/08/lajuv-sv-english.html to learn more about this wonderful organization.

Catchupa Rica

Hi dear readers,

I would like to share with you one of my favorite dishes, Catchupa Rica. It's a traditional dish from Cape Verde and I believe almost all cape-verdeans love it. Below the recipe, I hope you try it and find it delicious.

4 c. samp (hominy) 

1 c. kidney beans 

1 c. large lima beans 

1/2 c. shell beans 

whole chicken 

2 lbs. spareribs (pork or beef) 

1 chourico (garlic spicy sausage), sliced 

l blood sausage, when avallable, sliced 

1/4 lb. lean bacon, diced 

2 lbs. cabbage, chopped coarsely 

2 lbs. tomatoes, quartered 

2 lbs. green bananas, peeled and sliced 

2 lbs. fresh yams, peeled and chunked 

2 lbs. fresh sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked 

2 lbs. hard winter squash, peeled and chunked (e.g. buttercup, butternut, hubbard etc.) 

1 onion, chopped 

2 cloves of garlic, peeled 

2 bay leaves 

Flat leaf coriander 

Soak the samp and beans overnight. In a stock pot, heat six cups of water. Add two tablespoons of olive oil, onion, garlic and bay leaf to water for seasoning. Bring to boil and add samp and beans. In a separate kettle, cook the vegetables except the tomatoes with the spareribs, chourico or linguica, blood sausage, and bacon. Next, cut up and season the chicken. Saute chicken in olive oil. Add tomatoes, and let simmer until samp and beans are almost folk tender but not quite done. 

Add cooked vegetables and meats into stock pot. Cook on low heat for approximately one hour. About 20 minutes before the cachupa is done you may mix in well sauted onion, garlic and tomato paste mixture (sofrito) to adjust and enhance the flavor. 

Turn off heat and let sit in the covered pot for at least one half hour before serving. Arrange meats and vegetables on a large serving platter and serve the corn and beans in a bowl.

Happy Macau

We live in Macau, a blessed City where the happy things overcome the bad ones by far. However, in such society, people always concern about many stuffs and forget some essential and little ones, like smile. Bearing this in mind my HC friends (Ken Lam, Alisa, Vincent, Quennie and Fanny) and I decided to change this and go on the streets of Macau and promote the smile...

We made a video to illustrate this issue. We started our journey by showing some daily attitudes towards live that makes forget that even though we cannot see the sun, because it's blocked by the clouds, it is still there. Therefore,we begin by having a group of five people, in room, having a bad day and having no reasons at all to smile. Then a another person, feeling frustrated, comes in the room. She seats and then she notice a little thing that makes her smile. We represented the motive of her smile with some smiles, but it could be anything, we just wanted to show that tiny little things can change your attitudes towards life. After she starts feeling happy, she looks at the group of depressed people and thinks about making them happy. She sends one of the smile faces to one of the guy and he becomes happy. This one contagious the other frustrated guy by beating him with the smile, because sometimes to make someone realize how blessed he is you need to "shake" them. This one become happy and plays a trick on the girl so that she can become happy, this emphasis the importance of being able innovative when it comes to influence people. This girl, then influences a doing a homework by showing him that sometimes the solution can be on another page of "your life". After that, the atmosphere of the room becomes light and full of happiness.

Then, the girl that initiated the "happy influence" invites the others to go around and spread happiness. They join and go together in a HAPPY PARADE. After they leave the room, another girl comes in. This girl is feeling sad; however, once she enters the room she gets involved by the Happy Atmosphere, becomes happy and decides to join the parade.

Well, that was just a little story to show how we can change our attitudes towards life and become happier. After that, we went around the University of Macau and try to make people, we met a lot of happy faces but also many sad ones. Among them there were friends and people unknown but it was good we could make them smile for a while, even though sometimes they were smiling to make fun of us.

Two days after that, we crossed the bridge and went to Largo do Senado, downtown Macau, to bring a little bit of happiness to people. We were a little bit afraid of people reaction, a bunch of guys and girls wearing in white T-shirts, trying to make them smile :) However, everything turned out to be fine we collected several smiles and we are sure we made a bit difference in people's life, no matter locals or foreigners.

All in all, the experience was very positive we made about 170 people smile and that make me feel pretty good. Remember always, whenever someone not smiling give him one of yours, not only for a better Macau but also for a better world.