It was one of those hot winter days on Cape Verde, and I had been working outside since the early-morning hours. By the time noon came around, my scalp was so hot that I could have fried an egg on it. I was hoping to finish a construction job quickly, but I decided it was time for a break.

Nothing was happening anyway — the fact that all the people stop what they are doing in the middle of the day makes solid sense. It’s not because ‘‘these people don’t like to work,’’ as foreign employers like to say. It is simply impossible to do so when the sun stares you down. She wins.

Heat aside, I was short of nails. To finish my project, a septic tank, I needed to make molds for concrete to be poured into. Something that I imagined to be an easy task, finding nails, had turned into quite the challenge.

I am originally from São Vicente, Cape Verde, and my family immigrated to Portugal when I was 11. For a long time I have returned to the islands at least once a year, usually for a few months over the winter. Cape Verde used to be poor, really poor, and only over the last 10 years or so have things started to change. Now there is big-time tourism on the islands, which brings money (for some) and jobs. I don’t say it brings prosperity, because it doesn’t, really. It allows people to get by, to survive, but life’s not easy for them. Most of the people on this island, Boa Vista, live in the barracas, a slumlike area close to the main town. They go to work in fancy uniforms and come home to shacks with no running water or reliable electricity.