First Impressions - A Whole New World

Our first little corner of a whole new world

Soon after we boarded TACV flight 691 from Boston to Praia, Cabo Verde, we realized this was not Danville. It was not Boston. It was not like any world we had ever experienced. It was Cabo Verde!

The aging Boeing 757 flew smoothly through the night and found the tiny Atlantic island surrounded by the big ocean the following morning. It was Saturday in Praia, the 11^th of June. We were surrounded ourselves by a dark skinned people who had their own rules, their own language, their own manner of interacting. We were the islands in that ocean, but we didn’t feel unwelcomed, just unprepared for how different our new world was.

We descended the staircase into a bright warm world as total strangers. The people around us were hardly speaking a language we recognized, but the signs in both English and Portuguese directed us to the correct line in customs. It was a much smaller world than the one we had just left and much more primitive.

Humm. Did I really need those spices and four voltage converters?

Our four large bags rolled onto the belt and we headed for the exit, unsure when we were cleared to pass. The only security was to make sure we could claim our bags. Outside, again in the blinding sunlight, we were greeted by a line of taxi cabs and drivers, but not the familiar white shirts we strained to see. When it because obvious that those white shirts were not expecting us, we found a phone number, a friendly Hertz rental agent to place a call for us, and a surprised mission president. We were at least 5 days too early, but for us there was no turning back. We will likely be ahead of the Cabo Verde clock for months to come.

President Neves, the Mission President, dispatched his two assistants, Elders Peterson (from the USA) and Moreira (from Brazil), in their Mission Corolla to pick us up. The poor little car labored with its American load, with poor Elder Moreira holding one of our giant bags on his lap. They took us to the combined Mission Office and Presidents home in Praia, the capitol city. Between the airport and the city the landscape was barren, something we are becoming accustomed to, somewhat.  Exiting we were greeted by two of the hundreds of stray dogs that make Cabo Verde their meager home.

The traditional picutre with Mission President and Wife, minus two month old.

President Neves, and later his wife, most graciously greeted us and immediately put us at ease. We immediately liked the Neves a lot and look forward to working with them more in Mindelo, our long term home, when they are released from their mission call the end of June. Over the next two days we shared meals with them, met their children including their two month old son Ruben, and were introduced by them to many aspects of Cabo Verdean life.

Nice cobble stone road, but most people walk

The mission put us up in a hotel for the two days we stayed in Praia. It was nice¸ except for the one large cockroach, and it had AC in the bedroom. We took a picture or two from our third story window to capture the feel of this capital city. It is fairly representative of what we saw those two days.

We were immediately immersed in the LDS community in Praia. We attended a seminary and institute graduation ceremony after our mission orientations given by the AP’s and the mission nurse, Sister Kathleen Adams. Elder and Sister Adams took us under their wing those first two days and Sister Adams has continued to phone us here in Mindelo just to make sure we are getting along fine. We are in many good hands here.

Monday morning, very early, the AP’s picked us and our luggage up this time in the mission van, and hauled us back to the airport. We made our first cash withdrawal of Escudos, the local currency. With an exchange rate of almost 80 Escudos (CVE) per $, prices look high. We started off paying several thousand Escudos to transport our extra luggage to São Vicente, the northern island home to the second largest city in Cabo Verde, Mindelo. We think it was worth bringing all we did, but we didn’t have a lot of choice at this point.

The flight took about 40 minutes in a turbo prop airplane. It was smooth and fast. As we approached land again, we came in low over the ocean into the arms of two rugged ridge lines that cradled São Pedro, the little airport community. The landing strip seemed about as wide as San Ramon Blvd. This time missionaries were expecting us. Elders Smith and Vance, the North Mindelo Zone Leaders met us along with Jorge, the well-known and well-used taxi driver.

Janet starting to feel at home in her new kitchen. Not bad, but outside is a whole different story

Our warm welcome continued that first day in Mindelo. Sisters Turnbow and Holland had our place touched up from sitting three months empty. Elders Smith and Vance took us on an extended tour of the city showing us where the ATMs and grocery stores were located, our chapel, just down the hill from our place, many other stores, banks, and the telephone company, plus a few key contacts for active projects. It was a whirlwind day, but a great way to start.

Our first grocery store - so that is chicken. What is the portuguese word for it again?

We managed to pick up enough groceries to prepare two meals for the day and everything in the kitchen worked. We could eat. We could also drink our own filtered water. Hurray.

Our own private, uh shared, well public beach. Can't quite see the old place.

Monday night was family home evening (FHE) at the Broderick’s house. We decided to leave the house and explore down towards the bay and ocean front. We found the beach and walked into the center of town along the water front road. Finding our way back to our apartment became more the challenge and test to what we remembered from our earlier tour and skills reading the “Map” (a future story).

Life for the next few days was kind of a blur. We found more stores and places to pay bills. That was essential on Thursday when we came home to find our power turned off. No one had paid the electric bill for about four months. We took care of that that afternoon. Without power we had no Internet.

We were anxious to find out about the fish we had heard about, especially the tuna steaks. One morning walk showed us where the fish market was, but we were too early. The next morning walk landed us right in the middle of the opening bell. They were weighing fish, cutting up fish, filling trays with fish, and all the street vendors where lined up to fill their basins and wheelbarrows for the day. We were swimming upstream, but no one yelled at us. When we finally found the tuna and Janet bought our first 2 kilo, it was dirt cheap making the whole experience sweet in the end. It has been great, especially with some of our favorite seasonings we brought from home.

So much has happened these past two weeks, that we could fill a dozen pages with juicy details. We plan to kind of drag it out, sort of by themes over the next number of postings. We hope you will find a stroke by stroke picture of life in Cabo Verde worth your reading.

One of the most interesting topics we will save for a future post is the language. Whew! Describing the people may take several. They are wonderful.

Kleidy (Katy) - a very animated young adult, and private tutor

We didn’t take many pictures the first few days, but that changed once we felt oriented and past the stay-alive basics. We have include a few to give you a starting taste.

Young adults hanging out, outside the church, after a convert baptism. Not so different there.

We have gone to church in Mindelo, a few times during the week and on Sunday. It is our second home.

Signing off for now – Elder and Sister Broderick

The MTC

Anna Adams drops her daughter off at the MTC

Monday morning, May 30 dawned – cold and snowy! Janet’s sister, Ilene, and her mother drove us over to Provo and the MTC (Missionary Training Center). We were welcomed on our arrival - and they have every thing organized to help senior couples –  even young elders waiting at the residence hall to carry all four of our very heavy (barely under 50 pounds) suitcases up 4 flights of stair to the 3rd floor!

We will actually both be on the same island

The first day we met as a whole group. There were about 72 senior missionaries which included 6-8 single sisters. We were divided into districts with 4 companionships in each. Our district included (with their mission assignments): Elder and Sister (E/S) Freestone (Greece), E/S Schow (Russia), E/S Nichols (Johannesburg, South Africa mission office) and us.

Our District: Cape Verde, Russia, Greece, South Africa

The first week for senior couples is a condensed version of Preach My Gospel, how to share the restored gospel with those you meet. The second week is for training for the specific mission assignments. We loved our district and have so much love and respect for the other 3 couples. The Freestone’s and the Schow’s left at the end of the 1st week as they were working in member & leader support (which is basically Preach my Gospel.). We missed them the rest of our time in the MTC.

Welfare Missionaries on Tour of Welfare Square in Salt Lake City

Elder Glen Rudd with Sister Maha (New Zealand)

The second week we learned about being welfare missionaries. Monday was an all day field trip to Salt Lake City to get instruction and to tour Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center. It is amazing what the Church accomplishes so quietly! Seven couples had the specific assignment of humanitarian service and the rest of the week was devoted to learning about the major initiatives of humanitarian projects – Water, vision, neonatal resuscitation, wheelchairs and the food initiative. We learned the mechanics of applying for project funding online and we probably know enough to be very dangerous!! Fortunately, there are many checks and balances so we can’t destroy anything. Dennis and I also had training in the Perpetual Education Fund which is part of our responsibility.

Sister Broderick chatting about the Humanitarian Center with our Welfare Area Supervisors, Elder & Sister Leonard

Three Couples serving in the European Area Welfare Services: Brodericks, Leonards, Pages

We thoroughly enjoyed the general MTC experience! We sang in the MTC choir for the weekly devotional. Talk about wonderful bass and tenor sections! And there were sufficient sisters to make a choir! It was fun to be here on Wednesday when the 350+ new missionaries arrived. What a busy place - a constant stream of missionaries with orange dots on their badges going one way and their suitcases going another. Doors were locked to help them find the correct places to be, so we had to change our path to the cafeteria! And we enjoyed the BYU Creamery ice cream (all you could eat) that is traditional on Wednesday (lunch and dinner! Oh, my.) We enjoyed being among the wonderful elders & sisters who were very polite and always opened the doors for us! One time after dinner, an elder came and took my empty tray so I wouldn’t have to stand in that long line


Sister Broderick with her Portuguese Tutor (and language savior): Talita



Elder Broderick with his two tutors: Guilherme from the MTC and Talita on Skype

We continued our language tutoring every evening we were available. It was wonderful to meet Talita in person, our Skype tutor for the past 2 months. Friday night was the traditional language testimony meeting for all the senior missionaries learning a language. This was the first time Janet had given her testimony in Portuguese! Even though we couldn’t understand much of what was said, the message came through of each person’s love for God and Jesus Christ.

We loved being close to the temple and were able to get in our last temple session for quite a while. We will miss that!! Traditionally, there has been an area welfare meeting in Frankfurt each year, so we are hoping to get to the temple then, but we will see.

The studying part is totally staged

Then there are the basic tasks of life: Laundry time was in the huge laundry room - which was empty at the time as it was in the middle of the dinner hour.

Food: It is sufficient and best of all, I don’t have to do anything!! Admittedly, it is hard with a full buffet (and especially on Wednesday’s ice cream free-for-all) but I had to learn to cut down on what I take. I avoided the always available desserts (except on Wednesday’s) including donuts at breakfast. With 3 full meals a day and sitting between every meal, it is easy to gain weight. I didn’t dare to check my weight on the scale near the outside door. I am sure it is there to weigh suitcases, but checking one’s own weight would be a good thing too on the way to breakfast.

So, that is pretty much what these weeks have been – eat, learn, and get acquainted! And especially feel the Spirit!

We finished our training and then needed to repack. Our suitcases had to have the weight evenly distributed to avoid overweight charges. So, Dennis carried them all down the 4 flights of stairs and weighed them and distributed the weight so we wouldn’t have to pay extra weight fees and then carried them up again.

Our MTC experience came to an end when the MTC van stopped at our residence hall door at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, June 10th,  and we loaded up the suitcases and left for the airport! It was a marvelous experience, but we were happy to be on our way!

Next week: Moving to Cabo Verde. Stay tuned.

Saying Good Bye

Janet and Dennis in Duke Gardens: One of our favorite places in North Carolina

 After a frantic period of preparing, it was time this last week to say good bye, for now, to our life of 20 years in Danville, California, and to many people who have been a part of that life.



We have accepted a mission call from the Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to serve for 23 months in Cape Verde (or Cabo Verde in Portuguese). This island nation off the west coast of Africa, is home to half a million people. It will be our home for the next two years.



The Spencer's come to say good bye to Brother and Sister Broderick

With help from Janet's close friends and many LDS Ward members, we held an open house at our home and invited many friends. We were blessed by the visit of many neighbors and friends who wished us well and shared their excitment in the opportunity that lies ahead.

Placing a world globe nearby we enjoyed showing children and adults where this tiny nation sits. Our mission call is to provide welfare services to meet some of the most critical needs of these warm and loving people, including: clean water, educational and hygiene supplies, wheel chairs for those with mobility imparements, and whatever other needs we can discover with help from the good people there.



Sharing with Sam and Kat along the North Carolina coast



Starting in March, then again in April and May we visited each of our children and grandchildren to say our good byes to them before we leave for our full time commitment. That was such a kick to share time with each of our grandchildren, from Hillsboro to Ann Arbor, and from Durham to Phoenix with our kids to be a part of their life for a few days, give them lots of kisses and hugs, and wish them a productive two years. We were sure to capture some of these choice moments on film to carry with us along with our sweet memories.



Celebrating Carston's Third Birthday

A special experience was our hello and sad good bye to our newest grandchild, Cora Amelia Broderick, born May 3rd, in Ann Arbor, MI, to John and Bre. We shared several memorable days but eventually had to say good bye there too.



Cora enjoying her first outing to the Arb!



Our final good byes to Spencer and Lindsey at Grandma and Grandpa's

Along the way were have been able to say good bye to our parents and extended family members. Our relationships with each of these people is very important to us and we wanted them to know of our continued interest in them even while we were far removed from them. In each case we have felt their great love and support for our undertaking.



A special two days with Mom and Dad Broderick



The final good bye took place via Skype on our last Sunday before we entered the MTC. We were able to enjoy one more contact with each of our children and our five grandchildren. Monday morning Janet's Mother and Sister, Ilene Washburn, dropped us off at the Mission Training Center (MTC) in Provo Utah. Here we officially begin our full time mission service with some intense but most valuable instruction. But that is a story for another day.

Love,

Dennis and Janet