São Nicolau

São Nicolau is the 7th island we have traveled to. We spent a very full 2 1/2 days working and enjoying the beautifully green and mountainous island.

We left Mindelo Monday morning, September 3. The ‘we’ in this case included President Cesar Fortes, the Mindelo District president. He accompanied us as the official local priesthood leader. At present, there is no Church unit on São Nicolau since the branch was dissolved several years ago. São Nicolau is still in the jurisdiction of the MIndelo District, so we invited him to join us on the trip.
There are very few direct flights to São Nicolau so we first flew to Sal. As we were landing, the announcement came that the plane was going on to São Nicolau and all passengers who were going there should stay on the plane. After all other passengers had disembarked, we looked around and….we were the only passengers left. I guess we were the only ones in Mindelo who wanted to go to São Nicolau. Too bad – they missed a beautiful island!

We were met at the São Nicolau airport by Mary Helena, the local Red Cross president and Manuel, the driver. They were very gracious and fun hosts – and we spent much time together.

They took us to our hotel,  newly built and very nice accommodations. The bright purple and pink made it easy to know we were almost home!

If you look at the space between the yellow building and our hotel, you will see a typical street!! The streets in Ribeira Brava were narrow!! There was usually room for a van and a pedestrian who, wisely, either got into a doorway or squeezed against the building. The cars went just as fast on the narrow streets as any where else.

After checking in, we went to the headquarters of the São Nicolau Red Cross for a tour. This is also where they stored the wheelchairs. President Fortes is on the left and Mary Helena, the São Niclolau Red Cross President, is on the right.

The first order of business was to load up the van with 3-4 wheelchairs. They had received the wheelchairs just about two months before and were waiting for us to arrive to begin the distribution.

One of many mountain peaks with clouds swirling around

It was off and on raining when we arrived and the rain continued through the day. The clouds obscured many of the mountains, but still made for beautiful views!

We drove around and through the mountains on the relatively normal narrow roads with steep drop offs on one side. Yes, I closed my eyes sometimes and on this first trip, my closed eyes put me to sleep!! I did need the rest anyway. Most of the roads had been paved, so at least it wasn’t too bumpy but the driver drove faster! On Monday afternoon, we went to the farthest town, Tarrafal of São Nicolau, and then started working our way back to Ribeira Brava.



The first 2 recipients of wheelchairs in São Nicolau. I have found that just because you are handicapped, doesn’t mean you can’t be happy and have a BIG smile!! The young woman was especially excited about her new wheelchair.

This gentleman is the director of an organization devoted to helping the handicapped and the aged. He took us to the site where they would like to build a new center for the elderly. I think he was hoping we could help, but we do not support construction of buildings. You often wish you could do everything. But it probably would not be in anyone’s best interest. And it is not reality.

Exploring Ribeira Brava

Ribeira Brava is a very charming town and has more of an European feel that many other islands. Many of the houses had tile roofs, rather than the flat concrete that is common elsewhere. We had some time Monday evening to walk around the city, although we had to take shelter several times from the rain.

In the praça near the hotel. The building in the back is the library.

The local Catholic Church

The local market is in a very nice building. I am hiding inside to keep out of the rain.

View of the city across the ribeira from the upper road

The city is nestled in the ribeira. There isn't much other place!

Delivering Wheelchairs in earnest!!

Tuesday, we first had a short visit with the president of the Cámara of Ribeira Brava and then spent the rest of the day delivering wheelchairs. We filled up the van with our 5 or so for the morning delivery, and then repeated the process for the afternoon. Below are some of the people who received this help and their families who serve them. We had quite the contingent delivering the wheelchairs: Maria Helena, president of São Nicolau Red Cross; Manuel, the driver; Elder and Sister Broderick; President Fortes; and,Tania, the representative of Cámara.
Come with us to visit some of these homes.

The first order of business after carrying the box with the wheelchair was to unbox the chair, attached the foot rests and pump up the tires with the bicycle pump that was included. It was most important to have someone in the family learn how to to these things and we encouraged them to be part of the set up.

This gentleman is practicing his newly found mobility!

Most of the time it was get in the van, drive, deliver a wheelchair, and repeat many times!! We delivered 19 wheelchairs in the 2 days we were in São Nicolau.

And a couple of times we took a break. We had just finished delivering a chair when we were invited to enter this house. The owner is in the distance on the left. It was a beautiful home and nicely decorated. That is an interest paradox of Cape Verde, almost across the street are homes of the poor while the rich enjoy many amenities.

 

This is his backyard. Below me is a small swimming pool, though currently it is not filled.

The view of the coast looking the other way. Can’t beat that view from your back yard!
The nice thing about these types of places is the poor have the same incredible view!! I hope they can enjoy it as much as we did.

The owner’s wife had died several years ago. She was an artist and the walls of their home were filled with her pictures. We enjoyed looking at them. You could tell she had been a loving wife and it felt a little lonely.

This is one of many paintings. I would love this one as a jigsaw puzzle!!

After another delivery, we drove down to the dock where some young men were fishing for fish bait.  It seemed a shame to use such interesting fish as bait!

But, who knows what big fish will find them tasty??!!

 Wednesday, departure day, dawned early. We visited and toured the local health center that has basic care and minor hospital procedures. Then we took off for the final delivery. We drove the same road as the day before until we came to the mouth of a canyon and turned off onto the cobblestone road and up a lusciously green valley. 

We drove a fair distance up the valley until we came to a VERY steep part of the road. Apparently the recipient lived half way up the hill. The van was parked, we hijacked several young men to carry the wheelchair and we all climbed the hill. The beneficiary was the grandpa and he was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

We stayed and visited. They freely shared some mangos from their tree.

Here we are heading back down the road with the mango and papaya treasures.

It was time to get going. Our flight left at 1:30 and we needed to get back to the hotel to pay our bill, get our luggage. And so we left this lovely valley. 

On our way to the airport, we took a back route which meant going up a road that was steep and had about 10-12 switchbacks. Once on top and traveling through an agricultural area, we stopped at a farm. President Fortes wanted to buy some melons to take home to his children. It was raining lightly, but that didn’t stop anyone.

The farmer's wife choosing the melon among the green peppers.

She gave us a free taste -- Fresh vine-ripened watermelon. A delicious treat!

We made it to the airport with about 45 minutes to spare. I knew we were ok when we arrived because there was a large group outside the arrival door, waiting for the plane to arrive. We got checked in, Pres. Fortes got his melons boxed to check and while we waited for the plane to land in we visited with our hosts in the small café in the airport.

São Nicolau has a very small airport. Just over the wall in the back is the arrival area. We checked our baggage at one counter, she handed over our passports and itinerary to the next desk where she wrote out our boarding passes. And it works!

It’s time to load up the plane. They do a pretty quick turn around. The plane lands, the passengers get off, the baggage comes off, the new baggage goes on while the new passengers embark. It usually takes about 25 minutes and the plane is ready to take off again. We say good bye to São Nicolau! We are on our way to Praia for the next leg of our journey.

Elizabeth, Bem-vindo a Cabo Verde!

After months of discussing, planning and finally anxious waiting, we were thrilled to see Elizabeth emerge from the Custom’s area in the Praia airport. So thrilled, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture!! She arrived on Tuesday, July 10 and we enjoyed having her here until we reluctantly saw her off early Wednesday morning, July 25

(Photo credits go to both Elizabeth and Dennis!)

Travel to Cape Verde includes a night flight from Boston to Praia. She arrived at 11:30 a.m., almost 24 hours after leaving Raleigh, North Carolina where she was visiting Sam and Kat. After lunch, she took a short nap and then off to Cidade Velha to get some Cape Verde History.


But first we introduce her to the hiace, the least expensive way to get long distances on the island. This one isn’t so very crowded.
The driver dropped us off at the same “where are we?” road that led to the fort above the city.

Here we are at the fort, looking down into the green valley.

Street venders are ever present. Elizabeth didn’t buy the necklace she is holding, but the vender gave her a bracelet. That is the standard business procedure. They always give you something in hopes you will buy.

We left Praia late that night – so late it was almost the next day when we got to Mindelo. We were all tired and fortunately the beds were all made, the fans plugged in and I think we said good night!

Sharing our work

We are missionaries and Elizabeth joined us in our visits and helped to do online research for Braille equipment for one of our projects.

We are visiting a child care center where we helped them with some tables and chairs for the children. These children are waiting for lunch to be served.

We went to visit some of houses in our water project. This house is getting connected to the water line. The worker has dug the trench and is waiting for his partner to come with the plumbing supplies. We watched them complete the project and fill in the trench. The family has water in their home!!

We attended a hygiene class to beneficiaries of the water project. Here Elizabeth is taking a video of this woman explaining what a blessing it is to have water in her home.

There are some great blessings in our work. One was the big party the Cooking Class put on to celebrate the completion of the course. They provided a delicious feast that included some of our favorite dishes from our visits over the past few months. Elizabeth got a good "taste"of Capeverdean food!

We went on a tour of the desalination plant that provides all the clean water for the island. I was amazed how small it was!! This is one of 4 units.

 

Sharing our friends

We invited a family over for a birthday celebration for Dennis and their daughter, Marina, who will turn 15 in a couple of weeks. Dennis hometeaches the family. They enjoyed the dinner, but the children REALLY enjoyed Elizabeth’s magic Ipad

We were invited to lunch at the home of a partner and friend, Alcidia. They are building their home and this floor is finished and is very beautiful and modern. Most Cape Verdeans build their own homes bit by bit. They don’t take out a large mortgage, usually saving money or taking a small loan and then doing as much as they can. Then the building stops until they get more money. It takes a long time to build a house that way, but they don’t have big mortgages!! The other floors are still just unfinished concrete walls. When they are done, it will be a very lovely home.




Elizabeth brought her “Pass the Pigs” game. If you don’t know this game, you should. You throw 2 little pigs and get points depending on how they land. The Young Adults thought the pigs were hilarious and enjoy the game very much.

Everyone loved Elizabeth. She joined in our activities with the Young Adults. They were asking about her long after she left!

Sharing our life

The Fish Market!

Elizabeth enjoys eating fish, so she came to the right place. Of course, we had to introduce her to the Mindelo fish market and choose the fish we wanted to eat for the next 2 weeks!!

What to buy?

What fish is this??

While at the fish market, Elizabeth noticed a big pan of octopus. After some research on how to cook octopus, we returned to the fish market and bought some. I would never have bought it, but Elizabeth was game to try, and so, we were too. And it was worth the 100 escudos (just over a dollar) to have someone else clean them! 

Here is our octopus catch. We choose little ones as they were supposed to be more tender.

We did need to wash them out and get any bits of beak left in them. It wasn’t as bad as I thought – or as bad as they looked.

After cooking all day in our Pot in a Pillow to tenderize them, we used a recipe found on the internet and cooked them up. It looks much better, now.

And it was actually very delicious. We enjoyed it. Thank you Elizabeth for giving us the courage to try it!

The Dragon Flower


We were pleased that Cape Verde provided a view of our beautiful night flower. It had just started blooming and we hoped one flower would come out before she left. We checked every day to see if we needed to return around 9:00 p.m. to view the open flower.

They really are a beautiful flower. Two weeks after she left, it was the full bloom - at least 100 flowers were in bloom that single night!

Exploring Santo Antão

Santo Antão is one of our favorite islands for pure incredible scenery! So, of course we had to take Elizabeth there. We took 3 P-days all at the same time and went on a mini-vacation.
I think every tourist in Cape Verde was also going to Santo Antão that Monday morning. The ferry dock was CROWDED and Dennis stood in line for over a half hour to buy tickets. But there was plenty of space, everyone got their tickets and the ferry cast off only a little late.

 
It was an early morning and made a very photogenic view of the coast of São Vicente.
We were met by the director of our hotel  and he took us to the top of the mountain, dropping us off in the caldron of an ancient volcano and then took our luggage on to Ponto do Sol and the hotel.


The crater of the volcano is a beautiful agricultural area. Here Elizabeth is passing a mango tree planted in the midst of a cabbage patch.

We are getting higher and soon will come to the pass where we will begin the descent to Paúl. The whispy clouds sneaking over the mountain are beautiful, but we hope it doesn’t mean our view is obstructed.

 



 Another view of the jagged edge of the mountain encircling the crater.








Unfortunately, the large vista was obscured by clouds, but we still got a good view of the trail ahead.

Yes, if you are wondering. It is a very steep path. It would be hard to go uphill, though we did meet 3 men riding their bicycles up. And, it is hard to go downhill. I got a bruise on my big toe and my knees were not happy.

After descending the steep side of the mountain, we got below the cloud and enjoyed the view of the valley with its farms and houses.

Lunch with a view!!

One of the little villages along the road to Paúl.

We were watching this village carefully, because the mother of our partner and friend, Alcidia, lived here.

Many people who live in Saõ Vicente were born on Santo Antão and still have many family members living there.

They were watching for us as well. And had a dinner waiting for us!! We do find the people here to be so very hospitable and welcoming. We had just eaten, but their lunch tasted wonderful and we enjoyed getting to know them as well.

And time to continue down the road. Paúl was still a few miles away.

One of many thatched roof houses.

We were getting very tired. My knees were complaining loudly at the major down hill we had gone. And Paúl was still some distance. So, we hailed a taxi truck (pick-up truck with benches in the bed) and rode to the ocean!! We caught our ride and went on to Ponte do Sol and our hotel.

The next day, we spent the morning hiking to Fontainhas. Dennis and I had hiked there last February and we wanted to share that beautiful place with Elizabeth.

 

This street of the village extends out on a ‘peninsula’. The houses face a steep downhill that includes many terraces for farming.

 














Hmmm… I wonder why those same houses don’t have any back doors!!











It was planting season  as rain was expected in the next month or so. Here are 2 farmers, sowing their terraces.


The end of the road for us.  There is another village at the bottom of the gorge and then the path goes on along the coast. They say there is an amazing beach about a 4 hour walk down the coast. Tempting!!

After cleaning up and eating lunch, we met the missionaries who had asked us to help them do some contacting in Ribeira Grande. I guess we are missionaries, even if we are on vacation!! We did a quick stop at the prison in Ponto do Sol and the hospital in Ribeira Grande to see what help we could offer to them – particularly school and hygiene kits at the prison (the adult ed usually has a literacy class in the prison) and newborn kits for the hospital. We usually manage to find some humanitarian service opportunity wherever we go.

Our assignment was to go with a young adult member to visit his father with the local branch president and hopefully interest him in learning more about the gospel and the Church. We started on a small road going into a canyon. It was pretty – and I enjoyed the green plants in the river bed.



The canyon started out fairly wide with several houses. I figured one of them was the house we were aiming for. But no, we walked right on by.


We kept on walking and came to the sugar cane harvest. As we walked past the chopper you could smell the sweet cane being processed. Unfortunately, it is to make the island grog. People also really like to suck on the cane. We got a cane to try and it seemed to be just sweet wood. I was afraid I would get slivers in my mouth!
I was thinking that surely the house around the next bend in the canyon would be our destination. But, no. We kept on walking


The canyon narrowed and that path did as well. We were walking along a flowing stream that had huge yam plants. Some leaves were nearly a yard long!!! They needed to be harvested soon as once the rains begin, the plants are swept away in the deluge.

 

Along the path, some children had made a model city. They were quite authentic though the roof had fallen in on one of  the houses.

I was beginning to wonder if there really was a destination. Every one of the few houses we were seeing this far into the canyon were passed by! But the canyon zigzagged back and forth and was incredible and so beautiful. Elizabeth and I commented that had we done the car tour of the mountains, we wouldn’t have experienced the up close and personal feel of walking up a canyon.


We are still walking. I wasn’t exactly wearing hiking shoes. In fact I was wearing the new sandals that Elizabeth had brought for me. Thank goodness they were comfortable and I hoped that this one hike wouldn’t wear them out!!

Another big patch of yams.


Yes, we did reach our goal. It was such a beautiful, peaceful place. The father had a wonderful family, a farm, farm animals, a peaceful and quiet place and internet. What more could one need!! We hope, some day, he will find that the restored gospel adds truly everything one could want!!

We are nearly out of the canyon on the way out. I am always amazed at the terraced farming. I think the terracing is the work of centuries.

It took us over an hour to walk to their place. There is no quick trip to the store here!! Our friend walks the path every day!! As well as his younger brother and sisters as they go to school. We did walk out faster – not so many new scenes to enjoy and pictures to take.

All in all, Santo Antão lived up to our expectations of beauty!

We had to catch the early ferry on Wednesday as, on that day, they did not have an afternoon ferry. So, we got to Mindelo earlier than we had expected and since we had nothing else planned Elizabeth and I went shopping!! Dennis had to stay home and work on water project contracts.

Exploring Baia das Gatas

Two days before Elizabeth was scheduled to leave, we decided to explore our own island of São Vicente and went to Salamansa and Baia das Gatas, about a 15 minute drive to the other side of the island.

It was early when we arrived in Salamansa. But, the line-up of water jugs was already pretty long. The water station is closed on Sunday, so people needed water on Monday morning!

We went to the beach and enjoyed watching the waves and walking along the shore. It was a little early to swim, though several families were already enjoying the surf.

Upon returning to Salamansa to find transportation to Baia das Gatas,  we discovered that the village had sprung into life. The water fountain was open!!! It was fascinating to watch the give and take,the coming and going, the talk, the laughter of a community coming together.

 

All ages came to get water for their families.  And being young didn’t mean you had a smaller container.

The catalyst of the water station is  the worker who takes the money for the water used. I don’t know how she kept track of who had and who hadn’t paid, but everyone knew the routine. We didn’t see any problems.

 

 

This would be quite the load to push, even with the help of a under-inflated tire! I wonder how long that would last his family???

Community needs spawn community cooperation. This group of young men had to work several times to get everyone in step. But they finally were off down the street helping each other.

Once transportation was acquired, we left for the short drive to Baia das Gatas. We walked out to the long pier to eat lunch and watch a youth group thoroughly enjoy the water. We were ready to go swimming ourselves!!!  The boat in the background is a fishing boat, probably coming back from a fishing expedition. We learned that the fishermen take everything they need (including water) to a small, uninhabited island nearby and camp and fish for a few days. It actually is a very risky business and many of these costal fishing villages have a lot of widows.


Looking straight across from our lunch site, you can see a big bay – and it is really just a very big swimming pool. The water is refreshing and it never got very deep. Even the diving area required fairly shallow dives. And, of course, Dennis had to check the diving out!


After enjoying the water, we walked to one end of the bay to the beach where the fishermen cast off. It must not be fishing time, as many boats were still there. It was on this walk that we realized we had received a traditional gift of the Cape Verde sun – a good sunburn. We had used sunscreen, but apparently not enough.


And too suddenly, July 25 came.

Cesária Évora singing morna, the blues of Cape Verde. It is time to say goodbye and send Elizabeth back to the United States.

The airport on São Vicente was renamed for Cesária after her death last December. She was an internationally known singer and made the national music of Cape Verde heard throughout the world. She lived here in Mindelo.

It is time to say goodbye. Jorge, our taxi driver and friend, took our group picture with the tousled look of an early morning and bright, sunburned noses.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for coming to visit us. It was wonderful!