Hiking Santo Antão

A Spectacular Experience on the Trail

Cape Verde is no tropical paradise. But it is it's own type of paradise, especially in the interior mountains and canyons of Santo Antão, our big brother island. Many of you know that we like to hike together. We have backpacked in the Sierras and hiked many of the hills around Danville.

Our hike begins with a ferry ride. Clouds brooding over Mt. Verde create a beautiful sunrise.

Soon after we moved to Cape Verde we heard about the mountain trails of Santo Antão and knew we would have to do some hiking there when the opportunity arose. When Iven Neves, the Branch President of the Porto Novo branch on Santo Antão offered to take us hiking some day, we knew we had the connection we needed and began looking for the opportunity.

The LDS chapel in Porto Novo where President Neves presides

With Santo Antão being part of the LDS District of Mindelo, we run into President Neves fairly frequently. We had worked side by side painting the school so we felt pretty close to him and his wife Mirma. We set a date for our hike and encouraged President Neves to invite members of his branch to join us. When we stepped off the ferry President Neves greeted us. He had a pickup arranged for the day. Janet got the inside seat and Dennis and President Neves took the wooden benches in the cargo box. We swung by the church to meet up with other hikers. President Neves lives just a block from the church. We were joined by Mirma, Ravi, and Admir. Ravi had served a mission for the church. He and Admir who was waiting for his mission call had never hiked the trail we were headed for.

Most cross country roads, like many in the cities,
are cobblestone. This one is in great condition and it
takes us straight up the mountain.

Before we headed up the mountain we stopped to check out the final paint job on our school and pick up Fredson, who was very experienced on the trail. Before we got out of town we also picked up some students who were heading up the mountain to their home. Like many students who live in the interior areas they commute to school, however they can.

The group with our extra riders pretty well fill up the pickup. President Iven was as giddy as a school boy. He had grown up doing this hike, but as an adult life often got too busy to allow such activities. He was very grateful for this American missionary couple who shared his passion for hiking the mountains.

Here they are riding up to the trail head. Sister Broderick gets the inside seat.
The driver in his cool beret. The guy in yellow on the right is a student
catching a ride up the mountains to his home.

We could see clouds hanging on the mountains and wondered what we would find up on top. It reminded us some of the fog in the Bay Area spilling over the East Bay hills. Riding in the back of the pickup we got the full effect of the wind and the cooler mountain air. As you can see below, we actually have jackets on (except Janet who was very comfortable in the warm cab).

Here we all are starting with E/S Broderick, Ravi, Mirma, Admir, Iven, and Fredson.
We're impressed that all but Mirma have shoes on.

Most people who visit Cape Verde are surprised to learn that there are places where pine trees grow. We had seen them before, but the juxtaposition of the smell and sight of pines to what we have experienced in the rest of Cape Verde did not readily compute. We took a little side trip before starting our hike to visit a large radar station that serves flight traffic control over the mountains and throughout the islands.

Our hiking route is mostly downhill to the sea. Starting in an area called Cova, we first descend into the bowl of an ancient volcano. Next we climb up the other side then begin what looks like almost a free fall down from the lip. If you know the 4 mile trail in Yosemite from Glacier Point to the valley, you get the picture of what this trail is like.

Janet and Mirma had their own interest...collecting dried flowering plants for their dead plant bouquet. It started with one. Their interest slowed the progress of the whole group, but ended in a beautiful collection. As we write this entry Janet's dry plant arrangement sits on the end table in our living room.

Mirma had an eye for beautiful contributions to the cause.

The guys had an eye for anything edible. This is the guava (goiaba in portuguese) fruit which was in season during our hike. Dennis enjoyed the flavor of the goiaba but had trouble with the rock hard seeds in the center.

Our native friends had no trouble swallowing the seeds and couldn't get enough of the fresh fruit.

The clouds we had seen earlier were all around us now. They filled parts of the bowl and completely blocked our view over the edge into the valley of Paul (sometimes written Paúl) below. That was disappointing, but even so the experience was not. What you will not see here are the many wonders of nature we saw and photographed as we dropped down the very steep face in the clouds. An incredible cobblestone trail had been constructed all the way down. In some places it was damaged. In others it was a little slippery from the condensation and misty rain, but it put US mountain trails to shame.

The bouquet is growing. Not all the flowers are dead.
Note the white clouds behind them.

Janet and Dennis both recognized the opportunity the clouds afforded to look to other aspects of our hiking experience for the wonder of our surroundings. Plant life was plentiful and varied.

We also enjoyed getting to know our Caboverdean friends better. Iven and Mirma have been members of the church for a number of years. Iven's parents and most of his siblings are active members. He works for the local utility company reading meters and delivering bills while he continues his education in business management. Iven is a participant in the LDS Perpetual Education Fund. Without this loan assistance, he would never be able to continue his education.

Mirma is the young women's president in their branch. She is a fun loving person with lots of youthful energy. She is 20 years old. They have one 18 month old son, Joshua, who was home with grandma for the hike. Her full name is Mirma Josiane Gomes Delgado Neves. Long names are the norm here. Like Janet, she enjoys counted cross stitch and is teaching it to the five active young women in her branch.

Typical terracing along the trail.
These tomato plants are being hand watered.
We can only guess for how many generations
these terraces have been in use.

Much of the very steep teraine along the trail was terraced for farming. Some of the terraces appeared to be abandoned and full of weeds. Others were being actively cultivated. They grew a large pea like feijão verde (green bean), milho (corn), potatoes, squash, and various other crops. We guess that most of it is for subsistance farming, but Santo Antão also produces a lot of produce and fruit for sale on the island and next door to our island, São Vicente. We are enjoying bananas and papaya throughout this season from Santo Antão.

The terracing, like the trail, had taken generations of hard work to develop. Some were watered by aquaduck, but it appeared that most were watered naturally by rainfall or by hand, as with the tomatoes to the right.

As we descended further we knew eventually we would drop below the clouds. This is what we saw when we finally did...

The Paul Valley finally comes into view below the clouds.
What a view even from this low!

We could only imagine the view from the top without clouds. This is clearly the verde (green) of Cape Verde. It is also the incredible result of water erosion, not glaciers, that formed these and all the canyons of Santo Antão. We can't see the ocean, but beyond those mountains in the top center is the actual village of Paul and the Atlantic ocean (see the next to the last picture in the series).

Typical home construction in this area.
Notice the straps intended to keep the roof on, we guess.

We still have miles to go before we reach the ocean, but what a feast the whole course is. Up close we see stone houses and barn-like structures with thatched roofs. We would consider these people the poorest subsistance farmers. They surely don't feel that, but feel blessed to live in such a God blessed part of the world.

Immediately below us we see a small village with a cluster of homes, no doubt a church and a school plus the soccer field. This one is well developed. Be aware that the road from Paul reaches up to this village, so they are within easy reach by car or truck from Porto Novo.

Can you see the soccer game in progress?
Our wide, coblestone path is also in view just below.

Besides the vegetable crops being grown in these terraces there are the fruits. Every farm has banana trees, some loaded with fruit. Papaya is also very common. We don't see much more guava as we descend, but begin to run into mango and bread fruit. The mangos are not in season now. We will have to wait until next summer. We have seen bread fruit on the trees but never in the markets.

Not too much longer before this giant bunch of bananas will be cut down,
carried down to the road below, and shipped by truck to the local market for sale,
maybe to Elder and Sister Broderick through a street vendor in Mindelo.

The other crop we see more and more of is sugar cane or cana. Unfortuntely it is not grown much for sugar but to make grogue or rum. At higher elevations the cana had not flowered yet, but as we descended we were treated with "forests" of cana flowers. We couldn't resist plucking a few to wave in the air or make a bouquet.

Soul sisters enjoying nature's beauties.
Note the wide path and cana stands with large flower fronds.

We refer to this whole area as Paul, but in fact there are a series of aldeias or villages as you move up the river from Paul, which is right at the coast and the mouth of this beautiful canyon. We don't have the names for these other villages. The largest is probably this one with the walled in cement soccer field. It is pretty much at the end of the road open to cars and trucks that comes up from Paul.

Its Saturday, a perfect day for soccer games and several other types of games.
Clouds still obscure the tops of the mountains.

Besides bananas, we saw many papaya trees, like the one below. Some of them seemed to be flowering. Others not. The fruit always grow right off of the trunk at the base of the leaf branches. Once the fruit are finished, the next crop looks like it forms further up as the tree continues to grow.

A papaya tree with green fruit. We don't know if

There is a small papaya tree in front of our apartment building in Mindelo. These trees will grow all around the islands, provided there is at least a little water during the dry season. We will keep an eye on our tree to see how it grows and if it ever flowers or produces fruit. According to eHow, papaya are picked green and firm for shipping to market. We buy them when they are yellow and not too soft.

Local girls, probably hoping for a little change.
No one here seems camera shy,
and most like having their picture taken.

We found beautiful and healthy clumps of
nasturtiums growing along the road as we continued our descent. Knowing they were edible, we offered them to our hiking companions. Riva trusted us and took a bite, then had second thoughts.

We were captivated by their stone buildings with thatching lashed on and the lushness of their farms. These are not typical sights in the areas we have visited on other islands.

The scenery was spectacular all the way down
the valley. We believe the large tree is a mango tree.

One of the thatched houses we came across was not built with stones, but with glass bottles (not shown here). We don't see many examples of recycling here, but this was a great one.


Iven remembers when this resort along the river was still open and operating. He has great memories of family and church group events here. Now the pool is empty and the grounds are falling into disrepair, but the beauty of the location is hard to miss.

We couldn't pass up this photo op in the clump of flowering plants, showing an exotic bright red blossom.

Janet fits right in this incredible scene.

Spotting this farm house and animal shelter below us surrounded by cana fields and fruiting trees, we saw an idealic Paul farm setting.

We had enjoyed our hike so much we were running out of time to catch our ferry back to São Vicente.

Iven contacted our driver and he met us a mile or so up the valley so we didn't get to walk all the way to the sea. What a treat this day had been, and how we enjoyed our companions.

We reach the ocean at last. The Patron Saint of Paul and probably
all of Santo Antão is on the hill to the center left, Santo António.

The views of the mouth of the canyon are very impressive too, but we didn't stop to enjoy them this trip. This part of the island we had visited before. As the truck drove us back to Porto Novo I took one more shot to show the end of the trail.

A final shot showing tiny Santo Antóno overlooking the ocean
and the Vila of Pombas at the mouth of the valley of Paul

Taking the late ferry back to our home island we arrived well after sunset. The boat ride was most interesting as we visited with two couples from England who had reached Cape Verde by sailing yacht and had spent a couple of weeks sailing around and visiting the various islands. They had spent the day with our favorite taxi driver, Silvestre. We were very happy to be heading home to a comfortable apartment instead of a rocking boat.

We were welcomed back in Porto Grande, Mindelo,
by a giant cruise ship. The tourist season has begun
and these ships seems to stop in every few days.

Many people come to Cape Verde for various reasons. Santo Antão is attractive to the outdoor types because of the beauty we had witnessed during our hike. Some come with back packs to spend days exploring these mountain regions. We feel it a special blessing to combine excursions like today with the many opportunities our humanitarian projects provide to make a difference for the humble and happy people of Cape Verde.

Upon our return we learned from one of our good friends, Alcidia, that her mother and sister live along the road we had walked. Her sister needs a wheelchair to improve her situation as she cares for her family. One of the wheelchairs we delivered to this beautiful valley just might be hers.

Family History in Cape Verde

Just because we are serving a Welfare Services mission, doesn’t mean Family History isn’t important to me. I do miss having the time to work on family history as I did before, but my interest hasn’t waned. When we arrived, I was very interested to see what a Family History Center in Cape Verde would look like. I found that in many ways it is the same!

This Center has 2 computers and they share a printer. It is a relatively small room. The gentleman on the right is the Family History Center director, Alécio Soares.

You can see that storage space everywhere is always at a premium. The outside windows are essential to be open. It gets hot and there is no air conditioning! A breeze makes a huge difference!

Ah, Ha!! Katy, our determined indexer, is working on a project. She likes the hard Brazilian records and Portuguese isn’t a problem for her!

The Center has 2 nice microfilm readers.

 

This is the film drawer! No, there aren’t many films, but these films are records from churches, mainly Catholic, in Cape Verde. The Church has filmed all the available records. The Center has some of the films in the center and are waiting for the rest to arrive.

Basically, they don't need more films. The vast majority of people living in Cape Verde, have only ancestry from Cape Verde. Most immigration is from, not to Cape Verde.  Alécio, the Family History Center director, said, if they could get enough people indexing in Cape Verde, Family Search would make these records available for indexing.

I learned recently, that immigration from Cape Verde began in the 1860's when US whaling boats took on Capeverdeans as crew members, some of whom eventually settled in the US near Boston. Since that time, people from Cape Verde have settled in the United States and many other countries throughout the world. With so many Capeverdeans spread throughout the world (and nearly everyone has several relatives in other countries, especially the US), I am sure they would love the records digitized and indexed. That is the challenge here!

Many members of the Church here, including the young adults we work with, have worked on their family histories. They have submitted names of their ancestors to the temple for temple work. But with the closest temple in Spain (soon to be in Portugal) or Brazil, they are not in a position to do the work themselves. Yet, they still submit them for general temple patrons to do the work. We admire their faith!

PS. If you don't know what indexing is, drop me an Email. Janet.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving!! That word for Americans is full of traditions. When we invited the missionaries to our house for Thanksgiving, we asked them if they would like fresh tuna steaks or turkey. You could tell that the traditional turkey was the first choice of the American missionaries. So we decided to have as much of a Thanksgiving feast as Cape Verde would allow!!

Preparation was the key. We ordered 7 kilos (about 14 pounds) of potatoes from our Branch President who has a small mercado nearby. We bought the most orange squash we could find, cooked it up and tested it by made tiny “pumpkin pie” tarts. It worked and they tasted like pumpkin pies! The 3 pies for the feast were made the day before Thanksgiving. I found a box of Stove Top dressing mix in the cupboard that looked pretty new, so we had dressing.

But the Turkey. Where to find a turkey? Not in any of the stores we usually went to. Elder Go tipped us off on the location of a frozen turkey at Bento’s near his apartment. It was a 25 minute walk (one way) to the store, but we were on the hunt for a turkey. They not only had 1 but 3 turkeys, each about 3 ½ kilos (6-7 pounds). They looked so puny, we decided to buy 2. I will not disclose the price as you will think we went crazy!! “It’s Thanksgiving” and “We have 14 missionaries coming”.

Here are our 2 turkeys defrosting in the frig.

The day arrived. We set aside the whole morning to prepare. We had to eat at 1:00 as 4 of the sister missionaries had to catch the 4 PM ferry to Santo Antão. Dennis patiently peeled all 7 kg of potatoes. I cut up the papaya & canned pineapple for the fruit salad. Then, I made the dressing, augmenting the box stuffing mix with a loaf of raisin bread and all the sage spice I had in the cupboard. We used raisin bread because when Dennis was at the store, it looked like what I wanted and there was NOTHING on the bag that said it was raisin bread. I didn't realize it was raisin bread until I starting cubing it for dressing! It in fact tasted really good!

Here are the turkeys ready to carve!

By 12:00 the turkey was done. The roll dough raising. The dressing in the oven cooking. And the missionaries began to arrive. Some went to the Church with Dennis to get chairs. The sisters helped me with food preparation. All offered to help, but the kitchen area is quite small and there just wasn’t room. To help fill the waiting time, the missionaries gathered around a tray of olives, pickles and such things as we found in the store. It evaporated quite quickly. And didn’t really dent their appetites!

Sis. Barros, helping Sister Broderick cut out rolls. I though I had made a big batch, but they didn't last long and there were no left overs!

Busy Workers in the Kitchen. Sister Pintual would like to help but there is not room. Sis. Holland, in the orange blouse, is trying to whip up cream. See later in story!

Missionaries patiently waiting for dinner to be served.

More hungry missionaries.

Hmmm. The missionaries looked pretty focused. And on Thanksgiving day, what other reason than food. They are enjoying the pre-dinner appetizer plate.

It was within 10 minutes of 1:00 p.m. when the announcement came. Dinner is served!!

Finally! The line to fill up your plate. The elders were very polite and let the sisters go first.

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

A second table of missionaries!

The third table of missionaries! 16 missionaries total!

Ahhh. Some satisfied missionaries! All the elders are from the USA except for Elder de Barros, Cape Verde (far right)

Happy sister missionaries. Sis. Holland (in orange) is the only missionary from the United States. The other sisters are from Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and Portugal. Sis. Pintual (arms around Sis. Pinto) is on her way to her first area in Santo Antão with Sis. Holland as her trainer. 

After the feasting (and there were few left overs, mostly mashed potatoes), we gathered together and shared our feeling of gratitude, especially for those who were a great influence in each missionary’s life to serve a mission. We feasted again - this time with the Spirit.

We truly are grateful for everyone who has helped us over the years. Thanks to both of our parents who gave us great examples of missionary service as senior couples. Thanks to our children for examples of serving missions and their encouragement and support. Thanks to Jan and Jane for caring for our home. Thanks to all our family and friends for their love. We love letters!

We finished the event with pumpkin pie and whipped cream. They were actually some of the best pumpkin pies (3 of them) that I have made! Sis. Holland's cream just wouldn't whip up. She spent about 20 minutes with a hand mixer. Don't know why because the carton said it was cream for whipping. I finally got another carton and it whipped up just fine. Who knows?

The hour and the taxi came to take the sisters to the ferry. And all the missionaries dispersed to their most important work of preaching the gospel to the people of Cape Verde. The clean-up was mostly done by the missionaries and so it didn’t take us long until we, too, were back to our missionary work. By, 6:30 p.m. we opened the Center for Young Single Adults and life went on.

Casting Our Nets to the Leeward

The sotavento or leeward islands are the four at the bottom, from left to right: Brava, Fogo, Santiago, and Maio

Most of you reading this blog know that Cabo Verde is an island nation off the west coast of Africa. There are 10 inhabited islands, all depicted in this large picture hanging on the wall of the Cape Verde Praia Mission office. You can see where we live in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente.

Our missionary calling is to lead welfare service activities for all of Cape Verde. Most of you reading this blog know that we have had projects in São Vicente and Santo Antão, our next door neighbor island to the West. These have been very rewarding, but we have not been serving large areas and large populations of Caboverdeanas. For this reason we feel strongly that the Lord wants us to shift our attention to the islands of the south, Brava, Fogo, Santiago, and Maio. These islands are also known as the islands of the sotavento or leeward islands.

Santiago (Saint James) is the island with the largest population of all the islands and includes the capital city of Praia. The next significant population among these islands is Fogo (fire). This active volcanic island is the poorest of all the islands. For these reasons we have decided to concentrate on these two, Santiago and Fogo.



The communication hub for the mission - The Mission Office in Praia

To initiate this focus we made a trip to these two islands the first of November to initiate contacts with LDS Church members in these areas and make contacts with organizations that we might work with for our humanitarian projects. Since Praia is the capital we also wanted to make contact, if possible, with national level governmental and non-governmental organizations to let them know of our work and interests to serve, and to learn of their priorities in the areas of education, health, and social needs.

We were offered space in the mission office for our stay in Praia, which was a convenient location to connect with church members in the area. During the day the mission office can be a very busy place, especially on Tuesdays. At night and in the early morning it is very quiet. It has a kitchen which we used to prepare some of our meals. This will likely be our place to stay in the future when we head to Praia to orchestrate our service to the leeward islands.

Our hosts for our contacts and visits in Praia were President Oliveira, the mission president, and members of the church Public Relations team, principally Luis Alves and with support from Isaías de Rosa. Luis is in fact a recent convert. He and his wife Cristine were living in Mindelo when he met with the missionaries and was baptized. We were there throughout the process and got to know both. We were saddened to see them leave for Praia, but at this point Luis has become a tremendous asset to our work. He has lots of connections in government and other organizations and has taken great interest in our work. He made many of the appointments for us in Praia.

President Mascarenhas, Senhor Robalo, and Sister Broderick outside City Hall, Assomada

President Oliveira, our mission president, introduced us to President Celestino Mascarenhas, one of his counselors, and a church member of great reputation in Praia. As we described to him our plans, he took great interest and wanted to be of service. We recognized him as valuable team member and asked if we could visit the region of Assomada to see what kinds of connections we could make for projects there. He drove us up the next day into the mountainous region of his birth and introduced us to the city councilman over urban works. Senhor Robalo was very interested in what we might do together in the areas of water projects and social services. The photos below try to capture some of the beauty of the region.

How would you like this view from your front porch?

Assomada spills down the hillside in this mountainous region

A couple of days later we paid a call to Mário Moreira and his staff at the National Red Cross Office in Praia. Dr. Paulo, who you should recognize by now as our local Red Cross partner, made the trip just to accompany us for the visit. We also met others of Mário's staff and toured their headquarters. We talked with them about the possibility of doing another wheelchair project, this time for the leeward islands. We also explored other ideas for joint projects.

Group at Cape Verde Red Cross National Headquarters from left to right:
Red Cross VP Celestino, Dr. Paulo, President Mário Moreira, Luis Alves - see text, Secretary José Semedo, Elder and Sister Broderick (us) 

Enjoying a beautiful view over Praia's main water front. We shared lunch with Dr. Paulo at O Poeta Restaurant.

With Luis Alves' help also visited with a City Councilman for the city of Praia, with the Nation Head of Adult Education, the head of FICASE, a education support agency, and Dr. António Delgado, National Director of Health. Luis is currently looking for work in Praia, which gives him more time. Cristine's work is the main reason they moved to Praia. Isaías joined us for meetings when he was available, but he teaches full time in a local university.

We learned first hand of some of Praia's challenges. They have frequent power outages and water can be scarce at times. In the area around the mission office businesses compensate by having their own generators to provide light and meet basic general power needs including running their computers. We were grateful that the mission office had a generator and WiFi. It ran almost half the time we were there.

We left Praia on a Saturday morning for the island next door, Fogo. It was a short flight to São Filipe, but a whole new world. Fogo is hotter, everything seems to be on the sloped sides of the volcano, but the people are extremely warm and open. We felt like we were stepping back into August with the temperature and into Hawaii for the warm friendly people.

Everything is ready for the Fogo District Conference. President Pires sites to the left of the Mission President, President Oliveira. We are in a covered stadium seating area with the District Chorus on the left. Thanks to a good sound system, the members in the far back could still hear well. We were offered seats on the front row so Janet could help with the music.

Fogo District Choir in matching outfits. They have a powerful unison voice.

During the District Conference the presidency was released and a new presidency sustained. They spoke much about how to build strong families in the gospel. Cape Verde does not have a strong family tradition. There are many many single mothers or couples who never choose to marry. The LDS Church has made strides in changing that culture and to teach the strength and power of traditional families.

Sister Broderick meets sisters from Fogo
Irmã Teixeira holding little girl, Irmã Fernandes - wife of new District President, Irmã Teixeira's very pregnant aunt

Sunday afternoon we went to the chapel to meet with Irmã Fernandes, the new District President's wife to talk about a small sewing project in her branch of Cova Figueira. She would be the leader of the project to help sisters in her branch develop sewing skills. Afterwards we also met with the new District Presidency and President Oliveira to explain our purpose here, teach welfare principles, and solicit their help in identifying possible humanitarian projects. The second counselor met with us to share his connections.

Writing a letter to the Mayor of São Filipe, begging his attention: Elder Broderick, Vanessa, Bruno

Monday morning we got right to work with another new contact, Bruno Teixeira, Elders Quorum President from the São Filipe Branch. He is probably the best connected church member on the island and he is pushy. He led us to city hall to speak with the mayor, but the mayor was not exactly waiting to speak with us. His secretary asked us to prepare a letter introducing us and our purpose and she would see what she could arrange.

With that, we walked to a nearby park where I pulled out my trusty laptop and we started to write the letter. As we did, a member girl on break from the local high school walked by and offered to help. Vanessa typed, Bruno dictated, and I watched. We finished the letter, printed it off in a local office supply shop, and carried the letter back to city hall. We left with an offer to call us if they could fit us in.

Cobblestone road up and across Fogo, with the volcano towering above

Never fear. If the mayor of São Filipe didn't have time for us, maybe the mayor of Santa Catarina would. We caught the first bus leaving town and began to climb the volcano. This was essentially a school bus with a few interlopers, like ourselves. It was jampacked with students who had finished their half day of school and were heading to their rural homes outside of São Filipe.

It was a long ride to Cova Figueira where the city hall for the municipality of Santa Catarina was, but the scenery was beautiful and rural, and the cobblestone road took us through the heartland of the island, where the poorest people in Cape Verde live. The CD player on the bus blared teenage Caboverdeana fare with some catchy rhythms. The bus slowly emptied out as we dropped off little groups of students. When the bus was virtually empty, we arrived in Cova Figueira as the last to get off.

The mayor was off to lunch, but the vice mayor warmly welcomed us and we began to explain our mission. About then the mayor walked in, treated us coldly at first, but warmed up nicely when we again explained our purpose for intruding on his schedule. They both shared details of a number of projects they have going to improve the quality of life in their rural municipality. We were quite impressed with their proactive and progressive attitudes. We would love to find a way to help.

We were hungry so bought some snacks before catching the Hiace (Toyota van) back to São Filipe. The ride back was more direct and half the time. Hiace transportation is the basic way to get around outside the cities, for people, for produce, wildlife, and anyone, or anything that needs to go. Here is a photo of one:

Toyota Hiace, basic transportation to anywhere on the islands,
just back from a young adult outing

Red Cross President Zelito in front of their local facility

Our contacts that day were not finished. We had made contact with the local Red Cross President, Zelito, and wanted to get acquainted and learn about their operations on the island of Fogo. Zelito had been baptised in the LDS church a number of years ago, but no long participated. We had already run into two others like him in Praia. He contributes much to strengthen his community through the Red Cross. He showed us their building and described the work they do and want to do for the people of São Filipe.

As is our practice, we went for walks around São Filipe for our morning exercise, as distinguished from our mid day or afternoon exercise. The difference is we wear exercise clothes in the morning. We climbed up above São Filipe one morning and passed this cinder block factory on the way. The cobblestone roads are everywhere. This is main highway heading out of town.

A cinder block factory on the outskirts of São Filipe.
Note the piles of black sand gathered from the black beaches.

The "Huerta's Apartment" where we stayed in Fogo. Elder and Sister Huerta left for their home in Brazil the week before we arrived. Their empty apartment, on the second floor of the cream building, will be our home when we visit Fogo. This busy street, like all streets, climbs upwards towards the volcano.

Bruno is president of the fisherman's cooperative of São Filipe. He works to improve the work situation of this vital industry for the island. Fishing is one of the only money producing industry that we learned about in our visit, and it faces serious challenges.

A small fishing boat left high and dry without parts to repair the motor. Parts for cars, boats, and other equipment are expensive, so too many potentially productive pieces sit idle.

Bruno's home serves as his cooperative office. His wife Isabel, the District Relief Society President, prepared a simple but nutritious and tasty meal that they shared with us.

Bruno was very generous with his time and energy, creating meeting opportunities for us with a number of organizations. We met with the Education Department and Adult Education on the island, the ministry of health, visited the local hospital, and a health clinic. He also introduced us to a social services cooperative organization that seeks to supplement what local government agencies cannot do.

Two São Filipe Branch sisters and Isabel Teixeira have learned to sew using the sewing machine purchased with humanitarian funds. Sister Huerta was the first teacher. Now Isabel has taken over. Projects to serve LDS church members are rare.

While in Fogo we wanted for sure to check up on the sewing project we had launched with Elder and Sister Huerta. Isabel, Bruno's wife, now leads this effort and opened up the sewing room in the São Filipe chapel for us to meet some of the sisters who are progressing in their skills. They have already used their skills to repair clothing for missionaries and members, and make simple clothing for their children. These skills can now be used to supplement family income. We hope to expand the project to include a second sewing machine in Cova Figueira as mentioned earlier.



Sister Broderick assists one of the sewing students with her project


Our last day in Fogo provided an opportunity to visit one of the few special education programs on all the islands. Zelito, who is a volunteer as the Red Cross President, works professionally in special education where he coordinates the programs on Fogo. This field of education is new in Cape Verde and extremely limited. We might try to give their program a boost by improving the conditions of their resource center. Imagine working in an oven every day trying to help special ed students like the deaf boy below or develop your own materials for use with blind or mentally limited students. If we can help provide even some fans life could be much better.

A gregarious deaf young man teaches Sister Broderick some sign language greetings

We were also blessed our last day to return to city hall in São Filipe to visit, not with the mayor, but with one of his deputies about the needs we might be able to help with. It was valuable to further document needs we had already learned about, and make a connection that should open further doors and opportunities. Our letter in the park paid off.

The city of São Filipe begins a couple of hundred feet above the beautiful ocean and black sand beaches and climbs up from there. There is beach access in several areas and fishing is important to this community and island. In the opposite direction along the beach we saw several trucks loading up sand for use in construction. Everything is built from concrete, stone, concrete blocks, and cinder blocks. I suppose you could say volcanic cinder blocks.

Fogo's black beaches. Notice the fishing boat near the top of the photo.
Looking directly out from land we see the neighboring island of Brava.

When we planned our trip to Praia and Fogo we had no idea what gospel treats we had in store. District Conference on Sunday was followed by a visit of Elder Gérald J. Caussé of the First Quorum of the Seventy, on Tuesday. He spoke to the leaders of the branches and district Tuesday night and spent all day Wednesday training the full time missionaries. We decided to wait for the missionary training when we returned to Mindelo, but loved the simple way he taught the leaders Tuesday how to bring members, active and less active, unto Christ.

We ended up traveling together with the Oliveira and Elder Caussé from Fogo to Praia on Wednesday evening. He and the mission president stayed in Praia at their home for the night and we continued on to Mindelo. Unfortunately our flight was delayed 90 minutes in Praia making for a rather late arrival. Still it was good to be cooler and home.

From left to right: President Roberto Oliveira, Sister Eliana Oliveira, Elder Gérald Caussé, and Sister Broderick on the São Filipe tarmac, with Fogo's volcano rising behind. Sister Broderick and Sister Oliveira have become good friends and love to visit and discuss missionary needs and personal interests when ever they get together.

Thursday Elder Caussé was in Mindelo to meet with missionaries and lead training and discussions with them. We were able to attend most of the training. We clearly see the Lord's power and inspiration in all his servants, but especially in general authorities who humbly respond to their divine call. We loved the time spent at the feet of this French disciple.

Elder and Sister Broderick standing with Elder Gérald Caussé outside the Mindelo city chapel

As we ended our visit to Fogo and Praia we again counted our blessings to be serving in this incredible country. The Lord has already opened doors for us as we look to the leeward for much of next year's work.