Sal e Boa Vista - Cape Verde for the Tourists

Through a Tourist's Eyes - the Perfect Cape Verde:
Sun, Sand, and Sea

Our first wheelchair project has provided the opportunity to at least become acquainted with the five islands of the barlavento: Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Sal, and Boa Vista. It has also allowed us to do something very few Caboverdeanans ever get to do, visit most of the islands.

This blog is a combination of two trips to Sal and Boa Vista. The first was in December, 2011. We returned in January, 2013 to complete the wheelchair delivery. Not all the wheelchairs were sent to these islands in 2011, and finally, at the end of 2012, the last group was sent. So, come with us to the premier tourist islands of Cape Verde!

Our first stop in 2011 began in Sal where we first toured various schools and the regional hospital and talked to various government officials. 


Touring a new Kindergarten building being built on Sal: On the far left is the branch president who was very supportive, and on the far right is the secretary to the president, who also is a member of the church.

We had a small ceremonial delivery of a couple of chair which seems to be the common practice here. Below is a grandmother picking up the wheelchair for her granddaughter who was unable to come.

We also enjoyed spending time with the missionaries serving in Sal. The same evening as the wheelchair delivery, we joined them in the main praça and sang Christmas carols. We had a good audience and the missionaries got some good contacts!


 

Then, that night as we were caroling with the missionaries, the grandmother came with her grandaughter to listen to our songs. It was wonderful to meet the person who will be helped by the wheelchair.

A bird's eye view of a part of Espargos, Sal, from the roof of the hotel pensão where we stayed!

We then flew to Boa Vista.

The 2 wheelchairs that we delivered to Boa Vista! We actually carried them there as luggage on the airplane. The boats were too full to take any -- at least to non-profit organizations that wanted free shipping.

A Boa Vista Beach

Below are 2 views of the poor section of Boa Vista. Not many years ago -- like 5 or less -- Boa Vista had a very small population. Then the tourist boom and the construction of many hotels which brought people from every island and several African nations looking for, and at that point finding work. But with the downturn in the worldwide economy, the building largely stopped and many people were left struggling to survive. The extremely rapid population growth has put a huge strain on the government to provide social services. The people just built any old house, without electricity or water, and without any standards. A recent fire in this development left several families homeless.

We had an afternoon with no appointments, so our taxi driver gave us a tour of the general area around Sal Rei, the principal city and home of the airport. 

 

The beaches and sand dunes are very beautiful!

We visited a pottery and watched the craftsmen form turtles among other things.

And I found my Cape Verdean Nativity Scene! It is a beautifully simple ceramic of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.

A view of the tourist 'Taj Mahal'. I don't think it is finished, as work halted when the economy took a nosedive.

A lunch stop with the taxi driver on the right and a church member on the left who came with us to Boa Vista as the local church representative for the wheelchair delivery.

We had to bring a church leader with us to Boa Vista because there is no organized church unit on this island. We came away with a very strong feeling that the people of Boa Vista NEEDED the gospel in their lives. We met with, by request of the branch president in Sal, a young woman working on Boa Vista. She is trying to live the gospel and study the scriptures, but it is hard to feel so alone and not be able to gather with the saints.

We are ready to go home! And I always have a counted cross stitch project with me. It is a great way to pass waiting time in the airport or on the plane.

Our route home required us to go first to Sal where we had an 8 hour layover. What to do!!! Well, go to the world-famous beach in Santa Maria, about a 20 minute drive from the airport. We walked out to the main road from the airport and a soon a pick-up truck came by as our taxi!


The ideal vacation spot -- white sand, blue water and clear skies. It was a little cool, being December, but still much warmer than where the German and other European tourists we met live!

We enjoyed the few hours there. We visited several "No Stress" African stores. I think they don't understand the meaning of 'no stress.' We actually found some wood carvings that we liked and were able to negotiate them to an acceptable level.

Our flight home went well, but when we arrived in Mindelo, we discovered that a whole pallet of baggage had been left in Sal, including my suitcase. Fortunately, I had enough extra toiletries at home to manage until the next day when we met the airline bus in front of the police station to receive it. Without addresses on the houses, the best way to give directions is a nearby landmark. They called us as they were coming and we only had to wait 10 minutes or so!

Now, fast forward over a year to January 14, 2013. This time, our trip took us to Praia for a couple of days of preparation for the second wheelchair training and then to Boa Vista.

One of 2 major types of vehicles to get around Boa Vista -- a four-wheeler.

The other most common vehicle -- a pick up truck. These are also the taxis of this island. I think there is one traditional taxi on the whole island.

Boa Vista is also a town of fishermen.

These fishermen are getting ready for a 3 day fishing trip.

Our purpose for this trip was the final delivery of wheelchairs. Rather than the normal ceremony, we asked to go to the beneficiary's home to meet them and deliver the wheelchair with the Red Cross volunteers. So, here are a few of our new friends!

Rather than uncrate the wheelchair at each house, the Red Cross president had his volunteers get them ready at their office.

Elder Broderick helps the Red Cross volunteers get a wheelchair ready. This includes pumping up the tires, clipping on the feet rests and attaching the leg support. They really are easy to prepare.

Ready to Roll!!

Elder Broderick gives use and care instructions to a beneficiary.

One highlight of this trip was meeting with 2 members of the church, young adults that work on the island, and miss the opportunity to attend Sacrament meeting every week. They read their scriptures and do what they can on a personal basis, but truly desire the time to unite with other members.  We were happy to tell them that sometime in the very near future, the mission president was going to organize a group (precursor to a branch) so they could hold Sacrament meetings. You can imagine our joy when we learned that a week and a half later that had happened!! And missionaries have now arrived! Better days are coming for Boa Vista!!!

The people in the center of the group are all members of the Church. The one standing is truly grateful she can attend church every week!!

We only had one day in Boa Vista and while en route to the airport, we had to take a detour over a quickly made road crossing the river valley channel. They had had torrential rains in December that totally washed out the main road bridge.

Waiting in line to board. Going to Sal!!

We are accustomed to the propeller airplane. There is a short and a long version, one with 13 rows and one with 17 or so.

 

Sal!!

Meet Zandi (name has been changed) She is one of only two special education teacher in Sal. She works hard to provide a learning experience for the students that come into her class during the day. But it is hard. She was VERY grateful for the support we could give her through one of our projects. We were glad to help.

During our visit to her class, we got to work with the students with some math activities.

In Sal, for the wheelchair delivery, they had the beneficiary come to the Red Cross office to receive his wheelchair. The young adults from the local Church branch came and helped prepare the wheelchair.

This young man was a victim of a fishing accident just a month or so before. It is hard to suddenly find yourself handicapped!! We hope that physical therapy provided by his doctor standing on the left will enable him to recover sufficiently to not need the wheelchair!

It never ceases to amaze me the loads that women carry on their heads. That is probably 30 pounds of bananas -- or more. We have seen women carry 4 gallon buckets full of water, medium size gas cans, 6 or more dozen eggs, a suitcase, a large 24 package bundle of toilet paper. We've also seen young girls carry on their heads the small package of potatoes or other purchases they were sent to the store to buy. And I have never seen them drop it!! Sometimes it is so heavy, they have to have help to get it on their head, then they go off walking.

Below is a primary school that we visited. It is the end of the school day for the morning classes. We were looking at possible projects when the students started pouring out of their classes.



This is a great team -- The students, the principal, young adults who can help and parents who volunteer. We are glad to be part of that team. The parent organization at this school is quite active working for the good of their children.

The School garden. Nearly every school has a place where they raise vegetables to help improve the nutritional quality of the school lunches that are served to every student every day. There are government programs that help with basics like rice and pasta. Then the parents are asked for a small monthly amount, which many cannot pay. The gardens are an essential part of providing nutritious and good tasting food.

Our time in Sal was capped by a visit to a wonderful member family. You may recognize the father as the person who went with us to Boa Vista the year before. He met us on the street the first day we were in Sal and invited us to come to his home, just down the road a piece from our hotel.

They just started a new business -- baking bread and breakfast cakes to sell. This is their in-home oven. He makes the bread and she makes the cakes. They gave us some of both (I wish they would have let us buy them!!) and they were a life-saver the next day when, in our very tight schedule, our lunch was bread and honey cake. They were delicious and it filled us too with their concern and love.

We we got to their home, it smelled sweet and we found out their daughter had made a cake especially for our visit. They are REALLY good cooks!

 

Here is some of their family. They have 4 children along with an 'adopted' son that they claim.

 

(Notice how much of the cake is left. It was good! And of course everyone got a piece.)

They are the pattern for Cape Verde. They joined the church many years ago. He has served as branch president and both have remained active.

 

They are kind and generous. They raised their children in the Church, with their oldest son and adopted son serving missions. The went to the temple last summer with the 2 youngest children to be sealed together forever. Their children reflect the gospel that is lived in their home. And the grandchildren are being blessed with the gospel.

They are a 3 Church generational Cape Verdean family! They are the epitome of what needs to happen in Cape Verde, what can happen and what is happening.

A Cabo Verdean Christmas 2012

 

This last Christmas Season completed our only full year in Cape Verde. This holiday season, we decided to have a Cape Verdean Christmas with a few long standing traditions mixed in. We found the above nativity scene tucked away in a corner of Cha de Alecrim. The figures were made by a local resident and erected by the local community. It highlights the fact that Cape Verde is a Christian nation. And the fact that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ.

We did start the season with one of our traditions of many years – my snowflake wall. And once the Christmas tree was set up, it started to feel like Christmas.

We received our Danville Ward Christmas package with a new tree and messages of support and love from the young men and women and their leaders. We certainly feel the support of our home ward and appreciate so much that they remembered us. We had kept a similar tree from the previous Christmas and put that up as well! We had Christmas trees all over the apartment.

For us, one of the most important parts of Christmas is opportunities to serve!!  This year, we were blessed to participate in several service projects, all showing some of the challenges that members face in this country.

One challenge for new brethren converts to the church is to have the traditional white shirt to participate in their priesthood duties. With the help of our children and some of their extended families and ward members, we were able to purchase 51 white, short sleeved shirts for young men from ages 12-20 and received 7 used shirts in the mail. We split them between the 6 branches in our district. We have seen a dramatic difference.

Another service was to help an older widowed sister wash her clothes. She has no water (or electricity) and it is a struggle to get water just to drink and cook with besides the work to wash clothes all by hand. I was feeling so blessed with a very nice washing machine and we haven’t run out of water yet!! It was a blessing to have that opportunity to serve.

Another opportunity was our Sub-for-Santa for a family with many struggles. The children are so sweet and I wanted to make sure they had a Christmas. It was SOOO fun to go shopping for toys. Of course, the toy section was about 2 aisles, 6 feet long. But I found something for all. Two of the presents came from our White Elephant gift exchange at the missionary dinner (see below!)

Cookie Decorating Party!!

We brought back this long standing tradition after skipping it last year. I felt confident enough to bake sugar cookies. The main problem was the stores hadn’t carried granulated sugar for months. So, I made my cookies with the large crystallized sugar and it had interesting spots in the cookies. I wasn’t patient enough to spent hours dissolving all the sugar into the butter. But, they tasted fine!! We took the left over cookies we decorated to a Family Home Evening and the young adults ate them all!

We invited Arlinda  and her son, Kevin, to the party. (Names have been changed) So, it was a small group but Kevin made up for it by decorating with gusto!! I found a few sprinkles-type decorations and he used them all in full measure!! It was just like old times!

Christmas Dinner for the Missionaries in the Northern islands

The mission president and his wife joined us to  provide a Christmas dinner and celebration of the birth of Christ. The missionaries from Santo Antão came but the missionaries (2 companionships) from Sal could not get a flight to Mindelo that day. We were very disappointed!

After I had spent the weekend baking cookies and bread, Sister Oliveira came over Monday morning to help with the last minute preparations. We held the dinner at one of the Church buildings because our apartment was too small to comfortably handle 24 (or at first 28) missionaries. We made the desserts, fruit salad and breads.

And then we ordered pizza – that was the missionaries request!! The zone leaders found a pizza place run by an Italian and used real Italian ingredients. He said it was the best pizza on the island and Cape Verdeans like pizza!

Dennis met the zone leaders at the store and watched him make the pizzas. Enjoy the still picture, because the video is at double speed!! Even so, at his normal speed, he turned out 25 pizzas faster than I can make 1!

Making Italian pizzas at warp speed

After almost a whole pizza a piece, the missionaries are looking happy!

Seconds, anyone??

An important part of the program was a time to ponder the importance of Christ’s birth. This part was introduced by a beautiful medley of Christmas songs by 6 of the missionaries. The sister is giving everyone their pitch for the perfectly blended acapela rendition.

We than watched the Bible videos on the birth of Christ from the lds.org site followed by testimonies of several of the missionaries.

Dessert time! Missionaries love dessert!

 

Next was the White Elephant exchange! The limit was 400 CVE (or about $5) and it was an interesting array of gifts.

 

I wonder what is next?

 

 

 

Just what I wanted!!!

Unfortunately, we took it away from him as we wanted it for a young girl we knew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone interested???

This one???

Here is the whole group of us (except Dennis and the President who were taking the pictures)

Old Folks Christmas Party

This was sponsored by the Red Cross of São Vicente for the residents of their old folk’s home. They also invited several of their partners and participants in other Red Cross programs.

It started with a live band playing traditional music. I enjoyed it but it was loud. Here the president of the local council of the Red Cross addresses the group.

The party included a delicious lunch of various Cape Verdean foods.

The elderly enjoyed the music with some dancing. But mostly they sat and listened, ate and watched.

These young women are in the 2nd sewing class that we helped support with sewing machines and supplies last year. All the dresses are designed and made by each using the sewing machines that were donated to the program.

Presents!!

A missionary’s joy!! A package from home. Thanks, kids, for your support and love to us.

 

We love our 2013 calendar with pictures of all the children and their families.

And we have many  pictures of the temple and the leadership of the church to share with our young adults. it is hard for them to get these pictures.

And speaking of presents. We got a very special present when we learned that the Friday before Christmas, the city of Mosteiros, Fogo, was having a celebration for the first 15 water connections in their county – and the first in all of Fogo. Our Fogo water project is launched!!

 

Doce de Natal

Arlinda invited us to learn a traditional Christmas treat from Santo Antão – Doce de Natal.

We went to her house on a Sunday evening. She mixed milk powder and egg with a little bit of water then dipped large bread chunks that had been sitting out for a day or so in the mixture. (Think French toast, but larger chunks and the egg mixture only on the surface. It doesn’t need to soak in. In fact, Arlinda was very dexterous to get the chunks out of the mixture quickly. Kevin soaked his a bit more and she ran out of egg/milk mixture. She had to borrow an egg to make more mixture to finish the cooking,)

 

 

Then, it was fried in oil. Elder Broderick was the expert cook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fried bread was then patted with paper towels to get as much of the oil out as possible and then rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Kevin’s assessment of this: He adores it!!

The tradition in Cape Verde on Christmas Day is for people go visiting friends and family. The doce de Natal is offered to all who come. She sent us home with a small bag for those who came to visit us.

 

 

 

Christmas Eve

For our Cape Verdean Christmas, we invited Arlinda and Kevin to come to our house and make feijoada, a delicious bean and rice dinner. We had been given some feijão verde from Santo Antão, which even though it translates to ‘green bean’ they are more like large ripe peas.  With that and the other ingredients, Arlinda with me as her willing assistant made dinner. She showed me how they chop up chicken legs – bone and all. I am sure it added more flavor to the dish, but the only thing I don’t like about feijoada are the pieces of chicken bones you find. The beans are served over rice and it taste wonderful!

After dinner and dishes, we read the Christmas Story, sang some Christmas carols and then played Uno! To top it off, we had our traditional Angel Thumbprint Cookies (which Kevin and Arlinda helped us to make) and our Cape Verdean version of Christmas Eve slush punch with mango, papaya, pineapple juices and pureed bananas.

It was a very good Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day

We enjoyed a very relaxed morning. I made a traditional Christmas breakfast of Strueselkuchen. It was yummy!! And we had enough left over to share with any who visited us that day, along with the Doce de Natal.

Christmas Day in the mission field means calling your family. We enjoyed Skype calls with all our children between Christmas Eve & Day. The best present of all is to know your children are doing well.

And we offered our Skype capabilities to the young missionaries with the president’s permission. We had several express interest, but most of them did what they needed to do – have an activity with an investigator. We did have one elder from another zone who enjoyed visiting with his family!

Not necessarily related to Christmas, but it happened during the season. We were walking home at night and saw the moon hanging upside down. We tried to think if we had ever seen the moon like a bowl! So, we had to take a picture to prove it happened!

New Year’s Eve

Since the Christmas decorations don’t come down until New Year’s Day, the year’s end is part our our holiday season.

Our New Year’s Eve celebration began with hosting 4 missionaries to a Thanksgiving feast! We had bought a turkey for Christmas Eve and then decided to have a Cape Verdean dinner. We had given coupons for a dinner as our White Elephant gift and they redeemed it with this meal. The turkey cooked well, the rolls were the best I had ever made  and the apple pie turned out really good. It was a good way to end the year! I have, sort of, finally figured out how to bake successfully in a stove without a thermostat.

There isn’t much left!! The missionaries came hungry!

I was very pleased how well my pie turned out!

And, like all good missionaries, they cleaned up the dishes!

A New Year’s tradition in Cape Verde is New Year’s Eve caroling. It is a mix of Halloween trick or treating and Christmas caroling. They mostly come in groups of 2-4. They ring the doorbell, and when you answer they shake their instruments and sing a song. The song is specific to the event, though we didn’t understand any of the words. Then they expect you to give them money. We ran out of change pretty quick and then offered them oatmeal cookies. I suspect they would have preferred money, but willingly took the cookies!

Our friend, Mila came with her 2 brothers. Click below to hear their song!

Get your coins ready

We ended 2012 and welcomed 2013 on the roof of our apartment building where we watched the annual fireworks.

It was a good year – with things learned, much work done and many prayers answered.

This next year will be an eventful one. We look forward to returning home to see our family. But we will miss the fun Cape Verdean traditions!

Happy New Year!!