Trip to Maio

Maio

This weekend we traveled to Maio to learn about the island and consider possible member welfare and humanitarian projects.  It's a beautiful little island, and unlike our island, Santiago, there are lots of sandy beaches.  We started the day walking on the beach, trying to be careful to stay near the surf since turtles nest on this island and this is the time of year they come.  We saw track marks of turtles in the sand.  It got hot fast, so just like on our island it was important to get up early and take a walk before the sun was up too long.  Life is quiet here.

While it's only a fifteen minute flight from Santiago to Maio, planes don't come everyday, so we are here for four days.  Our first day we took an island tour to get an idea of how people are living.  We saw small villages, and we saw a few drip irrigation projects and some beautiful beaches.  The volcanic soil is rich here.

In the evening, on the recommendation of the two young elders who are working here, we went to a little place near the beach that sold food, run by a lovely Brazilian hostess.  We had grilled chicken Brazilian style as we watched the sunset and also watched the ferry come in from Santiago.  The ferry takes four hours--compared to a fifteen minute flight we felt pretty grateful.  The ferry also does not run but a couple of times a week.

We met with the local Branch President and visited with the Elders, who were perhaps glad to have a little company and visit in English.  We attended church with the branch, where perhaps ten to fifteen people come regularly.  We felt so blessed to be there among the members, who were kind to us even though our Portuguese is weak, allowing us to read some of the lesson material (just a little).  The Elders translated a few comments we were asked to make.  We understand much of what is said, but we have trouble expressing ourselves.  Elder Biven is doing pretty well.  I am struggling with verb conjugations.  We were very impressed with the home teaching assignment sheet we saw posted in the hallway (photo).

A common belief in Cape Verde is it doesn't really matter what you believe.  As people are taught about God's love for them they begin to feel that actively serving the Lord, and even being a member of an organized church, is worthwhile.  But it's still not easy to do what you believe, to attend church on Sunday on an equatorial island when there are many other things to do.  As we met these incredible people we witnessed their faith, which has been built over time, one prayer, one Sunday at a time, reading scriptures and reaching out to God for strength for themselves and for their families.  What a treasured experience it has been to worship with them today.

Week of October 13, 2017

Inauguration

This week the health clinic we financed had its "inauguration" or grand opening.  The community center was cleaned and painted, and it was a big day.  There was even a cake.  Here is a photo of our translator, Noeme, before the inauguration ceremony.










Here's the cake.  I don't know where they got it-- but this was the first time I have seen a decorated cake (western style) here.

















This is Presidente Teixeira, President of Praia stake on the right, and Bishop Neves, Bishop of the Achada Grande ward in which the health clinic resides.  When humanitarian missionaries do a project they ask local priesthood leadership to come to the closing ceremonies.  This is because our work is funded by donations from church members, so the gift of the health clinic to the community is a gift from church members worldwide.  President Teixeira spoke briefly at the inauguration, and they were given these certificates.

Rui Vaz

For a field trip last Saturday we drove up into the mountains near Praia to a little village called Rui Vaz.  We had heard the view was spectacular and indeed it was!

New Translator

Our translators have certainly been a blessing to us!  and they have also been blessed as they have worked with us.  Our first translator, Manuel, got a good internship working for the company we bought the chickens from.  Our second translator, Rosa, was accepted to school in Portugal, and was able to get a visa to go.  Our third translator, Noeme, received an internship in the US and was able to get a visa.  And below is a photo of our fourth translator, Elder Duarte.

Elder Duarte is pretty wonderful.  During his mission, when I was asked to give brief training sessions on health, I could call upon Elder Duarte, a zone leader, to talk about hard subjects....like diarrhea....and make them funny.  Elder Duarte's release date was three weeks ago.  He went to the airport with the other missionaries also going home, ready to return to his family waiting for him at the airport in Lisbon.  He was denied passage!  His Portugese "green card" had expired during his mission.  So the mission office is working on getting Elder Duarte a visa to go home!  It's supposed to work the other way, you get a visa to GO on a mission, not to go home!

Being Portuguese, Elder Duarte's Portuguese is beautiful and he is fluent in English.  So he has been helping with translation work.  He may get his visa and go home any day now---we hope!  Any day!  But he has been a great help and we have enjoyed working with him.