Quick Trip to Maio

Heading Out

We have a member welfare project we are developing on Maio.  The Branch President wants to lead an effort to grow pigs!  We want to help, so we are working on preparing the  project for submission to our welfare services leaders in Germany.

Early Morning on the Boat

It’s just too difficult to work everything out over the phone, and flights and boats don’t go to Maio everyday.  However, once a week, on Wednesday, there is a boat that goes to Maio in the early morning and returns at night.  So we took the 3 hour boat ride to Maio!

Maio is a relatively low island with a population of just over 6000 people. It beautiful sandy beaches form the basis of a small tourism industry. 

Cargo Under the Stairs

Eggs stacked under the stairs for transport to Maio.  The main cargo going to Maio was food.  Crates of bananas, eggs, paper products, beer.

Sunrise

Sunrise over the ocean.  When the sun came up it was beautiful, to be out in the middle of the big blue sea on a boat to Maio.  But the beginning of the day meant rougher going by sea as the wind picked up, and people began to get sea sick.  It was tough going for about an hour.

Arriving in Porto Ingles on the Island of Maio.

Ferry at Dock

We walked along the beautiful beach to get to town, wow, the most beautiful commute in the world!  Here’s a look back at our boat parked on the dock.

Working with President Contina

President Contina Near Area Where Pig House Will Be Built

President Contina and a very capable translator and ward member, Edrinho, met us as we entered town.  We had met President Contina on a previous visit and we admired his determination.  We went to the Church and talked about the structure of the project.  Then we went by some building material stores, as we made the three kilometer journey outside town to the location the câmara municipal (town hall) provides land for individuals to raise livestock.  This is a photo of President Contina with the location in the background.






It looks like there are possibilities, we will continue to develop this project and hope we can help strengthen families on the island of Maio.


After saying goodbye to President Contina we walked back through town.  We rested a while at a restaurant on the beach, and then we walked over and waited to get on the boat.

Heading Home

Cows Being Loaded on Ferry

The published return voyage time was actually the time they began to load freight.  And if the food that came over was interesting, the cargo that went back was really interesting.  There was a rusted old Land Rover vehicle.  And there were cages of livestock.  Here are some cows going to the boat.  We noticed that before we sailed someone got into the cargo bay and worked with the animals in the cages and got them settled for the journey, made sure the goats were not sitting on top of each other and so forth, kind of like I did with the chickens when we transported them on Santiago.

Leaving Porto Ingles

Finally the cargo was on the boat and the passengers were loaded.  It was late in the day now, and we said goodbye to Maio.














The evening ride home was cooler and smoother, so no problems with nauseated passengers on the way back.  Once the sun went down the stars, out there in the darkness of the middle Atlantic ocean with no moon, the stars were incredible, they were so bright!  What a journey!

Back to Fogo

Member Welfare Project Check-up

We spent last week on Fogo where we had a chance to check on some of the member welfare project chickens. We thought these looked very healthy, they had a good spot with shade and were out of the wind.















We enjoyed visiting with the family who owned the chickens. They were shelling beans and Sister Martineau--while she doesn’t speak a lot of Portuguese--she bonds with people!  She was helping shell the beans.








At one house we visited the family was saving some of their egg money, as they were counseled to do, for paying tithe, buying feed, and eventually buying more chickens.  This is a photo of their 'piggy bank'.  Families seem to be getting good egg production in Fogo, and it seems to be making a difference and strengthening families there.


On Fogo, eggs normally sell for about 20 escudos.  Families need to sell about 6-7 eggs per day in order to pay for chicken feed and save for replacement chickens.  Most of the families are averaging 16 to 20 eggs per day.


This is a field we saw at a one of the families we visited.  There has been a drought this year and so the corn they planted in the fall has not done well.  They plant beans as they plant the corn, and you can see a little of the green of the beans coming up.

São Felipe Prison

In addition to checking on chickens we also visited the prison.  It looks like maybe we will be able to propose a hygiene kits project for this spring.  We were astonished at the gardening and food production going on at the Fogo prison.  I took lots of photos because I thought we might be able to learn quite a bit from them.  This is a green house full of tomatoes






This is the plumbing for the watering system in the greenhouse, I thought it was fun!  As noted in a previous post, Fogo is only one of a couple islands that is water self sufficient.  











These are the carrots they are growing, so green and healthy.  Much of the food raised at the prison is used to feed the prisoners.  The surplus is sold. The prisoners involved in food production seemed to have a real vocation for it and a real joy for doing it.


In addition to gardens, the prisoners also raise chickens and pigs.

Cha das Caldeiras

Chã das Caldeiras is a small area / community within the crater of the volcanic Pico do Fogo on the island of Fogo. it is at the foot of the rim mountain of Bordeira. The village consists of two parts: Portela is the upper part. At an elevation of about 1,700 meters, it is the highest village in Cape Verde.  It is also considered to be the highest place in the whole of West Africa including its mainland. The lower part is Bangaeira.  Both Portela and Bangaeira were impacted by the eruption in 2015 with much of the population being relocated to outside of the Cha.

We hiked the “little” volcano which is a smaller hot spot on the side of the large volcano, pictured to the right.












We hiked up and up, and then across the black sand on the side of the volcano.

















At the top of the little volcano there is heat coming out of vents in the ground, and sulfurous rocks from the gas coming out.  Our guide and translator, Lucindo, brought a stick and started a fire in one of the heat cracks.

The ridge near the small volcano.  You can just barely see Elder Biven and Lucindo out on there taking photos.

Looking into the mouth of the small volcano.

Seeing Old Friends

At the end of our week in Fogo we saw Sister Miller and her companion Sister Howard at the chapel in São Filipe.  Sister Miller is entering her last transfer and will go home in eight weeks, so we took a photo together.  We have appreciated our connection with her, she is the grand daughter of one of the assistant Matrons of the Kansas City temple.

P-Day Adventure

São Vicente and Santo Antão

There are two humanitarian couples in Cape Verde, ourselves on the southern (or sotavento/leeward) islands, and the Gerritsens on the northern ( or barlavento/windward) islands.  The Gerritsens graciously invited all the senior missionaries to their islands for a little senior missionary adventure.  We were able to go!

And what fun we had.  We started with a tour of the Gerritsen's island, São Vicente, and went to beaches and saw a sea turtle and picked up seashells.

We also went toward the top of their highest mountain, Bruma seca and time constraints kept us from the view of the city below and nearby islands, but we met this fine fellow leading his donkey up the mountain.

That afternoon we took the ferry to the nearby, very beautiful island of Santa Antão.
Here is a photo of Elder Gerritsen, our host, on the ferry.











Here is a picture of elder Biven with "ferry hair".  There was a real strong wind blowing and the ferry really rocked as we crossed the channel to Porto Novo on Santa Antao
















We stayed at a lovely hotel and enjoyed the food very much.  The northern islands have more tourist visits than we do on our southern islands, so we enjoyed being tourists just a little.

The following day we took a tour of Santa Antao.  The adventure began with Elder Gerritsen and Elder Biven climbing into the back of a truck with the luggage for a trip to pick up the Tour van.

And then the extraordinary tour of Santa Antao began.  The photos cannot do it justice, but at the end of the day Elder Biven and I agreed that we had seen the most spectacular scenery we had ever seen in our lives.

Here is a view of a village at the bottom of a cliff that we are driving along the ridge of.











We all thought the three house built on an adjoining ridge were lovely.

Anderson, our driver.  the road traveled along a precarious ridge with step drops on either side most of the way. 

What a beautiful place!

On the third day of our adventure we had returned to the island of Sao Vicente on the ferry and rested well, eaten ice cream, and went to the beach in the morning.  We got some good photos of our traveling companions here.  Later in the day we attended a baptism and had dinner overlooking the city before catching a late flight home.  

What a Fantastic adventure we had!  We are so grateful to our wonderful hosts the Gerritsens for their hospitality and enthusiasm.  It has been such a pleasure working with them.