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.