Baptism, Glasses and Tire Change

Baptism in the Ocean 

Salinas Tide Pool

On Sunday we drove to Salinas, Fogo for the baptism of the daughter of the previous branch president of Ponta Verde.  What a beautiful setting for a baptism, you can see the crystal clear water in the tide pool behind us. 

 

Elder Edu at Salinas

Elder Larsen performed the baptism.  This is his companion Elder Edu from Nigeria.

Eyeglasses

Glasses for Delivery

We have provided about 500 pair of eyeglasses to needy recipients in Cape Verde.  These glasses were ordered in early February, arrived in Cape Verde in March, and were just released from customs through the work of a valiant Church distribution center employee (we made him chocolate chip cake).  There are about 85 pair in this photo.  Today we took them to our partner, ADEVIC, who makes the phone calls and distributes them.  

As we were taking the glasses to ADEVIC we got another call, the glasses we had ordered in April and May had also cleared customs, and in our last hours in Praia we were able to take the second group of glasses to our partner.   Now all but our very last orders, made in June, have come through.  We are praying that these last orders arrive and clear customs by the time we leave.

When we returned to Fogo we had another wonderful surprise, the eyeglasses had, amazingly, astonishingly, been declared a donation and there were no customs fees.  That has not happened in the past, no matter how convincingly anyone has tried. What a beautiful experience.

Tire Change

Tire Change in Mosteiros

How many missionaries does it take to change a tire?

Some weeks we drive to Mosteiros with our Zone Leaders for a district meeting.  We enjoy it and it’s a big help to the Zone Leaders when we provide transportation and they don’t have to ride in the hiaces.  After the district meeting often we go to lunch.  Today we finished eating, looked over at our car, and saw that the back tire was flat!  Wow, did the missionaries make quick work of that flat tire!  Elder Alealua and Nelson picked the car up so we could get the jack under it, Elder Vieira figured out how to get the jack out from under the front seat, Elder Price found the rest of the tools in the trunk....... they took turns with the nuts on the tire, and it did take Elder Biven's brawn to actually get the tire off after the nuts were removed (we all applauded).  What amazing service was rendered!  And I was very thankful because usually I am the assistant and it looked like a pretty hard job.  

Late June 2018

Road Disappears

Road Outage - Mosteiros in the Background

Today we drove to Mosteiros for training to be held at the hospital for our community health project.  Except we didn’t make it!!  Because the road was out!!  The road hangs onto a cliff, barely, and a large rock slide had taken out the road completely.  We were amazed that just to the left of Elder Biven you can see an opening in the rock wall, this is the stairs down the mountain, the rock slide just barely missed taking them out as well!  When we arrived people were trotting up the hill, those hardy Cape Verdeans!  It looked steep to us and we were a little concerned about where to leave our car if we walked down into town for the meeting.  So

we drove back to São Filipe, 45 minutes around the volcano.  In the future, to get to Mosteiros, which is the second biggest town on Fogo, we will have to drive around the other side of the volcano which will take an hour and a half.  The last we have heard, a special piece of heavy machinery is being sent from Portugal to help with the reconstruction.

Road Outage

New house

Lucindo Mixing Cement

Our translator Lucindo is building a house for his young family.  On this day they were pouring the cement roof.  They mix the cement with a hoe on the ground and then hoist it up to the roof.  The work was about a third complete when we visited.

Hoisting the Cement to the Roof

One last photo from Brava

Fogo Island from Brava

We have had so many lovely evenings watching the sunset over the sea above Brava.  I have posted some of those photos.  This photo goes with the others, instead of sitting on Fogo watching the sunset over Brava, we were sitting on Brava, during our trip last week, watching Fogo.  And having dinner as we sat on a rock wall. 

We are not sure if we will get back to Brava, but it was a fantastic interlude to the heat we have here in São Filipe on Fogo where we get the afternoon sun and perhaps some heat reflection off the volcano looming behind us.  Our house is made of cement blocks, though, and we are able to get it cooled off well at night.  That is one of our many sweet blessings, we love being able to keep the house opened up, even though it is summer.