P-Day Miracle

Return from Fogo

We enjoyed our visit to Fogo and used our extra time to go to a new restaurant and watch the sunset over Brava as we ate.  Remote Brava, where there is no air service because of wind and the ferry only arrives— and departs— a few times a week.

Medical Miracle

Monday is p-day in our mission.  The elders look forward to a game of soccer or basketball.  So Monday is also the day that we have sports injuries.  We have had some exciting p-days, one Monday two elders, on two different islands, broke their toes playing soccer.  This past Monday we had an unbelievable accident followed by an extraordinary miracle.

The accident itself is hard to describe, it happened on Brava.  The injured Elder was from Angola, and his companion was from Utah.   The Elder from Utah called about twenty minutes after the accident.  He had difficulty describing what had happened, but they were playing soccer and there was some sort of fall from about chest height, with the Angolan Elder landing on his head and neck, and remaining unconscious for a short time.  He then arose from the ground and was able to walk and to speak clearly.  He also had quite a headache.

The Elder from Utah was stunned.  He felt he should calm his companion, to get him to move slowly and carefully, and to take him home for hydration and rest.  When he called I assessed the situation, wondering how such an apparently violent accident could result in an Elder who was still alive and fully functioning.  I encouraged the Elder from Utah,  who could have been nothing less than inspired in his actions to care for his companion.  He was doing exactly the right things, and he was not an MD, he was an eighteen year old man from Utah.

I instructed them to continue to rest and to call if the injured Elder vomited.  An hour later they did call, for that reason, and I contacted the doctor in Germany, Elder Done.  He phoned the Elder on Brava and identified the seriousness of the situation.  It was serious.   There is very little medical help available on Brava.  He suggested exactly what the Elder from Utah was doing and we all remained watchful.

It has been over twenty four hours and the Elder from Angola is mentally alert and physically intact.  It hurts when he walks, it jogs his brain.  But he is otherwise whole.  I think perhaps we have just witnessed an amazing miracle.

Fogo in February

Transferring to Fogo

View of Praia from Achadina Pires

Our Leaders in Germany have worked out the details with our mission president, Presidente Amo, and we are going to live in Fogo for the next three transfers. Until July.  This news has us feeling a little sentimental about Praia, even though we will be back in a few months.  Here is a photo of Praia, from Achadina Pires, one of our favorite views of the city.

Inside the Fast Ferry Passenger Cabin

And so we are preparing to move.  First task is get 75 hygiene kits for a project with the Fogo Regional Prison, delivered to Fogo.  It takes almost all the space in every piece of luggage that we have, but we get them packed.  We can’t take this much luggage on an airplane, so we take the ferry.

Ferry rides can get a little rough here, and this one was no exception.  We were pretty glad to arrive.  The Martineaus, who have done such a beautiful job supporting the work on Fogo for 18 months, and whom we will replace, meet us at the ferry and help us get the kits to their apartment.  Since they don’t leave for another two weeks this is just a trip to take things over and listen to them as they train us on visa renewals, zone conferences and transportation support.  It also happens to be Elder Martineaus birthday, so we go out for dinner and ice cream.

Brava

The following day we go to the port to return to Praia for two more weeks until the transfer. We are anxious to get home and get things wrapped up before we move.  We have a number of open humanitarian projects right now.  As we drive to the port we can see the ferry coming over from the next island, Brava.  on this visit we have enjoyed a spectacular view of Brava and we are excited about the possibility of going there and exploring and hopefully developing a humanitarian project.  Brava is hard to get to, there is no air service.  From Fogo it is about a 45 minute ferry ride.

Waves Coming Over the Fogo Harbor Breakwater

As we wait for the ferry at the port it is windy, and we hear the waves crashing hard on the port.  They are spraying up over the barriers and onto the dock.  People stand and watch.  The ferry appears just outside the man-made bay and attempts to approach the dock but the waves are battering the dock and it doesn’t want to take a hit.  It lingers a while, and eventually turns to return to Brava.  No ferry today, the sea is too rough.

Elder Biven begins making phone calls to make arrangements.  We can’t get back to Santiago, by plane, until Monday afternoon.  It’s okay, we will enjoy Fogo just a little more before going back and preparing to return.  We have a relaxing weekend ahead, in Fogo.  Very soon to be our new home.

January Activities

So in January, Humanitarian Missionaries in Cape Verde generally do not sit inside warming themselves by the fire (although we did have some hot chocolate that our sons James Michael and Jack sent us!)  January is a delightful month in Cape Verde.  Cool (mid-70's) and dry.  The only downside is the Bruma-Seca that we have written about in previous posts.  Following are a few things that occupied our time in January 2018.

Disposable Diapers

The Diapers are Here!

Last summer we had an opportunity to request surplus disposable diapers that had been obtained for refugee services in Europe.  We ordered eight pallets and had them shipped to our good partner Nós Saude so that they can distribute them to the poor and needy.

So after many months, we heard a rumor that the diapers were in customs.  We hoped it was true.  Then many weeks later we got a call, “we have a truck full of diapers, where can we unload them?”  So we scrambled!!  Our partners at Nós Saude made themselves available and with the help of Elders Leuluai and Price in Achada Grande, as well as our translator, Nelson, we got them all stored at the Pilorinho community center.

Unloading Diapers at Pilorinho

Diapers Ready for Distribution

About 2 weeks later we were invited to an event organized by Nós Saude to distribute some of the diapers to families with children with micro encephalopathy, their mothers having contracted Zika during their pregnancy.  We were grateful to witness this sweet event, and to see these strong mothers.

Mother's Waiting Patiently

Dental Hygiene Kits

Nursing Students Finale

We were able to tie a small school dental hygiene kit project into our larger prison hygiene kit which is still “in the works”.  We took toothbrushes and toothpaste to a local school where nursing students did a wonderful presentation on how to take care of your teeth. It reminded me of the same training which I had received in elementary school in New Mexico in the 60’s.  This is important stuff!  Here are the children singing a little song after learning to brush their teeth.

Fogo Pig Project

Pusilga (Pig House) Repaired by Participants

We received approval for a pig project in Fogo with a small NGO named Agro-Norte.  Staring with 25 piglets, Agro-Norte will help 30 families in the Ponte Verde area of Fogo become more self-sufficient.   The families will help raise the pigs and by doing so gain knowledge and learn skills.  When the piglets mature, they will be bred and each of the 30 families will receive piglets of their own.  Agro-Norte will then start with another group of families.  Many of the initial families are lead by single mothers.

Happy to Be Home

Checking out the new place.

A Moment in Relief Society . . . 

President Sheila

This is a clandestine photo I took of our Relief Society president preparing to teach her lesson, and the lovely Bishop’s Wife, Sister Pires, sitting just in front of me on Sunday morning.  Our Relief Society President is in her early twenties and has a beautiful family, a husband and two children under the age of three.  She is valiant in loving and serving, and in leading, the Sisters.  Leading can be tricky here, and she is quite young, but she has us all stand and say the theme at the beginning of each meeting using cards she has prepared with the theme printed in beautiful colorful text.  She also brings a bright green and orange tablecloth and a matching vase with flowers to the meeting to put on a small table in the front.  I think she might carry these things, along with her babies, to church each Sunday.  There are very few ward members who have a car, the bishop does not.  It is rare to have a car.  There are places in our ward that it takes an hour of walking to reach the chapel, and yet families walk to meetings on Sunday faithfully, carrying their small children.






Ribeira Grande

We had a little adventure and drove to the village of Porto Mosquito in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, the least populated area of our island, and somewhat off the beaten path.  We found what people do for a living in Ribeira Grande......they fish.

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.