This week we have had two visitors from Germany. Both are affiliated with the European Area Distribution Center for the church. They have come - as an answer to prayer - to help us figure out how to get things into the country and around to the islands more easily. The first day we meet with them and President Oliveira to see what we could do to fix some of the problems the mission has with distribution. The next day we met with the local leaders, some coming all the way from the northern islands to see how we could help them with their distribution issues. The meetings have been productive and our visitors have been very sensitive to our plight here. After the first day they had fixed my biggest problem, which is getting online to order for the mission and the districts. Since I am not a ward or stake clerk or anyone in a leadership position the system wouldn't authorize my access. We have made repeated phone calls and emails that were to no avail, but these two fixed the problem in a blink. The next hurdles are how to get things through customs and out to the islands faster. We are making visits this week with various local authorities to get some help with that. But since nothing was opened on Saturday we decided to give them a tour of our Island. I think they got a good look at how difficult it is to just get things from one end of this Island to the other. It was a beautiful ride though and we took Sister McKnight and the new adult sister, Sister Cassita, as well as Holden and his wife with us. Here are a few of the pictures we took of the mountains. We actually go over four mountain ranges on the trip across the island.
I love the topography of this place and note it is still green - for a few more months anyway. About half way across the Island is Assomada, where we go to church most Sundays because of Robert's responsibilities there on the high council. It is at the top of the mountain - literally. Most times that we come we drive through a few clouds to get there. Just before you enter the city there is a lookout so we stopped to take pictures. Note the natural boundaries of the city, a cliff.
After Assomada there is anther mountain range and we drive through this narrow pass. There is a national park at the pass and you can hike to the tip top of that mountain and see all the way to the ocean on both sides. But we just picnic there at the pass. Here is our picnic and the view from the table there.
After that we descend to the coast and entered the city of Tarrafal. Tarrafal is a famous historical sight and since Holden is from there we let him give us a tour. Tarrafal is where they had the concentration camp for those who rebelled against the Portuguese dictator of the 1960s and 70s. It was opened in 1961 and closed in 1975. Political prisoners from New Guinea, Portugal, Angola and Cape Verde were taken there. Many went in but only a few came out alive. But they paved the way for the independence of their countries. Here is some of the African art on display there that depicts the horrors of the camp.
In one of the buildings they have a list of all the names of those who spent time there and pictures of a few of the survivors. Here is a picture of someone we actually know. He has just been called onto the high council with dad. He lived in this awful place for six years to help secure the independence of his country and I feel paved the way for greater religious freedom here in Cape Verde, which allowed him and so many others a chance to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After that we went to the tiny Tarrafal harbor. Here we are and here is Sister McKnight and Sister Cassita, the new mission nurse.
After Terrafal we traveled around the coast along the north and eastern part of the Island. Here are some pictures of that.
Then we looped back toward Assomada. Now one thing Assomada is famous for is its spiders. They laughed at me for bringing that up until we passed this on the highway. This isn't a picture of the mountains. Look closely. This is not just a spider's web but a a giant web of spiders. The web was attached to the electric wires at the top and bushes at the bottom. This is what was in between.
The trip took us all day but I don't think I will ever tire of the sights of this place - well except for the spiders.
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