The perks of being the "Gofers"

We really are what we call the "gofers"of the mission. In other words, if there are any loose ends that need to be taken care of, we are usually the ones asked to "go fer it." This often takes us on some wild and crazy adventures which adds a lot of spice to the mission. For example, we needed paper plates and cups for the mission. An easy enough trip to Walmart, right? Well, not so here. After 3 days of looking we finally stumbled onto  a place that supplies bakeries and there they were! Large paper plates and cups, and forks too. Then as we examined the store further we found a huge bag of - you will not believe this - chocolate chips! I am thinking buy, buy, buy until I see it cost the equivalent of $64. I told you the bag was big, but not that big. So we asked the owner if he sells them in smaller quantities and he said no, BUT another store owner buys that size bag and divides it up and sells them at her shop in smaller quantities. Off we went! I made Power Cookies a few days later. Yum.

Also the church's humanitarian efforts are alive and well here in Cape Verde. The church has been involved with getting special equipment to the neonatal nursery at the hospital here. That was our first "gofer" experience. They actually sent the equipment with us in our suitcases when we left the States. The church has also brought in many wheel chairs. They have also been helping with a huge water project on Fogo. The country will do the work to bring the water into central stations but the families are responsible for getting the water from the stations to their homes. Most can't afford to. In some of the places we pass through on our trips to the other end of the island, we are still amazed to see how many people are lined up at such station with water buckets to take back to their homes. In fact we know of some that still do so in Praia. The church has spent the last couple of months in Fogo helping nearly 200 families get the water from the station into their homes and into a school there. So while the humanitarian missionaries were busy on Fogo, a shipment arrived with two computers to be donated to the public library in Tarrafal. So "go fer it" we did. We got in the car last Monday and drove once again to the far end of the island. This was our first obstacle.

Then there were the four mountain ranges with their winding roads - yet beautiful vistas. But we managed to get there in record time. Once there, we went to the library and began setting up the computers. The youth that were studying there started gathering around.

When the President (the government official equivalent to their mayor) arrived, it started to sink into the youth that these computers were for their use. They were pretty excited. The President asked Elder Mathews to give a few words and then he spoke. They both talked about how the internet and other things that these computers could do could unlock the world for them and help them to achieve even their highest dreams. To grasp the significance of that, you have to realize that what you are seeing behind these students in that picture is the entire inventory of books in their library and most of those books are for younger children. Truly being involved with this was a bigger perk than finding the chocolate chips.
And yet another gofer experience. I am still not sure how I became the mission seamstress, but I should have been suspicious when Sister Oliveira just gave me the mission sewing machine to keep at our apartment. I tried not to sound like a sewing machine snob when she presented this machine to me. She had it out in her car and when I offered to help her carry it up to our third floor apartment, she said there was no need. Now Sister Oliveira is tiny, she makes me look tall. But up the stairs she came with this wonderful ... plastic, almost toy looking ... machine. Yet in the course of the last few months I have altered one suit coat and about 10 pair of pants to help our outbound missionaries fit into the donated clothing we have been given to get them prepared to leave for their missions in other parts of the world.  Here are two more that I was able to outfit.

This last one, standing with his father, came a bit late. His flight was leaving in 30 minutes and yet he needed a suit, three pair of pants and some shirts. This suit coat fit him perfectly (we even found one for his dad) but the pants were too short. We are at 15 minutes now and he is trying on pants and shirts while I hurriedly take out the hem on the suit pants and ironed the hem the length it needed to be. That is when I realized this machine doesn't have a blind hem stitch. Where's my Bernina!!! So okay we go to hand stitching. But before I could thread the needle the missionary said in broken English, "Sister, I ... must ... go. I ... can. " Then he does the motion of hand sewing. Bless his heart, this sweet missionary will be hand sewing the hem on his suit pants somewhere on the way to Brazil. Though I know I will continue to whine about the machine, I really love being part of this "gofer" job. These outbound missionaries are so sweet and humble, and so grateful for everything we give them, even down to the hand-me-down socks.

The Cape Verde Praia Stake has its first Stake Conference

The Cape Verde Praia Stake was formed at the end of April and held their first semi-annual conference last weekend. Here is a picture of the choir practicing before the meeting. They were AMAZING. We are so happy with how much the Stake has grown, not only in numbers but in leadership ability. So many of the leaders are young. In fact the Stake President is only 31 years old. But they love the gospel and they are willing to work hard to be the best shepherds they can be over their flock. It is inspiring to watch them! It was a great conference.

Second thoughts about hitting the Beach

We were driving around the other day and saw this man, an artist, selling things near the beach. He had some carvings and sand paintings that were really nice. I think I will have to buy some before I leave. And then he had of all things about four of these. Shark jaws.

Apparently the locals find them all the time along the beach. They say you can tell how old they are by the number of rows of teeth. This little guy was about 2 and 1/2 we were told. Anybody for a swim?

Elder Mathews' first Baptism in Cape Verde

Many months ago, when we first arrived, Robert befriended a young man at church named Jeremias. He came sporadically during the summer as he spent his time between two Islands, Fogo and Santiago (our island). He returned here when school started and again became involved with the church. He decided it was time to be baptized and asked Robert to baptize him. Robert also had the opportunity to confirm him a member of the church today.

Visitors, Another excuse to journey around the Island.

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.

Funny Quotes

I will start with my many Portuguese mistakes. Lets face it when you only know two words really well you run the risk of mixing them up. A couple of weeks ago a lady handed me a hymnal at church and wanting to thank her I very enthusiastically said, "Bom Dia." That means good day. The whole relief society laughed. The sisters of Assomoda love me, and I keep their expectation low. That wouldn't have been so bad but I made the same mistake a week later - thanks goodness it was in another ward.
We tend to work closely with the Assistants to the President. They are always getting into jams trying to get flights for the missionary transfers or for President, or getting supplies to missionaries, or racing to put out some fire. When they run out of ideas, they always ask us for any advice we can think of. Robert is great with helping them think out of the box and has figured out some short cuts for them in dealing with the airlines. One night when they were racing to the airport to get a ticket, Robert was on the internet trying to arrange for the ticket. When he succeeded, he called them to tell them it should be waiting for them when they got there. But instead of just saying he'd done it, he started talking all Mission Impossible to them or maybe Get Smart and said, "the jelly is in the doughnut." The missionaries burst into laughter and it has spun into many random sayings. "The monkey's in the cage." "The hub caps are on the wheels." "The box is on the boat."  We have laughed because Robert's always involve food. "The roast is in the oven." That made them nearly cry. It has been a long time since any of them have had a roast. When they whined about that one, he changed it to, "The cinnamon rolls are in the oven." And he made me follow up on that.
We have a dear missionary from Brazil who is just one of these guys you have to love. He is so outgoing and scattered sometimes you just don't know what to do with him but love him. His English is so-so but that doesn't slow him down. He speaks it fast and with great confidence and sincerely thinks he understands what you are saying. He has trouble with his finances. He is always running out of money by the end of the month. On a few occasions President has authorized Robert to give him a short term loan out of Petty Cash. The other day he slipped Robert a note informing him it might be one of those months where he needs a loan from "Buddy Cash.'" Robert laughed so hard he had to give him the loan.
Poor Sister Oliveira is out numbered. She is the only adult woman that speaks Portuguese. The rest of us are horrible at it. Consequently, we don't always get the right names to stores. We think we are saying them right but we aren't. She still somehow knows what we are talking about and does try to correct us, very patiently. There is this great but tiny grocery store that has imported meats and really clean produce that we shop at a lot. It is Timoteo. We non-speaking Portuguese sisters call it Tim-o-TAY-o, placing the accent on the TAY. .But it is really pronounced Te-MAH-te-o, with the accent on the MAH. Well the other day we were all taking to her and she said Tim-o-TAY-o. We all jerked back and she cried out in frustration, ""Now you have me saying it wrong!"

Go Dog Go

Cape Verde is full of dogs. Few have owners. And fewer walk on all fours. They are street dogs and we are told as missionaries never to touch them. Many of them look mangy so the advise is well placed. The interesting thing about being a street dog here is that you pick your street and you stay on it. We have a pack of four on our street. A black one named Buddy, two brown females that are both call Brownie  (after a dog Robert had growing up) and then there is this brown and white one called Jack. We know his name because we found an old picture of him in one of the mission computers. The caption read, Jack the mission dog. The people on our street will randomly put food and water out for them but no one claims them. Yet they serve a great purpose. This is their street and they know us. They will not bark at anyone with a white shirt and tie on - ever - no matter how many missionaries or how loudly they come barreling down the street. We belong on their street. But if the  sweet lady selling bananas comes down our street, they bark like crazy. I use to be annoyed with them and then I worried about them as some limp and one was pregnant. Then one day I feel in love with them - though I do not touch them. I was out on the street standing behind the big van addressing boxes we had loaded into it. I was alone but I wasn't worried. It was daylight and this is a very safe area. I hadn't notice a man coming up behind me. I will never know if he meant any harm because he was not allowed to get close enough. Buddy raced over and got between me and the approaching man. I thought he was going to take the man's head off. The man turned and went another direction. Since then they are our street dogs. They spend most of their days laying around the vacant lot across the street, except for Jack who occasional sneaks in the gate and gets to rest on the cool patio tile until someone figures out how to lure him out again. This is a Brownie - sleeping. I thought she was dead or wounded when we first pulled up but she had just found a great position and was out cold. She stayed asleep long enough for me to get her picture.