Experiences in the Cape Verde Island of St Vicente

Dear All,

This week we have been on the Cape Verde Island of St Vicente in the city of Mindelo. This is the 2^nd largest city (about 70,000) in this small group of 10 islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa. The islands are midway between Lisbon, Portugal and Brazil, with flying time to Portugal or Brazil being about 4 hours. The islands are only 16 degrees north of the equator and were formed by volcanic action. The islands were uninhabited until the 15^th century when they became a holding location for the Portuguese slave industry. The island of St Vicente wasn’t inhabited until approximately the middle 1800’s and the people are a mixture of Portuguese and African descent.(See video at the end of the Blog)

We have spent five days with Elder and Sister Dennis and Janet Broderick, the Welfare Humanitarian Missionaries assigned. Together we have visited project sites were the church will provide water to homes that have no running water.

These people are very poor and can’t afford to have water piped into their homes, and must walk to a central water point to purchase water and then carry it back to their home.

The homes are generally very small 2 to 3 room dwelling, and consist of a small living room, 1bedroom for the family and a kitchen with a dirt floor.

The church will pay the cost of the pipe and hookup fee for a line with a faucet to the house. These people were so grateful to think that someone would pay so they could have running water to their home. The church plans to initially provide a water line to 550 homes.

We also visited a neighborhood health clinic and spoke with the young Doctor who is trying desperately to educate the people on basic health and hygiene principles. The clinic’s goal is to prevent the spread of disease and treat minor injuries and provide Pre and Post natal care for mothers and their infants. They also provide free medications for illnesses. There is a high incidence of Diabetes and cardiovascular disease here that they treat.

Friday night and Saturday we were with church members. They are a very loving people and portray a strong feeling of caring and love for each other. As they learn and apply gospel principles you can see their lives change for the better, the peace and happiness reflected in their faces is wonderful to see. Today in church we could not understand what they said but you could feel the spirit and see it reflected in many faces. It is a wonderful thing to witness the teachings of Jesus Christ changing lives and making people happier and more content.

We went to the fish market Friday morning to get fish for our dinner. We got 4 pounds of fresh Tuna for 8 dollars. This was fun. and the the Tuna steaks were wonderful.