It's been a while since we wrote, longer than I want it to be between updates. I've thought often of doing it, but did not have a big enough block of time till now.
Elder Goff has gone to pay bills, and since it is a long walk to all the places, I have elected to stay home. My foot is still swelling from the sprained ankle and I don't wish to belabor it. (A doctor from England will be here tomorrow for the Zone Conference and he is going to advise and help me with my foot.) For senior couple missionaries, it is permissible to be separate once in a while. And--to pay the bills, we have to go to each company and pay cash in person. No such thing as using a credit card here, or mailing a payment, or any of the other easy ways you are used to in America. But it's OK.
Most of May, the wind blew very, very strongly all day and night, from the Sahara Desert, bringing sand and dust and strong winds. Sometimes when we were out walking we would have to stop and brace ourselves to keep from literally being blown over! Most of that has ceased now, thank goodness, and it is just plain hot again.
On Monday, May 17, we went with the missionaries for activity day (once per transfer, every 6 weeks) to Santo Antao island, riding the ferry boat. The ocean was rough that day and we got sprayed, and it was quite cool, even on the island. They went hiking, but we stayed with the van, since my ankle was not up to any walking. It even rained while we were there--very unusual. Our van driver stopped mid-morning to attend a funeral of a friend in his hometown which was on the route we needed to travel to pick up the missionaries, so Larry and I went in the church to the funeral (Catholic) but the van driver stayed outside. Don't know why--we've noticed that at funerals here, lots of mourners stay outside, gathered around the entry of the church. Then he wanted to go to the cemetery, so we did that also. At least he went to the service there.
The ferry trip back was much nicer than the trip in the morning.
For Larry's birthday, we went out to lunch(dinner) at the beautiful restaurant where the Red Cross had their program and dinner previously. We ate filet mignon and banana splits! Thank you all for your birthday wishes to him--they were very welcome! It was a good day. His English class students found out from me about his birthday, and they surprised him with a song and many good wishes. The mission president also phoned him about his birthday.
On Saturday, May 22, we again took the ferry boat to Santo Antao for the weekend, just us two. We had been asked to attend a meeting of the Young Adults there to see if there are enough of them to have an Outreach Center like ours, and there are. The 2 elders on that island met us at our hotel and we went to the church together for the meeting. It was a long walk, but I made it. On Sunday morning, we each spoke in church--my talk was on the divine role of women in the Church and Larry's was about the priesthood. I had practiced the talk so much that I was able to read it smoothly and sound like I knew Portuguese (which I do not, not very well, anyway). The Lord certainly blessed me to be calm and able to speak. He is ready to answer even our simplest requests and needs, and I notice it so much more on our mission. Then we went to the elders' home and shared dinner with them--we had brought some food already prepared with us for them. Because of health concerns about methods of food preparation, missionaries are not allowed to eat meals with native people. So if we wanted any dinner, we would need to be with the elders. Our ferry boat took us back home on the 5:00 trip; both trips this time were very smooth and warm and no cold water spray.
The next week we met with the head engineer about the water project which the Church has approved for our island. We wanted to find out how we could best be a help to what the city is already doing--we feel that we can work together well in supplying materials for the work, and they furnish labor, etc.
A BYU student, girl from Washington DC, is here for 3 months to teach classes in English. She is staying with an English-speaking member's family, and likes to visit us often to hear American English and eat American food. So we have made chocolate chip cookies and sloppy joes and we have fun together. She knows some Portuguese, so that helps her.
On June 1 and 2, another BYU student (man) who is in pre-med, named Tanner GOFF, (no relation), came to stay with us. He and 2 others came to Cape Verde for 2 weeks to demonstrate a water-recycling system they invented, so they spent time on each of the islands. It involves 2-- 5-gallon paint buckets like construction workers would have, a piece of pipe, a cardboard juice box, and a 5-liter water bottle to make a filter. Using sand, carbon, small rocks in the filter, he pours clothes-washing water (from clothes washed by hand--here most people do not have washing machines, but all the missionaries do)through the filter which cleans it, then pours the cleaned water into the bucket through the pipe into the outer bucket, the inner bucket having dirt and planted seeds. This way the water stays in the bottom of the outer bucket and the roots grow through the holes in the bottom of the inner bucket, and thus the plants are watered continually but never soaked. Vegetables grow tremendously well in this apparatus--he told us about some of his at his home in Utah. We had a big fireside at church about it when he was here, and it will be demonstrated again at the Health Fair which we are having tomorrow.
Not only is tomorrow the Health Fair from 4-6 -p.m., it is also Zone Conference in the morning and early afternoon, and a district Primary party from 3-6 p.m. at the other chapel (thank goodness!) and a baptism at 4:00 at the same chapel as the Health Fair, just down the hall. There is no overall calendar here for activities, but for sure we will speak to the district president about getting one when we meet with him next Monday. It's crazy here sometimes!
In just a few minutes we will be hosting our friend, the mission nurse, who has come to manage the Health Fair and to train the young adults to teach at the different booths at the fair: Fever and Dehydration, First Aid kit at home, nutrition and meal planning, the water recycling apparatus, cuts, burns, etc.
If all of this sounds as if we are busy, we are! But it is also very fun, and we learn so much, and enjoy helping the people.
