Cape Verde #1 Things to do in Cape Verde!

It's spring break time! We finished our little visit to the Azores and then headed to Cape Verde...technically Cabo Verde.  We flew into to Praia on the Santiago Island. It's one of 10 islands. We weren't expecting lunch on this flight, but it was a nice surprise for the 3 hour flight! 

I brought a cell phone holder and it worked great for my little makeup mirror. 

When we arrived at the airport Kent and Saundra met us in the parking lot and drove us to our apartment that we'd be staying in for the week.  Thankfully the tiny car we rented wasn't available and instead they upgraded us to a small SUV.  What was really funny is that the car rental was more expensive than the apartment rental!

We checked out our place--a lady met us there to give us keys--gave some stuff to Kent and Saundra, then headed to the temple.  Sadly the grounds were locked because it was Sunday.  But we walked around and also checked out the stake center next door.  We missed church that day and then were excited to go to a branch that met at 3pm, but they didn't meet at that time anymore and had already met.  That was disappointing.  I tried many times to switch our flights with the airline, but they wanted to charge about $300 a person to switch it. 

Fun church kitchen!

Here's our rental!  So glad we were able to be upgraded.

We drove around a little then went to Kent and Saundra's for dinner.  It was really sweet of them to feed us.  They live in a cute apartment and even have sister missionaries that live two floors above them!  So fun!

We visited after eating, got to meet the sister missionaries and then came back to our apartment.  Shanna and Elden had a little unplugged, dancing session.  It ended quickly because I didn't want the neighbors to hear us...it was about 10pm by this point!  We also got to talk to Cal. 

And the reason for spring break: to help with an eye clinic! 

Lee went up stairs with Shanna to start on eye exams with Kent.  Saundra, Haley, Elden and I started on the glasses. There were a ton of boxes in the other room that we moved into the designated room and then we started organizing them. We were pretty clueless with what we were doing.  There were two types of glasses. One set we could pop in the lenses they needed.  The other set were frames they could pick out, but then the frames would be sent off to a lab to to get the lenses cut because they were either bifocals or for an astigmatism. The pop in lenses had kid sizes and adult sizes.  We double checked the inventory and I think a box was missing.  

Lee doing exams.

Kent doing eye exams too. 

Shanna working the auto refractor. 

Taking a little break. 

A fun view of the city. 

It was neat seeing people carrying stuff on their heads. 

We had a late lunch that day at the "temple cafe". It's not really called that but the ladies who own it work at the temple with Saundra, and it's really close to the temple. 

We then went to the shopping center called Sucupira.  It's just store after store, all in a huge area.  We climbed some stairs in Sucupira and saw this view of the other stores--all the roofs connected.  We even saw a couple people walking on the roofs. 

We bought a couple things there.  I got a cute skirt, we bought a game similar to Mancala called Oware, Haley bought a fan and Shanna bought something....a bracelet? Kent showed me this black and white fabric.  It's the Cabo Verde's national "fabric pattern". I thought that was so cool.  And their general motto there is "no stress". 

Carrying magic!

Here's the game!

We followed Kent to another town where a music class is held to help keep kids off the street.  I think Kent and Saundra helped this guy get some musical instruments. The kids sang and played for us--it was really sweet.  I started tearing up during one of the songs.  I was overwhelmed with the love that God has for each of those precious kids. 

The name of the program is Assescarter. It's awesome what good these people are doing for the kids. 

This little girl was very interested in that I was chewing something.  She was so sweet. 

Love the stairwell and the no handrails haha. 

The girl again.

They have melodicas in Cape Verde!  Haha. We had some of these at home, but eventually got rid of them.

Kent then took us to a great view by the ocean.  We took some pictures. 

Kent and Saundra headed back to their apartment and we went to Roma to eat.  Saundra warned me that eating out at night takes a long time.  She was right.  We got there about 7:30pm or something?  We waited at least a half hour to even place our order.  Our food didn't come for about another 40 minutes. It was a cute restaurant though and the food was yummy. 

They even had blankets that they would hand out to customers.  There was an outdoor eating section where a lot of people were using blankets.  Haley and I each got one too as the doors to the outside were open and it was kind of chilly inside. 

The apartment did not have a garbage can so I found the biggest pot and we started using that. The hallway bathroom didn't have a toilet seat either.  So weird!  I mentioned it to the owner and he said that bathroom isn't used much.  Really?  Very odd. 

The next morning we had a late start and slept in.  We went down to the black sand beach, Kebra Beach,  by Roma, where we'd eaten the night before. 

Elden wasn't feeling so great so Lee took him back to the apartment.  We then went back and changed to go to the clinic.  Beforehand we went to a bakery and grocery store to grab some lunch. We loved seeing the decorated desserts. 

Haha, the best water bottles!  I bought some for Cal to send to him...now I just need to send them. 

The macaroons were so good!!! 

Bread and butter for lunch!

When we pulled up to the apartment we met some more sister missionaries.  Love it!

We worked at the clinic again.  Elden hung out with Lee and the rest of were in the "optical".  Haley and Shanna kept working at the optical and got it looking pretty great.  The glasses were organized by pop-in lenses, or by send-off-to-the-lab glasses. And then style and color, where needed. 

Kent and Saundra invited us over for shrimp tacos.  I decided to take Elden back to the apartment with me.  We stopped and got pizza first.  Thankfully I was able to load the directions on my phone before we left.  The pizza place had wifi so I could load the directions again, and we got back just fine.  While we were waiting for our pizza some kids were trying to have me give them pizza and a girl was in the restaurant bugging some guys. The guys put their hands over their drink glasses.  I wonder if they have a problem with vagrants spitting in their drinks? The pizza was really yummy and we didn't have to wait that long. I was glad too when the boys finally left. 

Back at the apartment!

We forgot our outlet adapters in the Azores.  That was dumb!  We totally left them in the kitchen outlets.  Thankfully Saundra had this one we could borrow.  I need to buy one! 

On Sunday we found out about this thick cream that comes in a box. Love that it's shelf stable.  Lee found some at the grocery store for me. I had fun squirting some into my yogurt every morning. So good! 

Day 3 of eye exams! 

It was a good morning doing more eye exams and helping in the optical. 

A monk or someone....

We ended about 2pm or so.  Kent took us to another town where we got to see a school that Lee's family helped buy supplies for (and us as well) and the church helped money wise with a couple of projects too.  Kent and Saundra are humanitarian missionaries with a million dollar budget to assist with projects in the area. This was one project--the school.

But before the school, right across the street was this house.  Very creative, but wow, so much poverty there. 

Oh, oh, one more!  WOW!  So cool....just blows me away every time. 

Now to the school!  I got a few pictures.  Sadly some teenagers came in during spring break and vandalized the place, hence some stuff on the ground.  So sad.  The school is on spring break so they came over for their twisted version of fun. 

Second floor of the school.

Behind Elden is a stack of toilet paper that we Robertsons help buy for the school.

More of these supplies our money helped purchase as well. 

There we are!  Cape Verde!

Here we are with the principal, Elder Varela, of the São Pedro school. Yep, his first name is Elder. He's also a stake president in the area. 

They love their soccer--I mean football--here.  You'll see nice playing fields, despite the poverty. 

After the school visit we had dinner at Linha d'Agua.  Such a fun spot and right on the beach!!!  It was funny, I had no idea that they had English menus till a couple days later.  The kids just wanted theirs in Portuguese. 

Sitting at our table with the ocean in the background.  Would highly recommend this place for tourists!

Saundra ordered the lasagna so I did too.  So yummy and in such a fun mini cast iron dish!

Their dessert presentations were super fun!

Haley's frozen cheesecake.  So yummy!

We reserved a cabana the next day with Kent's help, then they took off to prep for their English class. We headed over to the lighthouse. 

Can you tell it was windy?

We went inside it too for a small fee.  I think about $10. In Cape Veridian money, the escudo, or CVE, it's about $1000.

Elder Robertson sends us pictures of dogs lounging around in the Philippines.  So we snapped one of this dog to send to him. 

For the night's activity we participated in the English Connect class.  We loved being a part of this. 

We got to speak with the others in the class and help them practice their English.  These two young women loved having Shanna and Haley there. And I got to work with Eli, the Stake Relief Society President.  We are now "Facebook Friends" which is fun!

Here is Eli! (Pronounced Ellie)

Lee got to work with this brother. 

We did lots of grocery store runs, because that's super fun when you're in another country.  Well, for me it is! Haley wanted some chocolate milk and Lee pulled the package out to look at the ingredients.  The packaging was damaged and one fell out, busting on the floor.  That was embarrassing! It was glass too.  We bought the others, hoping to pay for the broken one, but they just charged us for the 5 containers instead of all 6. I don't think I realized that till we were back at the apartment. 

Since we watched Frozen in the Azores we had to get these.  We bought some Mangum ice cream bars too.  Both were SO expensive.  About $10 a box, each!

But when on vacation.....