The rounded corner of the building on the right is our church house. If you look closely, you can see a golden plaque with the name of the Church.

 On our trip around the island today, we saw these terraces where people plant corn and beans together. The beans wrap around the cornstalks as they grow. Right now it's really dry, but in August and September the rains come, and the crops grow. They harvest in November. These crops are totally dependent on rain. When the rains don't come, which happens occasionally, and happened a couple of years ago, people go hungry.

The landscape reminds me of Mexico.

Cabo Verde is a series of ten islands that were formed by volcanoes. The terrain is very rugged.

People carry things on their heads a lot. You see it everywhere, in the city and in the country.

A reservoir in the agricultural area of the island.

Agricultural area of the island, surprisingly green compared to the rest of the island right now. They apparently use the water from the reservoir to water the crops.

People here generally have wonderful posture. I think we should all grow up carrying things on our heads :)

At this time of year, they gather the cornstalks, etc., from the fields to start preparing the ground for planting. Apparently they take these plants home to feed their animals. We saw houses with lots of these stalks up on the roof.

A beautiful ocean inlet.

Today there were lots of people hanging out. I guess they were still celebrating the results of the election for Prime Minister yesterday. One party had been in power for 16 years, and yesterday the opposing party won. We heard all the celebrating late into the night.

Red tile roofs, reminiscent of Mexico and Spain.

This is the branch president of Calheta. The Carnells, humanitarian missionaries from Alberta, drove us to Calheta where they had to deliver a screen to a school where they had donated computers. Because of the elections yesterday, the school was closed, and we couldn't find the missionaries' apartment. "Coincidentally" we stopped by the side of the road, "coincidentally" right in front of the business where the branch president works. "Coincidentally" he saw us from his office and came down to talk to us. He called the principal of the school, who met us at the school.

It's interesting how the Lord uses "coincidences" to further His work :)  This is the school where the computers were donated.

The principal of the school, Arlindo, with Sister and Elder Carnell, and Sister Alvarez.

And Elder Alvarez.

Women carrying bundles of cornstalks on their heads.

This is a beautiful bay with a nice sandy beach, which is quite unusual on this island. Most of the beaches are quite rocky. As you can see from the lines in the sand, the boats had just been pulled in from fishing and the people were doing whatever they do to the fish. Downtown we saw women sitting by the side of the road with tubs of fresh fish for sale.

The same beautiful bay with our new friends, the Carnells. They have been so gracious to show us around the city and today around the island.

I think this was my favorite spot of the whole tour.

This was an interesting house. It looks like it was built into the part of the mountain that had those big rocks on top.

View from the top of the mountains. On the highest mountains there are pine trees.

I believe this is Assomada in the background.

The political poster in this picture is of the candidate who won the elections and is now the new prime minister.

Lots of papaya trees.

Carnells have stopped here several times to take pictures, especially because the lady has lots of beautiful children. But the children were gone today. She was outside doing her laundry by hand.

After a long drive, yummy Italian food back in Praia. This is vegetarian lasagna, with cooked vegetables covered in a yummy green sauce.

Cachupa, the typical meal of Cabo Verde. We thought cachupa was a stew, but at this restaurant is was dry. Apparently, this is a version called "cachupa frita" (or fried cachupa). It's made mainly of a corn similar to hominy.