This is our dear friend Carmina. She is a seamstress, but what a seamstress. She makes customized clothing. The customer gives her a photo of what they want, and she takes their measurements, but she doesn't make a pattern, she simply does the math in her head and places the measuring tape on the fabric, and then cuts. Amazing! She learned from her mother and has a shop with several sewing machines and sergers and employees. The employees do a lot of the sewing, but Carmina does all the cutting herself.
This is Carmina's son, who fell while doing gymnastics, and is now paralyzed. Several months ago Elder Alvarez gave him a blessing, and he is progressing in his treatment and regaining some movement.
NEW MISSIONARIES!!!!!!
Yay! We are so excited. We got a lot of new missionaries last month and this month, and we have finally filled all of our apartments (areas) again. Almost every single missionary that was already here a transfer ago is now a trainer, since half the missionaries are new. As an example, in our little branch, the senior companion has only been in Cape Verde for 7 weeks, and now he's a trainer.
CONCERT IN KRIOLU
There is a Mexican dentist here in Praia that is married to a Cape Verdean. They have three children: 2 boys and a girl. The mother is a famous singer, and her daughter is following in her footsteps. They invited us to this private concert introducing her new CD. It was lots of fun.
This is Sara Alinho, the daughter. The mother's name is Tete Alinho.
ENGLISH TESTS
One of the great programs for foreign missionaries here is that the Church provides a system for learning English during their mission. If the missionary applies himself and studies and practices, at the end of his/her mission, they can take an English test (which Sister Alvarez administers) and receive a certificate of proficiency that they can use to help them get employment. These two awesome missionaries did great on their test. Elder Duarte and Elder Delgado.
TRIP TO SAL
Elder Alvarez' favorite restaurant in Sal. At least once every trip we have to eat dinner at the Mexican Restaurant.
The owners are an international family: The wife is from Cordoba, Veracruz, where Elder Alvarez is from; the husband is from the Canary Islands (part of Spain), and they adopted a Capeverdean daughter they named Floren.
FLYING TIME
Our flight back to Praia was delayed more than an hour. This sweet girl (her mother is in the background) had so much fun playing with the two-year-old twins (below) and keeping them entertained. We thought they were siblings because she was so loving with them, but they had never met before the airport.
The twins live in Holland. Their grandmother is Capeverdean and lived in Holland for over 30 years and raised her children there. Then she decided to come back to Cape Verde to live. So she went back to Holland to pick up her twin grandchildren and bring them back with her to stay for 4 months. She is a brave lady! She traveled all the way from Holland to Sal, then flew on our flight to Praia, then had to get on another flight to her island of Sao Nicolau, and then probably take a van to get to her town. The boys were SO tired. When it was finally time to board the plane, they both wanted to be carried, so Sister Alvarez carried one of them onto the plane.
BOA VISTA AGAIN
The amazing branch president and counselor who hold the branch together, and the stake auditor. We love this little branch.
ACCUMULATED P-DAYS WITH FRIENDS
We don't usually take P-Days, but every once in awhile we will take a couple of days, and this time we loved spending them with our good friends, the Martineaus.
Elder and Sister Martineau (serving on Fogo) came to renew their visas. We took them to Tarrafal since they never have a chance to get away and see other places, and Tarrafal is one of our favorite places here. This is a view of Assomada.
Parque Natural Malagueta. Right on the edge. One false step, and Sister Martineau almost ended up at the bottom of the canyon :(
Elder Alvarez tried to make it into the picture by running :)
At the Natural Park of Malagueta (which means hot pepper), this bird saw himself in the mirror and thought he had found a friend. He kept pecking at the mirror from above and from the side. We would get fairly close to take pictures, and he would just continue. When we left, he was on the trunk of the car and didn't leave until he couldn't stay on any longer.
MARKET
The market in Tarrafal. This lady works all day with her baby tied to her back.
YUMMMM! Fish and couscous for lunch.
OLD FRIENDS
On the way back, we stopped at one of our usual stops, the Black Beach. The children that live there remembered us from the times we have stopped there when our children have come. One of the little girls smiled a big smile and ran up to Sister Alvarez and gave her a big hug. We always have so much fun with them.
The girls are: (L to R) Marcia (6), Rosangela (2 ish), Angela (8). Angela made us think of Rowan, who just turned 8 and will be baptized next week.
Of course, the girls also fell in love with Martineaus. (He didn't realize until much later that he was carrying a baby with no diaper)
Sister Martineau LOVES the beach. She built a castle in the black sand, and the girls started helping her.
This is their daily playground where they run and swim unsupervised.
The older girls pulled off their dresses and ran into the ocean.
It was a fun getaway.
