"Modi ki bu txoma?", come with me to Cape Verde!

“Modi ki bu txoma?” You don’t understand? This means: “What’s your name?”, which is Kriol, a variation of Creole, and the native language of the residents of Santiago Island, Cape Verde, West Africa.

In answer to the question, my name is Samuel Costa. I am a disciple of the Shalom Covenant Community and a journalist who participated in the Shalom Volunteer Program’s missionary expedition to this island. The Community founded a Mission in the capital city of Praia, on August 6, 2016 and has 6 missionaries from the Community of Life and a Covenant Missionary.

Health, work with children and evangelization

Doctors, nurses, medical students, dentists and education professionals comprised the expedition team. The residents of the island were welcoming all the volunteers into their homes, who were being lodged in pairs. In order to carry out the volunteer activities, the members of the expedition were divided into three “ekipas” (teams in Kriol): health care, working children with children and door-to-door evangelization.

In the morning the volunteers did their personal and community prayers for two hours. Then, full of spirit, they brought the living Gospel to the people while performing the tasks mentioned above. The work took place in the most peripheral “zonas” (neighborhood in Kriol) of the country.

Inheritance passed from parents to sons and daughters

According to Danilson Brito, a resident of the island, the people are poor, the country has little industry nor is it rich in natural resources such as gold and silver. Consequently, the primary heritage passed from parents to children is education and religion. In the words of Damilson: “The children begin catechesis at the age of six, at eight they make their first communion and continue catechesis until the age of 16, when they spend another year of learning and receive the sacrament of Confirmation.”