Nobility and Poverty

A close tie exists between my friends in
São Tomé and Príncipe and the nearby country of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde).  In the years following independence in 1975, circumstances and economics moved folks around a bit with a mixing of the two populations resulting in family and cultural ties.  Both were Portuguese colonies and busy trading centers for African slaves.  The horror of the slavery era left a difficult legacy.

Unemployment is 20+%, and around 30% of folks live in severe poverty.

This young lady (photo, left) is a street vendor in Cape Verde.

With a population of 500,000 or so, Cape Verde is the larger of the two countries, but they have much in common both in history and in current circumstance.  They share a common poverty, but fortunately, they share a common grace and nobility as they labor to rise above the slavery and colonial impediments of their past.  A lot of really fine folks live in both of these little countries, folks you'd enjoy knowing, living next door to, and having your kids walk to school with theirs.

Want to see the world from a different viewpoint?  Go see for yourself.