When the working day finished they would go down to the river with the oxen and while the animals graze and drunk they would wash themselves.
As soon as the land was ready in Bela Vista the Costa's stop going to Chimbondo and started planting in Bela Vista. After the harvest Antonio would reserve some of the grain as seeds for the next year, some for their own use and the rest was sold.
All the savings from farming and the renting out of the bower wagon was invested in another three bower wagons and the transport part of the business increased.
In those days the expenses were limited to essential items with hardly any luxuries. As groceries a house needed only sugar, rice, pasta, olive oil, salt and very little more. All the rest was home made. For clothes Rita would buy large rolls of material and would make shirts, trousers and dresses for the family. Every member of the family had only one set of "good clothes" for the "better days": Sundays and special occasions.
The cattle business was also flourishing and Antonio was then a respected person in the community. He was seen as a successful businessman and the family actively involved in social activities. The hard life was starting paying dividends but in 1932, Angola was struck by disaster.
From the north of Africa, clouds of locust large enough to obscure the daylight, started moving south leaving behind a trail of destruction. No vegetation was spared and the livestock faced barren soil. Soon cattle started dying as the ability to feed them using grain dwindled. António and his family had again to draw on their determination and hard work to overcome this disaster.
In 1939 the second world war started and with it shortage of spare parts for the trucks and we witnessed the resurgence of the bower wagons. António with his fleet of boer wagons still intact, was well placed to benefit from the situation and this helped him to pull himself out of the trouble resulting from the locust plague.
After the war the boer wagons were again replaced by trucks and António finally put his transport company to sleep. However he kept his first boer wagon and placed it in the front yard under a wild fig tree as a monument to their efforts.
Despite being illiterate, António was a very smart operator and good businessman. He would keep all his accounting in his head and did not make many mistakes. Later in his life he had to stop working due to ruptured disks in his spinal cord most likely due to the heavy work. His sons took control of the business under his directions.
António died at 80 years of age without ever been back to Madeira Island. Today eleven sons and daughters, one hundred and ten grand sons and forty one great grandsons populate the five continents.
Wedding of Antonio's son Fernando (author of this story) in Silva Porto
Fernando Rodrigues da Costa when young in Silva Porto