Ouch

Last Thursday was not a fun day as far as preparation for the move goes.  The kids and I got our vaccines, and we now all have our little yellow books, which are apparently a bigger deal than our passports.  Lucky us.  Connor only needed one vaccine (Yellow Fever); Colson needed Yellow Fever and Typhoid; and go me, I got 5 shots.  I could barely raise my arms above my head that night, and the glitter band-aids the nurse used made me look like a disco ball.  But, it had to be done I guess.  The kids cried, well screamed, of course, but we all wallowed in our self pity over ice cream afterwards.  The next day Colson insisted on wearing a band-aid all day (well, several actually since she kept taking them off).  But I let her milk it as much as she wanted.  The yellow fever vaccine hurts!  Stupid, annoying, useless, dumb mosquitoes.....

 

 

 

Thankfully the kids tolerated it all pretty well and had a good time playing in the backyard that afternoon.

 

 

 We also have sent off for their passports, so hopefully that won't take too long.  We learned we can actually take our own passport photos, so we dressed the kids up (well in nice shirts and pajama bottoms), sat them in front of some white poster paper and snapped away.  They turned out WAY better than the ones we originally got from the pharmacy down the street.  Those were awful.  Here are some cute 'out-takes'...

 

 

 

 

 

Now we are waiting on paper work and packing up the house.  Having lived in this house for over 5 years, we have accumulated a lot of, well, stuff.  And trying to organize it into what to take with us, what to put into storage, and what to donate or sell has proven to be quite an ordeal.  I'd say I'm a pretty organized person, so the lists I've started creating are numerous.  And the list for things to buy in advance is ever-growing.  I think the most annoying part though is the fact that the outlet voltage there is different, so a few of our electronics/appliances just need a plug plug adapter, but most of them need a voltage transformer if we want to use them.  Why can't it all just be the same worldwide?! (If there is an actual reason, I don't need an explanation, I'm just complaining.  So save your time.)

'Fun' fact about Luanda: Record low temperature is 57.9 F; record high is 98.1 F.  Average humidity 78%.