We arrived in Angola on Saturday morning, August 31. It was a 14 hour direct flight and the kids did fantastic. We flew business class, which was awesome - there was tons of room and the seats fully reclined. Colson had so much fun pushing the buttons to adjust her seat. She felt like such a big girl. I had packed a backpack for each kid with snacks and activities, so she was totally content to relax in her seat and discover what goodies I had packed for her. We brought Connor's car seat on the plane so he would be more comfortable, and so we could strap him in when we needed to. He did much better than I expected, honestly. I couldn't get him to keep his headphones on, so he watched the videos on the screen in front of him without any sound. He didn't care too much though. He had his moments where he wanted to run around, but for the most part he slept, ate, and watched videos.
Once we arrived at the Luanda airport we waited in line at immigration/customs for a little over an hour, went to baggage claim and collected our 6 suitcases, then loaded up the car while Jon went back to get the 5 tubs we had packed. Yes, somehow we got 13 pieces of luggage to the airport, on the plane, and to our house. We were all EXHAUSTED once we got here, as you can imagine. The kids crashed in the car for the 30 minute drive from the airport. At the house, Colson fell right back to sleep on the couch for a few more hours while Connor ran around on fumes. I went upstairs to do something though and came down after a short time to this...
That is pure exhaustion right there.
It took a few days, but the kids got over the jet lag fairly well. We didn't bring Connor's travel crib with us (he figured out how to climb out of it, and we had so much stuff already), and his crib wasn't going to arrive for several more days with our sea shipment, so we transitioned him into a big boy bed. He did really well, except for the fact that he could now get out of bed easily. He also can open his bedroom door easily. So add that to the fact that his sleep schedule was all jacked up and for several nights he climbed out of bed and came into our room in the middle of the night. One morning I opened my eyes at 5:30 am and his face was in front of mine. Startled me a bit to say the least. And he isn't one to just climb in bed with us and go back to sleep. Once he was up, so was I. When his sleep schedule got somewhat on track he did better, but he still was waking up after short naps and early in the morning and coming out of his room. For a few days we locked him in his room (as you'll see later, our stairs are deadly and we were so afraid he would try to go downstairs by himself). But instead of playing in his room quietly, he would stand at the door and yell 'Mommy!' and hit the door until I came to get him. His crib stayed packed for about a week before Jon and I had both had enough. So we put the crib together and he's back in it. And taking great naps and sleeping later in the morning. He seemed really happy to be back in his crib actually. We are in no rush to get him out of it again.
Unpacking took a while. What am I saying, we are still unpacking and organizing. The kids were so happy to have their toys again. And Colson was thrilled to have her own bed and room again. We had told her that in Africa she would have a princess bed (had to spice up the mosquito net that surrounds her bed somehow), so the first few nights she couldn't wait to crawl into her big bed. Now, the newness has worn off and the bedtime arguments have resumed, but whatever. She was so excited when her dollhouse arrived. We had been telling her for months that it was in Africa, so it was the first thing I had to unpack for her.
Singing us a little tune while we unpack.
Watching tv with Daddy.
Colson started school a week after we arrived. She goes to school daily from 8 am to noon, and seems to really enjoy it. She gets to go to the library, has PE, and does swimming lessons once a week. She still has a hard time when I drop her off, but once I'm out of sight she goes about playing. It's starting to get better, and her teacher says she does great during the day. She is still adjusting, so hopefully drop offs will get easier. Her teacher is this wonderful, sweet woman from California that is a few years younger than me. This is her 3rd year at this school, 5th year teaching overseas. She is great with the kids and Colson loves her. There are several other aides in the classroom that are all so nice as well. And there are only about 8 kids or so in her class, so the student to teacher ratio is small.
The kids have adjusted really well. There are a lot of kids in our (very small) compound of only 41 houses. There are families from all over the world that live here - Russia, Camaroon, Scotland, South Africa, the US, Nigeria, and many more. I've met a lot of moms from Houston though (not all live in our compound), and most of them have kids our kids' ages, so it works out great. I'm all for meeting people from other parts of the world, but meeting someone who speaks English and is from Texas is comforting when we are so far away. We have been invited to a few play groups, which we may try out in the next few weeks. I tried dropping Connor off at a friend's house last week with their nanny so I could join a Bible study, but the nanny had to call me to come get him after about 20 minutes because he wouldn't calm down. So, I may have to hold off on that for now. He did great the first time I took him there (I left him with the nanny so my friend and I could go grocery shopping), but the second time he started saying 'Don't want to, don't want to" as soon as we pulled up, so he obviously remembered that as the house that I leave him at....maybe we'll try again in a few months.
Some pictures from the last month:
Painting!
Playing before bed.
Snuggle and movie time with Daddy.
Real men drive pink cars.
The bounce house!
Morning cartoons.
Sweet siblings!
Riding bikes around the compound.
She dressed herself. Obviously.
Here is a little picture tour of our house so far:
The front of our box, er, house.
Side yard and 'guard station'. Notice the absence of the guard. They take a lunch from about 11 to 2, and when they are there they are usually asleep. They get paid probably dollars a day so you can't really blame them.
Front door/Side of the house
Side yard. Colson is doing a little dancing while Jon hits golf balls.
View of the little carport area from the backyard. We basically use it as storage.
View from the front.
Our outdoor 'gym' in the backyard.
Since I started this post, that net over the table has blown over twice, frame is now bent, so it is folded up in the corner for now.
Entry way
The main living area downstairs.
That thing in the corner is a rowing machine. It's only 1/4 of a mile around the compound, so we brought that for an additional cardio option....
Kitchen
That door leads to the laundry room, maid's bathroom, and the little covered carport area.
Laundry Room
Maid's Bathroom, across from Laundry Room
Half bath downstairs
Playroom
Deadly Stairs
We have already had a seriously bitten tongue (Colson), and lots of bruises (all of us) from slips on these stairs. They are slippery, turn sharp midway up, and the edges of each step are the sharp edges of the tiles. We have a gate at the top and bottom of the stairs fortunately, but I'm sure there will be many more injuries to come from these.
Colson's Room
There is a little balcony area out that door, but we've never even opened the door.
View outside Colson's Room
The little playground across the street.
The empty field next to our compound. The locals have planted corn and some other things there. I often see them walking around looking for produce.
Other houses in the compound, with Luanda in the distance.
Connor's Room
View from Connor's Room
Our side yard area. That's Jon's golf net set up down there.
The field with construction in the distance.
Luanda in the distance.
Our car. The nice thing is we live at the end of the street so it's almost like a cul de sac.
But there is really no traffic, so kids run around the street everywhere anyway.
I saw this lady one day out Connor's bedroom window walking through the field next to the compound. She has a baby tied onto her back with fabric. This is how the women here carry their babies. I always see the babies asleep, so it must be pretty comfortable!
Kids' Bathroom
The small landing at the top of the stairs. To the left is their bathroom, to the right is the stairs, and behind the camera is our bedroom.
Master Bedroom
Our bathroom
Our closet
View from our bedroom. Our backyard is down there but it's a little difficult to tell.
Behind that wall is another compound, I think.
That's it. Not much to it.
A lot of foods that we enjoy back home are hard to find here, or are really expensive. For example, tortillas are about $15 for a pack of 8. BUT, Jon has figured out how to make tortillas, and they are delicious. It's a bit messy, but so worth it.
This small bag of tortilla chips was $8. But they are made south of Mexico in Africa, so that apparently makes them worth it. We didn't buy them, so I can't tell you if they are indeed worth it. I'm guessing they aren't though.
We have survived 4 weeks in Luanda. If I had to describe the appearance of this place in one word, it would probably be 'dirty'. There is trash EVERYWHERE. Piles of it on the sides of the roads, on the hills, in the ravines, behind the walls where, I think, people live. And there is dirt everywhere. Imagine pine pollen season at it's worst but with red dirt. Everything is coated with a film of dirt, and people dust off their cars regularly. There are street sweepers everywhere whose job it is to sweep the dirt and put it into blue bags, which then gets taken to the 'rubbish' according to our driver. There have been hints of beauty in this city, like the view of the coast, but for the most part it's just an ugly place. Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings, barbed wire, and poverty. The poverty is unimaginable, and I haven't seen the worst of it. We live south of the city, in Luanda Sul, which is apparently much nicer than in the city. It's still pretty bad here, and every time I mention the condition of things here, he says it's worse in the city. This city was just destroyed by the 26 year long civil war that ended over 10 years ago, and the process of recovery has been a slow one. The slow recovery isn't helped by the incredibly corrupt yet extremely wealthy government leaders.
The biggest inconvenience so far is grocery shopping. There is no quality control here, so you have to learn where to go to get what you want/need. Some stores are clean(ish), while others have bugs crawling on the shelves. Some stores have good produce or bread, for example, but everything else is sketchy, or expired. Other stores have good prices, or a few American brands (way overpriced), but meat or produce aren't good. So you have to go to like 4 different stores to get what you need. But there is no guarantee that what they had last time you were there will still be there. There have been several times where we have found something we like (i.e. pizza crust at the bakery) but the next time we go back it isn't available. It's common practice to buy a ton of something when you find it because you may not find it again for a long time. And you have to know where to go to get the best prices. At the little grocery store next to our house a mop bucket is $50 and an ironing board is $200. Yes, you read that right. But if you go to the store a few miles away the prices for those items are much more reasonable. Ice cream is another thing that is super expensive. A container of generic ice cream is about $10, and tastes, well, generic. We bought a carton of 'good' ice cream for $17, but it had obviously defrosted/melted somewhat and been refrozen, so it also wasn't so tasty. I was totally bummed. The only brands of tequila we've seen are Sauza and Cuervo, each for about $30 a bottle. So no good margaritas since we've been here. And traffic is AWFUL, so there is no quick trip to the store. I so miss HEB/Kroger/Target, even Walmart and it's craziness, right down the road.
I mentioned traffic being bad - it's worse than you can imagine. Jon's office is 15 miles away. Only 15 miles. It takes him about 1 hour to get to work in the morning, leaving at 5:45 am. It takes him 2 hours minimum to get home and he usually leaves the office between 5 and 5:30. One evening last week it took him 4 hours to get home. He left the office at 4. That makes for long days for all of us. And Jon has had to work all but 1 Saturday since we've been here, so the weeks are long too. I go through chocolate like crazy here. ;)
The traffic is so bad because there is no order. There are no freeways, very few stop lights (Jon tells me there are some in the city but I haven't seen any) or stop signs (I've seen one and no one stopped at it), no right of ways, and people walking in the street everywhere. We were at a T intersection the other day and cars were just turning in front of each other, blocking other cars and having to stop because no one could go forward. Our driver just drove around the car that had stopped in front of us, blocking a few more cars from going, and one guy had to back up so we could move. It was insane. It's just chaos. And since the cars move so slow, people walk between the lanes selling all kinds of things. You can buy almost anything from a vendor on the street. Things I've seen for sale: food/drinks, hangers, shower heads, machetes, fire extinguishers, car chargers for your cell phone, car floor mats, wind shield wipers, car air fresheners, bright orange hazard vests, rugs, bath mats, CDs, sunglasses, bug zappers, toys. I suppose I could buy everything I needed and not even get out of the car if I drove around long enough.
Other weird things about living here:
-It's not a normal day if the power doesn't go out several times, but fortunately it's usually just for a few seconds. It always seems to go out though at the worst times, like when I've just started the coffee maker or the washing machine or dryer.
-I have to empty the water from the dryer. There is no steam vent, so the water collects in a tub at the top, and every few days I have to pull it out to empty the water or the clothes won't dry.
-There is no central AC (not that big of a deal), but I have to have the maintenance guys come clean out the AC units monthly or they will start to leak and/or smell. Super annoying since appointment times are 'estimates', if they even show up.
-Since it's now illegal to change money inside the stores, or pay with dollars, people often change money (convert their dollars to kwanzas) with guys sitting just outside the stores selling calling cards, or with the guys selling stuff on the street as they drive along. We generally just use the ATM or have our driver take the money and change it at legit stations because this makes me super nervous. Mostly because I don't speak Portuguese and don't know what's going on, not because it's super unsafe.
One thing that has been great since we have been here is the weather. Cool 70s to low 80s during the day, plenty of cloud cover. The nights are cool too, but unfortunately no one enjoys the evening weather due to the mosquitos. The mosquitos that carry malaria come out at night. It's strange, once about 6:00 pm hits everything outside becomes deserted as people go indoors to escape. Mosquitos are pretty bad all day really. But the fogger guys come through our compound about 4 nights a week, which I guess helps. I'd hate to see how bad the mosquitos would be if they didn't come.
Ok, this post is long enough. But at least now I'm caught up! Here are a few more pictures from the last couple of days.
Hitting golf balls with Daddy.
They are so happy to have Daddy home.
Playing video games. Jon is playing, the kids think they are.
Colson trying to explain to Connor how to play.
-Amanda
