Dinner at the Amer's

Last night the Amer's invited us over for dinner. They are from Egypt and a very nice family. They grilled some beef and some chicken kabobs and had rice and salad....then she made brownies for dessert. It was very good food. After dinner we were sitting around talking and Wael was telling us how good his oldest daughter could sing and she said she would sing if her mom would belly dance for us. After all the kids showing their talents we finally talked Shimo into doing a little belly dancing and she was very good. I told her she could probably teach a class in the compound...she said no thanks. The kids played wii and the adults played pictionary. I don't think any of us should take up drawing anytime soon....but we had a lot of fun. :-) Farah decided she would do some face painting on the kids and they all loved it. We also found out that sweet Hana calls Jared her "Fluffy bug"...so we gave him a hard time about that. I asked him what he calls her and he said, "Just Hana".

Kenny & Wael trying on a new hair style.

Mean witch Hana.

Spider man Jared.

Fluffy bug and Hana. :-)

Skeleton Jacob

Vampire Adam

Fabric Store

Friday I took a couple of ladies to the fabric store in town and we followed another car full of ladies and her driver decided to take a short cut. Let me tell you about short cuts in Angola, they are never good. They usually take twice as long and are usually on dirt roads through the shack houses. The three of us in our car started getting car sick and it ended up taking us about 2 hours and 30 mins to get there and last time it only took maybe 1 1/2 hours. They did take us in front of the store instead of to the parking lot we had to walk from but traffic was just horrible. One of the ladies that went with me had only been here for about a week and I could see myself in her the entire trip. At one point we were stuck in traffic on a back road and there were so many people around us and she said she was feeling really uncomfortable. Once we were done we had to stop and get gas and that took us about 1 hour. The wait here for everything is crazy. I did get about 3 more fabrics that I really like. Still don't know what I will do with them but I will find something. :-)

This is the road the fabric store is located on. The store is actually to the right of the lady in the yellow shirt with the purple bag.

Zippers or shoe strings anyone?

or undies?

lunch boxes, coffee mugs, dish towels?

The city and Ilha.

More fabric I bought.

Reading/Pantry Sale

Today I went to the library at the school to read to Jared's class. They had so much fun and loved having a special guest read to them. When the kids first got to the library the librarian was reminding them of the rules and in mid-sentence she was looking at Jared and said, "Do you have a brother named Jacob?" and he said yes. She said I just had him last hour and you look just like him and then she looked at me and said you must be their mom. I didn't think they looked much like me but i know they look a lot alike. Everyone on the school bus always says that they look like twins except Jacob is bigger. :-)

Today I went to my first pantry sale. They don't have garage sales here because most of the items in the houses belong to the companies but they do sale all their food before they leave. I was so excited because I got Cream of Chicken soup, Cream of Mushroom soup, a few cake mixes, jiffy corn bread mix, some pie fillings, syrup, A1 sauce, chocolate pudding and crisco. I also got a converter for half price.

Jared and Tennis

Jared decided he would try tennis out tonight and he did really well.

Raining

It is really raining here today. It has rained one other time that I have been here but it was more of a mist. Today it is really raining. I hear that it is not a good thing when it rains here because a lot of the roads around the main ones are dirt and they do not have a good drainage system. It makes me miss stormy days in Oklahoma when you could just stay in the house.

When I told the boys it was raining Jacob said, "Well I guess Nelson doesn't need to work today because God is watering the yard for him".

Mr. Daniel

Yesterday me and another mom took cupcakes to school for Jacob's assistant teacher. He didn't know we were coming and he was really surprised. The kids sang Happy Birthday to him and we had a candle for him to blow out.

Buys

I found some great items today(Not great prices though):

Sour Cream-$6.10

Real Mayo-$6.81

Tortilla chips-$8.52 bag

Pizza (and the boys love it)-$17.36 (They didn't have a price on them and now I know I will not buy them again....and I sure will not serve them to the maid again.) :-)

Jelly (couldn't find the $2.00 jars they are all still out so I had to get these for $14 and they do not taste as good either)

Ice Maker (no more filling ice trays-YEAH!!!!) - Priceless :-)

Back to everything

Today it was back to school, back to making lunches, back to packing swim bags, back to exercise, back to bug spray and malaria medicine. I think I would rather be back in South Africa. :-)

Kids are off to school this morning after having a week and a half out and I think they were actually ready. No fussing to get out of bed or get ready this morning. I bet it doesn't last long though.

I am taking cupcakes to Jacob's school today for his helper teacher's birthday and then to try and find some jelly for the boys lunches. I haven't been able to find any in the last couple of weeks. Wish me luck.

Dinner Guest

Last night we had our first guest over for dinner since moving to Luanda. I forgot to take a picture of him so I told him he had to send me one so I could make him famous on our blog. Kenny and him have worked together for the last year and have became friends. We made rotisserie chicken, fried okra, potatoes and corn. He is from Poland but lives in Germany now...so I wasn't sure if he would like our southern food but he seemed to like it. He is a rotator but in Angola more than Germany....I think it is because he loves it here so much. :-)

Now introducing Thomas.......

Day7 & 8-Cape Town

Thursday we went to Green Market Square, Canal Walk mall & went on a ride on the Pirate ship. Green Market Square is an area of town that locals have booths set up to sell their goods. The mall was huge. We went there twice and still didn't see a third of the stores. They even had Woolsworth stores in both of the malls. After shopping all day we went and rode the Pirate ship. Jacob seen it the first day we got to Cape Town and he asked ever day if he could ride it. We went with the Amer family and the boys loved it. The show was not very good, it was very amateur but the boys loved riding on the ship. After the boat ride we ate for the second time at an Italian Restaurant on the waterfront.

The Canal Walk mall

YEAH....McDonalds!!!!

Got cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next day. They were so good.

A mask we bought from this guy at the Green Market Square.

The boys in front of the Pirate Ship.

Jacob

Jared

Jared, Hana, Adam, Jacob

One of the Pirates

Kenny on the ship

Jared and me on the ship

Not sure what they are talking about but it looks like it is pretty funny.

Hana and Jared

Jacob

Jared

Jared

Kenny at the Italian Restaurant

The view from the restaurant.

The ferris wheel in the Waterfront. Kenny & Jared rode it one night we were there.

This was the last night in Cape Town. We had a blast and we seen so much but would go back in a heart beat. There is still so much more to see and do. I was a little happy to be going home just to sleep in my own bed. The flight home was good but as soon as we walked into the airport that smelled and where no one spoke English, I remembered why I liked Cape Town so much. I can honestly say I did not miss this place at all. I did miss our driver after all the Taxis we rode in. He is such a good man and truly cares about our family. 

Day 6-Cape Town

Wednesday we rented a Taxi for the day and had a driver take us around to the Bird World & Monkey Jungle and from there we seen Hout Bay. At Hout Bay you can take a boat out to an Island were there are lots of Seals but the Amer family, who were following us, had went there the day before and so we opted not to go. After Hout Bay we drove to Cape Point & Cape of Good Hope which is the most southern tip of Africa. At Cape Point you can take a tram to the top or you can walk. It didn't look very far so we walked but about half way we were wishing we had rode the tram. We only went to the lighthouse but you can actually walk to the very tip. Then we drove to Cape of Good Hope and took a few pictures. From there we drove to Simons Town were Boulder Beach is and the Penguins are. After Boulder Beach we drove back to Cape Town and ate dinner and did a little shopping at the Waterfront.

Here are a few pictures from the Bird World:

 When we first walked into the area where the Turkeys were the 3 boys walked in first and the Turkey started gobbling and it scared them and they started running back to the other room. It was the funniest thing.

 I think this was the ugliest bird in the entire park.

 This monkey was trying to get into Shimo's camera case.

 They would climb all over you....the boys loved it. We never could get one to get on Jared.

 He is trying to get my sunglasses.

 He was trying to get my rubber band out of my hair.

 If you had a bag with you they would unzip it to see what was inside.

 He was trying to get in Farrah's pockets on her jacket.

 This is Hout Bay behind us.

 This was at Cape Point..it shows direction and distance to other places.

 Cape Point & Indian Ocean. You can see the other house out on the point and the trail so you could go all the way to the point.

 Family at Cape Point

 The boys infront of the lighthouse at Cape Point.

 Jared, Jacob, Adam and Hana

 Kenny helping the boys climb up the rock to have their picture taken.

 Jacob and Adam

 Hana & Adam

 Jacob posing.

 Jared at Cape Point

 Adam

 Kenny at Cape of Good Hope

 Jones' at Cape of Good Hope

 Kenny at Cape of Good Hope

 Amer's at Cape of Good Hope

 All the boys at Cape of Good Hope. Adam, Wael, Jacob, Kenny, Jared

 JoAnn at Cape of Good Hope

 Kenny and JoAnn at Cape of Good Hope

 Kenny climbed up a little way at Cape of Good Hope

 Where's Wael?

 Seen on the way out of Cape of Good Hope on the ocean.

 We let the kids race a little to burn some energy before eating lunch and going to Boulder Beach. Hana was racing Jared.

 Jacob & Farrah racing

 Penguins from Boulder Beach

 Jacob looking out in the ocean.

 Jared wanted me to take a picture of his mean face. Looks like he still had ketchup from lunch on his face.