Vacation

We finally have our vacation booked for March. The kids are out of school for 18 days in March and April and we will be gone for 9 days. We are going to Dubai for 2 days and then Phuket, Thailand for 7 days. We just told the boys the other night and they were so excited. Jacob asked if he could buy a tie in Thailand and Jared asked if we could do that ski thing in Dubai.

One benefit of living here in Africa is getting to go on these vacations and see this side of the world. The boys have been able to see parts of the world that I was never able to at their age and still would not have seen if we hadn't moved here.

Soccer Tournament February 2012

Jacob played in the soccer tournament again this month. He really has fun playing. He tries to kick the ball as hard as he can ever time he kicks it and therefore he has a really high kick. A couple of times he almost kicked another child so the ref told him he had to have smaller kicks. After this the coach put him as a defender(I think) so he was in front of the goalie. This way when it came to him he could kick it as hard as he wanted to down the field. He likes this position because there was not much running and he did an awesome job.

Not sure what happened here but I love the look.

Cute...cute!!!!

He had to have his picture taken too!!

This is the kick I am talking about. He doesn't like to mess around with those little controlled kicks. :-)

Cool move!!!

Jared being Jared. :-)

Jared and Baptista watching the games.

It's coming for you Jacob.

They ended up tying all their games 0-0 except the one against his friend, Adam, they won it 1-0.

Thursday

Katie and I went to the fabric store yesterday and found some really pretty fabric. On our way we always look to see what everyone has for sale on the streets and if there is anything new. 

Traffic was horrible (2 hours to go about 15 miles or less) so Baptista took us on a short cut and we seen a part of town we have never seen before. This is a statue of the first president.

 This is a common scene you see every day here. This is their daily grind you might say. Everyone yelling what it is that they have and how much it cost. If this was a scratch and sniff picture you would have the combination of urine, sewer and body odor. I know I often show the pretty stuff in Luanda but I think you should also see what we see on a daily basis. As much as I hate to say it, this has become normal to us and I think that is why I tend to show pictures of the nice places we see and go. My mom told me the other day they see me having a maid, driver and gardener as living in luxury and living here we see Wal-Mart, fast food and driving your self around as luxury.

Dry milk, diapers, shampoo anyone? Every time I go to the fabric store I say I will never go back. We never go without seeing a fight, someone peeing or being surrounded by so many people on the street we fill like we will never get out.

Can you see the baby on the lady's back that is bent over? He is sleeping away. Sometimes you will see a pregnant lady with a baby on her back and a huge bucket on her head walking down the street. The women here are very strong for sure. I think back to when I pregnant and how easy I had it sitting at home watching TV. This place really puts things into prospective.

 This was a first to see....Olive Lady.

 Not sure if you can see it very well in this picture but they had all kinds of raw meat laid out for sale.

Another first.....Tupperware Lady.

I couldn't believe this guy.

There was about 6 of these taxis in a row with Jesus wrote on their back window. 

This lady is awesome!!

It's always a mystery as to why they have so many people sweeping the dirt off the roads every day, where the dirt comes from and what they do with all the dirt they sweep up. We got a good laugh out of seeing 6-7 guys in the middle of the road all sweeping one spot.

Here is some of the fabric I got from the fabric store. The one above was for Jacob's teacher to make curtains for their classroom.

After school the kids wanted to make play dough. I found a recipe using Kool-aid since I didn't have any food coloring. It turned out good and it even smelled good. 

Ingredients for this kool-aid playdough recipe:

• flour – 1 (up to 2 if you feel it is thin) cups
• boiling water – 1 cups
• corn oil – 3 tbsp
• salt – 0.5 cups
• Koolaid – 1 package

Directions for this kool-aid playdough recipe:

• Mix each ingredient in with the flour
• Add boiling water
• Mix thoroughly
• Knead the flour and other ingredients until very well mixed
• Add more flour if necessary for texture to create a soft dough
• Start playing! 

While the boys and Hana made play dough I made another 3 batches of tortillas.

Golfing

Today Kenny and Adam(Katie's husband) were off work for Carnival. They wanted to go golfing and since the kids were in school we decided to tag along and relax by the pool. The relaxing lasted about 5 mins and then tons of people showed up with kids. It was still nice to just relax and not have to worry about watching for our kids in the pool. At lunch time we had my driver join Katie and I for lunch while the guys finished golfing. We placed our order about 11:30am and around 1:15pm we got our food. I know that everything is slow in Angola but even my driver said maybe they had to go catch the fish first. He is not one that will says things like this either. He said maybe it was a shark and it is taking a lot of guys to get it to the restaurant. Katie and I got a can of Coke Light for $4.50 and our meal was 3 little pieces of meat, french fries and spinach and it cost each of us $35. My driver got fish and potatoes and his was $35 as well. I really miss fast food on days like today. They guys had us bring them a sandwich to eat on the way home and they only cost $5 a piece.

Kenny said the golfing was great and he had a lot of fun. It's about an hour from the house and the scenery is so nice it doesn't even feel like you are in Luanda. To golf it cost $100 and $50 for a cart. I was a little taken back by the price and then Katie had to remind me that it was the same amount we pay to get a manicure and pedicure. I couldn't complain after that. :-)

On the way we passed this golf course. It had absolutely no green grass.

Imbondeiro Tree

We seen a few of these sail boats.(Sorry for the picture it was with my cell phone)

These were our lunch companions.

A tree farm we passed.

Adam getting ready to take a shot. These are a few pictures Kenny took while they were golfing.

One last story. When Baptista was taking Katie and me over to pick up the guys he turned on a small road. I told him I thought he turned to soon and he said maybe it's ok. Katie and I kept looking at each other and laughing because we thought it was the road for the golf carts, but Baptista kept saying it was ok. Once we got to the end of the road a cart was about to drive down it. Sure enough he was driving on the cart roads. He could tell they were a little upset so he stopped by the workers and apologized to them. I told him they were going to write down his tag numbers and wouldn't allow him there again. He said, "Maybe it's ok". (He says this to almost everything.)

Food finds

Sometimes when you buy meat here you not only get the protein from it but you get a little bonus protein as well. I did not buy this bag of chicken for all you that are wondering. :-)

For $18.19 you get chicken breast and a fly!!! Only in Africa!!!!

The other day I made home made ice cream and the boys wanted some Hershey's chocolate syrup, thanks to Pepa. I found some at the store but for $15 the boys will have to continue to be without it.

Found some Beef Jerky for Kenny. It only cost $23 for a 75g bag(2.5 oz). He didn't get any of it either. 

Kenny found a bakery close to his new office and they had chocolate donuts, so he got some for the boys. He had them close their eyes and smell to see if they could guess what it was and they both got it right. Jacob said they were delicious.

Here is the inside of a passion fruit. Tonight I made grilled chicken with passion fruit sauce and it was really good.