Christmas in Luanda

It's hard for me to believe it's Christmas time. It's sad that I relate Christmas to cold weather. But here in Luanda there are signs of Christmas, like this nice light of Santa and his reindeers.

And unfortunately you can't see the other Christmas lights in the picture above. I know that this would've been better seen at night but I'm never out at night! But I hear that it's the best time to view the city because you can see the lights and not the trash!
That street is one of the main streets here, always bumper to bumper traffic.

It took them several weeks to put the huge tree together and apparently it's the first year that they have had this one. It's close to our house about 2 miles away.

Angola in bloom

Everywhere you look it seems that something is blooming, it's just gorgeous! It is truly "eye candy". The orange trees they call fire trees. I'm afraid my picture doesn't do them justice because the color is so vibrant.

If the Imbondeiro trees weren't cool enough already, they have these balls that hang from them and bloom into the white blossoms.

The long banana shaped things I'm not sure what they are, I'll keep watching to see if they do anything.

These guys are gardeners and when they saw me with the camera they asked me to take their picture, you can't tell by the picture but they were real excited about it. My gardener is on the right his name is Clementino, he does a good job of keeping the grass mowed and watered.

Now Let us Rejoice!

The full time Missionaries have arrived in Angola for the first time and we feel abundantly blessed to be here. Angola is part of the Mozambique Mission so these Elders came from there. 2 American's 2 Mozambiquan's. We were thrilled to have them in our home.
The American's finish their missions in May and the other Elders will be here for a year. That's a long assignment! They seemed very ready for the work that is a head of them.

These adorable missionaries came the week before. The couple on the left serve full time in Mozambique as Welfare Missionaries and
couple on the right serve all over the world he is a retired Doctor and teaches hospitals about neonatal resuscitation. They travel 8 weeks on 3 weeks off. I was so amazed at their stamina. The doctor doesn't speak portuguese so that is why the other couple came along. We had such a ball with them, John and I can't wait to do this!

International Day

Last Saturday was our schools international day. It was so much fun. There were booths from every country that is represented at our school with food to sample and things to learn about them. Each country that wanted to, participated in the talent show. The American's did "music through the years" Gwen was in the colonial time.

Jay was in the "break dancing" time. He even did a few spins!

Every country paticipated in the parade, it was spectacular all the costumes were so beautiful. This is Nigeria.

Go USA!!

Youth Activity

Jana and Maren are so warmly welcomed by the girls even though only a handful can speak english. They give them hugs and pull them into whatever they are doing.

We were happy to have the youth of our church here over for a day long youth activity. Monday was a holiday here called "day of the dead" where they go and take care of the grave sites of their deceased family members. They decorate them with fresh flowers.
Very similar to Memorial Day in the States. So everyone had the day off of school and work. The youth leaders had a full day of fun activities planned. They at first wanted it to be in our home but when people kept coming and coming we moved it up to the compound recreation center that was still decorated for Halloween. So we had to explain that to the Angolans.

This sweet little girl is named Denise and she is five like Gwen, she can count in English and sing "Head, shoulder, knees and toes" in english. She sits by Gwen each week in Primary and they write there letters together. She borrowed one of Gwen's swimming suits, it barely stayed on her! She couldn't swim but she really wanted to wear goggles like Gwenny.

The young men were playing "spin the phone" they seem to be a very nice group of boys. It was a bit of a surprise for me when it was time to swim some boys must've forgotten their swimsuits and felt that their underwear was a suitable substitute!
They had a talent show some sang, some danced. Then they taught us some Angolan dancing and Jana and Maren taught them the dance "We like to party" it was great! You didn't have to coax any one into doing it. They were very enthusiastic, WOW!
We have a young darling American couple in our branch who are swing dancers and they tried to teach that to the youth, it was pretty hard, Jana got dropped a couple of times by her over zealous partner.

Happy Halloween

Gwen was Cinderella, Maren and her friend went as the ugly step sister's, well, they weren't very ugly!

John just wanted to wear his kilt. Can you blame him he has great legs! It made me so homesick for Scotland!

Here are half of the kids on the compound I didn't get the other half before they broke up. Will is in the upper right corner and was so happy to have a Halloween Party. He wore his graduation gown and went as Darth Mal, the Sith. (I think).

The kids had tons of candy and were very excited. They even had a trading market going so they could get more of their favorites!

Trick or Treat?!

Last week Gwen and a couple of her friends came over to find Gwen something to dress-up in, I just thought that they were playing "dress-up's". Little did I know they had gone trick-or-treating! And the amazing thing is that they got candy, I guess they were to cute to turn down.

Happy Birthday!!!

Yay! yesterday was my birthday, the big ol' 17. I do feel really old now...It was a great day, we had Enchiladas and Lemon Pound Cake for dinner, two of my favorite things! It was delish! Jay went a little crazy with the butter on my nose, it was gross. After dinner we watched a movie together, it was a fun day overall!

A Whale of a Tale

One of the joys of being here in Launda is that we live right on the coast so we enjoy the wonderful coastal breeze and the gorgeous view. Esso provides boats for its employees to enjoy. So a group of ladies took me out to see the whales. They are migrating now and I'm not sure what direction they are going. This group of ladies are seasoned African Expats. They have been wonderful help.
My friend Debbie in the pink Texas Tech has been a heaven send! Her family leaves us next week for Houston.

I was the only one with a point and shot camera they all had these huge cameras with telaphoto lenses!! They said I shouldn't do a safari without one. I'll be sure to tell John! The whales are a type of humpback.

There is just something awesome about seeing these beautiful creatures up close. Almost a reverence, I just felt so much gratitude for a wonderful world to live and enjoy.

Through the streets of Luanda

We video taped our way to church, we leave at about 8:15 and get there close to 9:00.
This video is not for those that get motion sick! I tried my best but the roads can be very bumpy. Keep you eye peeled for when you see chicken's cross the road that is the street our church is on.
Also, it is illegal to video any military or police so if I drop the camera suddenly it's because of a police passing by. I tried to be very discrete because I found out that some Angolans believe that you take part of their soul when they are photographed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwk4N5vmE6M

Mussulo Beach

Today was a National Holiday so John had the day off of work. We took a boat over to the peninsula that we see from our house.












We sat on some chairs on the beach and enjoyed watching these adorable kids play on this boat.













Then one of them noticed us and went and got the beads that he was supposed to be selling!
















And boom! out of no where came a whole flock of them! So cute, needless to say we
couldn't resist their amazing salesmenship ability. We bought some lovely necklaces.
They also sold sea shells and coconuts.

Home Sweet Home

I have had some request to see our house so here are a few pics. The kitchen came with all the plates, cups, utensils and even a deep fryer! I brought my UK bread maker that I use with an adapter. I also brought my UK crockpot.

All the furniture is provided for us. Even the beige and leopard print pillows, anything red or cute we brought.

The tile floor is so hard and cold that I wear shoes most of the time. There are rugs in most rooms but not the nice and soft kind.

The bedrooms

Jay and Will share the converted one car garage. Jay has the top bunk and netting keeps falling down but he likes it since he hates bugs.

Jana has her own room for the first time and is loving it.

Gwen and Maren share this room Gwen loves being on the top bunk.

The Master bedroom. Someone asked if we actually use our mosquito netting and the answer is yes indeed.