New Hair Trends, maybe

This past week the girls were in a charity fashion show. One of Jana's friends designed and made each item. They had been rehearsing for weeks. It ate up a lot of time after school. They were so happy to have it over with.

They went to the mall and had their hair done. Maren said they had to do hers twice and it was so painful.

The makeup was very dramatic.

When they had some down time they got out their sidewalk chalk. They really are Super Girls!

Need help with your Christmas shopping?

You can find just about anything you might need along the streets here. The traffic is pretty bad so they combine shopping and driving. Need some new trousers? I think it must be one size fits all. Those above look huge for a local!

Some lovely dresses. I'm amazed out how stylish the ladies are here.

Yes, boxers in all colors. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, they walk along the side of the cars and we are told not to have anything of value in sight. I have seen cookware, washclothes, lamps, rugs, baby walkers, blow up mattresses, nail clippers, crackers, popcorn ,DVD players, lots of DVD's and music CD's. I'm sure that they're not illegally downloaded. One of the girls friends bought King Kong movie and it had the newest picture on the front but when he got home it was a really bad animation from the 70's.

Fans? Or how about a balloon bouquet. You may be wondering how you pay for things. You roll down the window and barter the price first and of course that is when the traffic picks up and the poor kid has to chase you down. Hopefully you have the correct change so he doesn't have to try to pull out all his loose bills in his sweaty pocket. I have only bought one thing off the street so far.

International Day

This is our favorite celebration of the year. It starts off with a parade with all the countries dressed in their native dress carrying their flag. It's so pretty with all the colors and the pride of ones own country is wonderful. Above is a picture of some Angolans doing traditional dancing. They did a great job.

Then there is a brief program with as many countries that want to participate in it. This year USA did a tribute to American sports. Gwen was a flag twirler.

Jay was is the baseball scene. (He wasn't to thrilled about wearing a High School Musical uniform)

I wish there was room to show all the pictures because some of the costumes were so beautiful. Above is Columbia.

It's getting hot, hot, HOT

We have had another day off of work and school for the celebration of Angola's independence from Portugal, so we headed for the beach. We take the company boat out to an almost island about a 15 minute boat ride from our house. The beach on one side looks like the picture above. Full of garbage.

So we walked to the other side where the beach is much cleaner. It is getting so hot! The water is really refreshing.

These kids walked a long ways to see if we wanted any coconuts or dresses.

Luanda looks pretty good from a distance!

Happy Halloween

Ahh yes, the thrills of Halloween. All the children on the compound get together for trick-or-treating and then for dinner and games.
It's always a fun time. John even went bobbing for apples or should I say dunking!

Gwen couldn't wait to be a cowgirl. Her friend changed costumes several times before deciding on being a cat.

Jay was a great "Indiana Jay" he was so happy to have lots of American candy.

My costume just wowed everybody. They said that they had a hard time recognizing me. My kids couldn't even see a difference.

October break is over

It is always such a welcome break in October to have no school for a week. We had a "Staycation" since some of our passports were stuck getting the visa put in. Maren went with me to teach english at the girls home. They love her and think she is so beautiful.

My friend Lydia is moving in a couple of weeks and then I'm on my own. I keep telling myself that my english is better then no english at all! If any of you out there have any suggestions I would really appreciate them!
Lydia and I finished up the sewing class with the older girls. I will start again in February after their summer.

We went with a bunch of families to the beach, it was a very relaxing day. Not to many jellyfish stings so we were happy.

Some local fisherman. The seagulls followed them everywhere.

Is this the little girl I carried?

I remember a song from "Fiddler on the Roof" sung by Tevye and Golde called "Sunrise, Sunset" as they reminisce about how their daughter and grown and how they didn't remember growing older, and asked when did they?

That's exactly how I'm feeling!

Wasn't it yesterday when she was small?

When did she get to be a beauty? Sunrise, Sunset! Happy Birthday our dear, precious, delightful, talented, extraordinary, funny, sensible, amazing, gorgeous, peace making daughter. We love you with all our hearts!

Around Town

This picture John took from a window of our new church building. It's a typical looking street here. It's not the rainy season yet but we have had a few light storms. As you can see there is no where for the water to go. It doesn't help that everyone throws their household water out into the street.

Street shopping where you can buy fruit, fish, flipflops, you name it. Children roam freely unsupervised by adults here.

In the background of this photo there is a space needle looking sculpture. It was a gift from Russia.

Maren climbing an Imbonderieo tree, I'm happy to say she was able to get down with no problem.

"I Hope You Have a Great Day" - by Gwen

When was the last time you really sang like no one was listening?

Incredible Jay

I'm always amazed at the cleverness, courage and kindness that can emerge from my 11 year old boy.

He will think of ways to entertain Gwen and her friend, like making a blanket tent so they could play dogs.

He is blessed to have a good friend right next door who also wants to do whats right. They came up with a "anti-swearing" club for our compound in hopes of encouraging those that swear to stop and those that don't to have courage to not start. The response was great! 2 boys signed up because they said they swear way too much.

He never complains about going to church. It can be difficult for the strongest of us because of the language barrier. He is a great young man and a blessing to all he knows.

A Whale of a Tale

We had a holiday on Thursday and we were lucky enough to get the company boat. We invited some friends to come along and we had a very successful day. John and I spent most of the time on the upper part of the boat. (great view, but lots more motion)
While the rest preferred staying on the front.

The humpback whales come to Angola to feed. And that became pretty obvious as we were following this pod around

They would come up in front of us and then behind us and then in front again. All the while rocking the boat.

They were not in a show off mood, though one of them slightly breached I missed it while I was getting Gwenny her sandwich!
What beautiful creatures they are, it was very uplifting to be so close to them.