We landed!

I couldn't take pics of a lot of what I describe here because it wasn't safe to pull my camera out.  But here's a description of the first few moments in Angola:

We landed in Angola!  It was a surreal experience looking out over Angola as we were approaching the runway.  We were landing in Africa!  As Briant and I say, “Afri-freaking-ca.”  A word that combines our shock and excitement of the thought of living in Africa for 2 years.  J  After going through customs, a very short line luckily, we were met by Garcia, a locally employed embassy worker wearing a tan vest with an American Flag on it.  Luckily he had a big smile and gave us a warm welcome in English.  He had luggage carts waiting for us so it was easy to grab our 10 pieces of luggage quickly and go.  I was amazed that all of the luggage made it even with a plane transfer!  Between those 10 bags and our 10 carry-ons, we had our hands full, not to mention the task of keeping track of Rhea who was “zooming” around the airport pushing her duffle bag while singing, in her own little la-la land, without a fear or care in the world.  I on the other hand, was trying to keep track of all three kids, all of the bags they were carrying, and worrying about protecting the rest of our belongings as we pushed through crowds of locals waiting at the exit doors.  This is a high crime post, so we have to be constantly aware of our surroundings and the attention that we’re attracting.  Right as I got to the door to exit, the three large duffle bags on my cart lost their balance and fell off.  Rhea was still behind me, but lagging, oblivious to the anxiety I was feeling about keeping up with Briant and Garcia, both of whom had their own luggage carts to worry about and were in front of me.  I yelled out to Briant and luckily he heard me.  But he was surrounded by people as well and had to care for his own bags, so I was on my own.  The fall of my luggage caught the attention of some of the local men who started reaching for my bags.  I think they were coming to help me and not to actually run off with our things.  I had high hopes, but there is so much poverty here, that I could hardly blame them if they took the opportunity to gain some clothes, possibly jewelry, etc. from U.S. citizens who really are rich and living like kings and queens compared to them.  I glanced back and called for Rhea one more time and then noticed a tall, clean cut man just a few feet from me walking toward me.  He smiled as he started to help put the bags on my cart.  I knew he was American.  I thanked him quietly for helping me, as his presence for sure gave the other men around me the message that I was not alone and that he was looking out for me.  During the chaos, to reassure me as well, he said, “I’m with the U.S. Embassy too.”  Relief came and I felt calmed.  He followed me all the way out and when we caught up with everyone else, he introduced himself as being one of the marines (he didn’t have a uniform on so it wasn’t readily apparent when I saw him).  Briant and I have since decided to call him “Captain America.”  J  We’ve also decided that the $150 per ticket cost for the fundraising Marine Ball this week is worth every penny considering how they are the ones that are protecting us while we are here!

Here's Liam a week later at the Marine Ball.  "Captain America."

Our sponsors, Heather and Scott, met us at the airport by the cars waiting to load our things.  We’re given a sponsor at every post—usually someone volunteers for the “job.”  Sponsors are wonderful resources because they have been at the post and can answer all of our questions about life in that specific country.  So Heather and Scott were wonderful to communicate with through email and telephone about the school our kids would attend, transportation, housing, etc.  It was great to finally meet them!  They picked us up, took us back to our apartment, and helped us settle in.  We loved the apartment!  Very clean (and new), every kid had their own room and bathroom, and it had a much larger kitchen than what I had in VA.  Oh, and wonderful closet space as well as spacious rooms.  We found our pantry and fridge stocked with food to help us survive a few days until we could get to a grocery store, as well as a meal of chicken and potatoes already prepared for us by their Angolan cook.  Briant was shocked to find a whole lemon in the chicken when he cut into it.

It worked out that our sponsors also took Briant the next day to go grocery shopping and get our cell phones set up.  We felt lucky to have had such a warm welcome that put us at ease in our new surroundings.  They also have two kids that hit it off instantly with our kids—they ran around the new apartment while we adults did our talking.  That was exactly the welcome our kids needed as well. 

We got our kids to bed as quickly as we could after Heather and Scott left which was about 9pm Angolan time.  It’s 5 hours ahead of Virginia time, but with the kids not sleeping on the trip, they were ready to sleep.  Briant and I tried to go through our bags and pick out things we needed, trying to find the bags that contained our most important things.  

That’s when the disco tech decided to give us their welcome!  This disco tech is down below, about one floor up from ground level, in the open air between our building and another high rise building across from us.  

The music started out at a lower level of decibels with a lot of base, but within the hour had doubled, then tripled and even quadrupled in volume throughout the night.  From 10pm-4am.  All of our bedroom windows overlook the club, so the sounds came straight into our bedrooms, especially the master bedroom because we have a sliding glass door.  The vibrations are bouncing off of the building opposite us, and straight into our apartment.  I’ve lived in Brooklyn & Queens, NY, as well as Las Vegas where there tends to be a lot of noise.  But this experience outclassed them all!  In fact, it went the following night and Saturday also.  The volume level is astounding!  There is no way to explain how shocked we were at the inconsideration of this club, to the people that are living here in these million dollar apartments.  Apparently we are the only people on this side of the building so far that have completely moved in, although some owners that are “powerful people” that have tried sleeping here, have complained about the sound as well, to no avail.  The cost of living is so expensive here, that the rent per month is literally what we would pay for our house in Utah over a year of mortgage payments!  So the other newcomers are in for a real surprise as we were on the first night here.  I imagine that there will be a lot of upset owners and maybe something will change.  However, the club is owned by the wealthiest lady here in Angola, the daughter of the President, so there is nothing we can do about it right now.

Already super sleep deprived upon our arrival in Angola, Briant and I then experienced two of the worst nights of sleep since having a new born baby!  We moved our mattress out to the front foyer where there are no windows and is somewhat insulated from the noise.  Rhea woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep so she moved out with us to the hall.  Thomas and Savvy I think were just so exhausted from the traveling, that they actually slept.  A miracle really!  I took a number of videos of the music, showing the contrast between being outside on our deck and being indoors in our bedroom, which of course wasn’t much.  We ended up showing them to Heather, our sponsor, who is also the Deputy Chief of Mission, and that got the ball rolling for some communication with the Housing Board over our issues.  We hated being so new here and already complaining about our apartment!  It was just beyond unbearable, and the sleep deprivation spoke louder than my feelings to be quiet about our issues.  

It's hard to find good housing here that meet the security and U.S. standards of living.  There have been housing appeals from other people, and there are other new families coming in that need to have their needs met as well.  After the disco tech guard told us that the club is only open Thurs., Fri., and Sat., we decided just to try moving everyone to mattresses in the quiet area of the house on those nights (even Thomas and Savvy because I don’t think they’re sleeping very soundly even if they seem to be).  We had the help of two big box fans to try and block out the noise.  

Settling down before bed...in the kitchen.

We also requested for the building management to come and look at the sealants around the windows and doors to see if they can improve those as well.   We slept in the hall one night with the fans and realized that not even that was going to be enough to sleep.  And the thought of dealing with this for 2 years was too much for the sleep deprived to think about.  So the next day, we filed our “appeal” to the housing board, to consider placing us in more appropriate housing.  Not surprisingly, most people from the embassy we talked to said that Angola is noisy everywhere and that a lot of people have to deal with club music.  Briant and I tried to explain that we were sure the noise level was above normal and that others in the embassy community have had to deal with.  In our appeal we welcomed anyone to come and try to get five minutes of sleep in our apartment.  Luckily the board met, watched the 6 or 7 videos I took in different areas of the apartment and at different times in the middle of the night, which also included one video that Thomas took at 5am when the music woke him up!  We had a compelling argument.  The board agreed that the music was excessive and granted the housing change.  One board member that came to our apartment to see the videos before they met, said, "It sounds like the club is in your apartment!  The music coming into your apartment is louder than I would play in my apartment on my own!" It feels so good to have our complaints validated!