Friday walks

On Fridays, the embassy closes early because they have longer days the rest of the week.  So Briant and I have used the childless Friday afternoons to take walks and explore Luanda at a pace we wouldn't be able to do with the kids.  It's the one day when I have really been able to stretch my legs and explore because Briant is with me.  This particular day we wanted to find our new apartment building to which we will be moving.  These pics show some of what we saw along the way (for security purposes, I will not show pictures of the outside of our new apartment building):

An beautiful little green space that is kept up for the most part.  A rare treat.

Across the street from the green space are the "flower ladies."  They sell fake flowers because right across the street, on the other side of the green space, is a large cemetery.  It's a cemetery for people that have money.  Bri's phone crashed after we took pics of those, so we'll have to take pics again.

A close up of what you can't really see in the usual pictures taken at a distance.  Broken items and trash on the sidewalks.

I don't think I've seen one sidewalk yet that is not torn up in some way.   :)  They're usually made from paving bricks.

Posters advertising an upcoming event.  They never just put up one poster.  :)

We're standing on the sidewalk looking at a roof of some building that is below us.  Sadly these kinds of piles of trash are all too common. 

Barbed wire on the tops of fences around most buildings.  This is a beautiful Catholic school.  For some reason, it seems like most of the Catholic schools and churches here are light pink in color.

Nice to see a dumpster!  Note:  Parked cars on the sidewalk.

Catholic school

We love these trees with the orange flowers.  I think they're called "Royal Poinciana."  We see them all over.

This is an area close to our new apartment building.  The picture doesn't begin to show the chaos that is going on in this intersection nor can you hear the honking.  :)  I laugh, but also fear for my life every time I have to cross the street.  There appear to be streetlights, but they're not working so it's every man for himself, and every pedestrian for himself.  I've only seen a few streetlights that actually work here in Luanda.  The men on motorcycles are the scariest.  They come out of nowhere and will do whatever they want which is usually illegal.

We left the chaos, heat, and humidity and stepped into an Italian restaurant to get a cold drink.  Bri got his favorite pop called Guarana that he first started drinking in Brazil on his mission, and I got bottled water.

This was me smiling after cooling off with my drink of water.  This picture doesn't show the beads of sweat that were all over my face, neck, and head.  Needless to say, after we left the restaurant, my hair went up in a ponytail--my usual hairstyle here for staying cooler and dryer.

"Avenida Snack Bar" it says.  Notice the parking situation.  This is a typical street.  People are parked in the regular parking stalls, and then there are cars parked perpendicularly behind them.

Lady selling mylar balloons!  I wished I had a special occasion so I could buy one.  I'm sure they'll be hard to find again.

The only museum that we know of here in Luanda.  The Angolan national symbol is the sable antelope, or in Portuguese, Palanca Negra.  They are critically endangered.  Sadly, with years of civil war and land mines that still exist, animal life in Angola has suffered.

Back to our neighborhood where the embassy is located.

Sign affixed to the embassy wall--"Against HIV and Aids, zero is our goal."  The embassy sponsored an AIDS walk the weekend I was sick.