IT'S BIDDING SEASON!!!!

We’ve been in Angola exactly 6 months today!  I think we should celebrate!  I have to take a minute and say, “We’ve made it!”  We’ve survived 6 months in a completely foreign…extremely foreign… and not only foreign, but 3rd world, country!  Before we had kids, I went to Brazil with Briant.  After just a few days in the country, I ran to a McDonalds when I saw it.  I can’t remember, but I may have even worked up some tears as I ate the fries.  And now here we are living a life abroad, without McDonalds, and a lot of other things, and somehow surviving!  I think it’s important that I (and my entire family) take a minute to recognize how far we've come.  It’s difficult to see our progress on a day to day basis, but the growth is there when we look back over time.  This is one of those moments of reflection for me.  Living abroad with kids is not something that I felt totally capable of doing before we joined the foreign service.  When we discussed it years ago, I was very hesitant and remember saying, “I think we need stability.  Besides that, I love our country and appreciate the laws and order that are in place here along with the modern conveniences and ease and general peace in which we can live our lives.”  The kids were excited about going abroad but wanted to take the Alpine mountains and friends and relatives with them (that hasn't changed for them, or anyone :)).   

Now, it’s bidding season!  And not only are we celebrating 6 months in a 3rd world country, but we’re now looking ahead to where we’re going to be for our next post.  It’s hard to believe that we’re already bidding on our next post seeing as how we’re going to be here for another year and a half, but moving people around the world to work in the hundreds of embassies demands organization and planning for everyone involved.  And I don’t mind of course--Briant and I have always preferred to know what the future holds instead of being completely in the dark.  :)

 

Here's Bri creating an excel spreadsheet for our bid list to try and make sense of it all

“Bidding” on a post gets tricky.  Those serving at “hardship” posts get priority in the bidding cycle for their second tour.  Angola is a hardship, high crime post with a 25% differential, so we get to bid first after those in the Middle East, and then they move on to the groups of less and then no differential at all.  They provided a list of 500 possible post options (many of them being the same country but different starting dates and job positions), and you have to find the countries that match your timing of when you will be leaving your current post, the time needed to get language training if necessary, and then match the timing of when you get out of language training to when the post is requesting you to be there to start your job.  And along with all of that, you get home leave which is usually about a month that you need to account for in your timing.  It gets tricky because with all of this juggling, there are different start dates for all of the different language courses and they’re not all equal in length (e.g. Chinese, Arabic, and Russian are much longer than Spanish).  And of course when you have kids, you have to work around the school year if you can or you might find yourself going to literally three different schools in one school year.  We’re thinking that we need to avoid Spanish speaking posts for that reason this time.  Because of timing, and Briant already having some Spanish, we would have to start the school year here in Angola for just 2 months, move to Virginia for language for 4-5 months, and then move to post only to have 3 or 4 months left of school--3 schools, 3 different teachers and classmates, and way too much adapting in one school year.  We don’t think our kids would appreciate that. :) Needless to say, we’ve been working on identifying the lesser of evils so to speak between all of the posts.  We’re supposed to come up with a list of 30 countries that we’re interested in (not all perfect though, some Spanish, etc.).  We’ve worked all week researching these posts, trying to learn about the schools, church, housing, lifestyle, etc. to see if they will meet our needs.  It's weird (and difficult at the same time) to look ahead and forecast what we will need.  For example, after our time here and language training, the kids will arrive at the new post just turning 13 (Thomas), 11 (Savvy), and 9 (Rhea).  When we first started looking at the bid list, my mind was still thinking of my kids as little, so I was thinking of playgrounds and the elementary school.  It was weird to think that I actually also needed to look at middle school options for Thomas, and then for Savvy for the 2nd year that we're there! I’ve reached out to wonderful people, most of them complete strangers, that have served or are currently serving in these posts, and they’ve been more than happy to share what they know to help us make better educated bids.  I’m so grateful for them because the countries have become less foreign and unknown to us.  So, we just turned our list in and now we wait.  There's a lot of "hurry up and...wait" in the foreign service I've learned.  As my good friend Melissa in Mauritania said, we can’t wait to see where the “drunk monkey” decides to send us!  Briant and I laughed at her choice of words because it seriously feels like it’s a drunk monkey making the assignments as to where everyone goes (actually, we have felt more like the drunk monkeys because one day we want to go to a certain country and then the next day, we don’t.  We have been all over the map—literally, no pun needed!).  Joking aside, we know that our lives are in the hands of the Lord and all will work out to be for our benefit, just as Angola is.  This life, foreign service or not, requires a lot of faith! 

Ironically, a game that we ordered called “Take Off” that Briant played with his family as a child, arrived a few days after we started working on the bid list.  The goal of the game is to get your jet from Honolulu, HI all the way across the globe back to Honolulu before your opponents do.  There are colored paths that you navigate on, using colored dice that dictate your path when you roll them.  It was so fun to see the kids recognizing countries that we had been discussing during our bidding and learning where they were located.  It’s definitely                                                                                               a fun way to learn geography!

About half-way through the game the power went out.  The colored travel pathways were difficult to see without overhead light so we brought out some flashlights.  We didn’t have electricity for 3 hours.  The power goes out ALL the time, but the longest has been only 10 minutes or so because our building has a generator that kicks on pretty quickly.  This time it didn't.  This was the longest that we have ever gone without power here thankfully.  Most people here are not as lucky. 

So the kids played for a little bit in the dark (not having electricity and having to use flashlights is not a chore for the kids.  Actually Savvy cried after an hour or so of the power going out because she didn’t “like it.”).

We tried to take their minds off of it though by reading a fun book called “Summer of the Monkeys” that we started recently and then put the kids to bed.
They all wanted to start out sleeping in our bed, so they did but they got hot all together without the air working.  Here’s Rhea all sweaty.  I have no idea how she sleeps with her hair all over her face!

Last weekend we had our semi-annual General Conference for the LDS church.  This was our first time watching conference abroad! We’re 7 hours ahead of Utah where it’s broadcasted from, so we watched the Saturday morning session at 5pm our time, and then watched the next session Sunday morning.  We used some of our Saturday as well catching up on the Women’s conference session—thank goodness everything is accessible on the internet!  We’ll catch up on the Sunday afternoon session and Priesthood session during the week since we were asleep when it was broadcast. It was great to see Temple Square and all of the tulips!  It was wonderful to hear from our wonderful church leaders and their inspired messages. When I tucked Savvy into bed the night before Conference started, she said, “The best part about Conference is dragging my pillows and blankets out and being cozy while we watch.”  I guess that is a tradition that we’ve had going.  Literally all of their bedding comes out as well as stuffed animals.  You know, the other members of the family.  :)

    I always feel renewed after watching conference and love the opportunity to continue studying the talks for the next 6 months before the next conference.  I’ve been especially inspired by the talks about fear and turning to the Savior to deal with our daily fears and weaknesses through his grace.  My favorites:  Elder Bednar: “Therefore They Hushed Their Fears.”  Elder Wilford Andersen: “The Music of the Gospel.”  Elder Brent Nielsen:  “Waiting for the Prodigal.”  Elder Holland:  “Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet.” Elder Uchtdorf:  “The Gift of Grace.”  

In between sessions, there was a lot of lego building going on with dad:

We also worked on reading the first four books of, “The Series of Unfortunate Events” over Spring break, which overlapped with Conference weekend.   

Thomas and Dad got some much needed haircuts this weekend!  We had fun playing with their hair before I cut it.  

Here below he’s doing an impression of our nephew, Wesley’s “angry face” that he used to do.  We all still get a kick out of how cute Wesley's face was and how quickly he could transition from his angry face to a happy face and then back to his angry face.  He could make us laugh every time he did it!  

Bri was making me laugh because he reminded me of the villain in “The Incredibles,” the Disney cartoon movie.  We really could have had more fun if we had added some gel!

The final product!

Thomas was popular with the little boys at church today because of his hair.  They all wanted to touch his "fuzzy wuzzy" head, as we call it.

Then when Thomas tried to touch the hair of one of the little boys, he ran away because he didn't want anyone to touch his hair. :)

I started teaching English classes at church this weekend.  Briant and I decided that teaching English classes during our time here in Angola would be a wonderful way to serve as a family.  We thought that we could handle doing the classes two Saturdays a month (2 hours each time) so we could still have the other two Saturdays free for whatever we wanted to do as a family.  We’re trying to account for those weekends where we may want to escape from the city to a beach or explore the provinces outside of Luanda which could involve hours of driving.  

For the first class, I prepared a lesson involving basic greetings and introductions along with a few primary songs like, the "Hello" song and "If you're happy and you know it."  We also sang the alphabet song and used it to help them spell their names.  We started introducing pronouns and a few ways to use the verb "to be."

Bri was super helpful sharpening pencils for me to pass out before class.  It was so fun to have him there in the English class to help as well.  At the embassy I teach by myself, so I love this opportunity to have him help me sing or model what we’re teaching.  He’s also handy when I’m trying to clarify the meaning of an English word in Portuguese and I don’t know how to say it.  The kids were helpful as well singing all of the songs.  They had a Primary activity at the same time so they were in and out, helping when they could.  These classes really are going to be a family thing, as everyone will be attending and helping.  I will be involving the kids in the set up and clean up of the class, singing, modeling things, leading some small group practices or games, and just being available for questions if someone needs help on pronunciation or wants someone to practice with.

Here's Rhea entertaining herself with a whiteboard during class.  She loves using the whiteboard to practice her own teaching.  She told me yesterday that she wants to be a teacher someday too.  :)

Getting ready for class to begin.  :)

 The first class went really well.  I think it was fun for everyone, including my family and I!  Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law sent us supplies to use to teach the classes including lap-size white boards with markers, pads of paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, sight word cards, 3-ring binders, rulers, etc.  I think the students were even more excited for the free pad of paper and pencil they received than the free English class!  Branch members came, as well as some visitors that the missionaries had invited.  Today I found out that our branch president emailed the other branch presidents from the district to invite their members to attend the classes also.  Angolans are very motivated to learn English as I’ve seen from teaching at the embassy.  And we even had a few older men come to the class.  They’re a little slower in catching the pronunciation and remembering the meaning of everything, but they seem just as motivated as everyone else to learn.  

Here they are practicing with a partner.  We did a lot of practice work so they could get over their shyness right away in the first class.  I also had volunteer pairs come up and demonstrate their practice in front of the class.  By the middle of class, they had loosened up and were less fearful.

The first talk in Sacrament meeting, the next day, opened with a "How are you brothers and sisters?" in English.  He then went on to say that he's taking the branch English classes but that he prefers to give the rest of the talk in Portuguese. :) I hope these classes prove to be valuable in the lives of these wonderful people!

Just some random things about the kids that I don't want to forget:

Thomas has drawn out “blue-prints” for the next car he’s “going to build with Brother Nielsen” when we go back to Utah for vacation.  He had me look up “engineering classes for kids” that he can attend while we’re in the states.   He misses tinkering with things here.  Back in the states he liked to take things apart, like computers, old phones, radios, etc. and play with the motors or other gadgets to build things.  We don’t have much for him to take apart here like we did back home.  So we want him to have some opportunities to take some engineering/robotics classes.  We’ll also see if his old piano teacher can give him lessons while we’re visiting.  He’s really improved in his piano playing and is totally motivated to learn on his own.  In fact, many times we have to drag him away from the piano because the rest of us need a break from it.  Luckily we have an electric keyboard so he can use earphones as well. :) He also loves the Irish whistle.  He’s also getting more and more interested in swimming technique and is looking forward to his afterschool swimming class that starts after the break.  He’s also expressed interest in joining the swim team.  We just watched video clips of Michael Phelps winning some of his gold medals from the 2012 Olympics. :)  

Savannah has given me some big hugs over the last few days since I converted the storage room to a bedroom for her.  She moved into the storage room with the understanding that she was just going to sleep there, because she kept complaining that Rhea was waking her up in the mornings.  It didn’t take long for her “area” to be covered in toys, coloring and cutting projects, etc.  So with the help of our wonderful, hardworking housecleaner, we cleared most everything out of the storage room to make it Savvy’s room.  This was not easy of course to find room for bins of winter clothes and boots, Christmas decorations, a Christmas tree, suitcases, camping equipment, beach chairs and umbrellas, coolers, etc.  I finally decided to attempt putting the Christmas tree on one of our porches, completely wrapped to protect it from the rain and humidity.  We’ll see if it works!  We’ve tucked everything else into closets and a small bathroom off of the kitchen.  After moving everything to different places around the house, it might take us a while to find everything when we need something, but we don’t have to worry as long as we have “Mr. Incredible” in the home (Briant--side note:  After the kids and I have failed to find something after turning the house upside down looking for it, Bri comes along, (known for about a year now as “Mr. Incredible,” a self-dubbed name) and finds it within just a few minutes of looking.  It’s frustrating to the rest of us who don’t feel so lucky, but grateful that he always seems to find everything!)  :)  Before Zita got on the elevator to leave after helping with Savvy's room, Savvy ran out to her to give her a big hug and say “Obrigada!”  The next morning, to thank her again for her help on her room, she created a paper candy holder that she colored with the names of Zita’s boys on it so she could give them the candy.  Sadly, the two older boys live out in the provinces because “Luanda is crazy” (her own words).   She wants them to go to school there.  She and her husband see them once every three months!  Anyway, we’re grateful for Zita's help here, especially Savvy right now.  And I'm grateful for Savvy's thoughtfulness toward Zita and that she wants to show her gratitude without it being suggested to her.  She really is a thoughtful girl with a big heart.  She's a wonderful hugger too.  

 
 Rhea continues to be the yellow personality that she is, literally laughing over everything and ready to play or be tickled at all times.  She’s quite the little teacher, getting into my teaching supplies all the time to use as she teaches her dolls.  She especially loves using a whiteboard and pens to teach.  She has started imitating activities that her older siblings participate in--knitting, reading chapter books, and racing laps in the pool with us without the fear of coming in last, etc.  She has a healthy dose of confidence without the fear or worry of failure.  She makes us laugh with the outfits she chooses for herself, especially the ones that would make anyone sweat in the middle of summer here in Angola, but don’t seem to bother her.  I think she suffers in the name of fashion.  :)  One funny idiosyncrasy that she has right now is that she can’t handle people throwing up or people even talking about throw up.  She literally freaks out and starts crying hysterically when the subject comes up.  She somehow came up with the code word “overboard” that we’re supposed to use instead of “throw up.”  “I need to overboard.”  We don’t have any more hysterics now about the issue.  :)

Easter weekend started off with a wonderful activity at the embassy.  A lot of people came, despite the number of families that were out of town for Spring break.  There was a lot of yummy food and desserts, as well as activities for the kids planned by our wonderful CLO (community liaison officer).  There was an Easter egg hunt, a water balloon toss that ended in a water fight which was followed by a hose being squirt into the bouncy house for the kids to slide and slip around in.  They also had crafts and coloring.  One of the marines also dressed up like the Easter bunny--the kids all knew that it was one of the marines, but they still loved having him there.  

A wonderful activity--it felt like home with the Easter activities and being social with families that we haven’t had a chance to see for a while.  It was exactly what the kids needed!

The kids have had spring break for the past two weeks.  International schools take longer breaks to accommodate the families traveling back home or abroad somewhere for vacation.  After looking at places to visit in Africa, we decided to continue to save our money and Bri’s vacation days for a trip back to the states.  I was able to take work off for the two weeks and Bri was still able to take a few days off to relax and play with us. 

The first week or so of the break looked like this--rain, and lots of it. 

At night, we had a lot of thunder and lightning that often woke us up.  I took this picture when lightning flashed across the pitch black sky at about 2am.

The kids have stayed busy with little projects and games, making tents, and playing together.  A wonderful package came from Gma & Gpa P. that contained a number of fun, hands-on activities that entertained them for hours!  They also had a little time playing Minecraft on the Ipad, their favorite thing right now.  I still limited their electronic time because no matter what you give, it's never "enough."  :) Of course we had the typical sibling rivalry as they spent a lot of time indoors and together constantly.  But I was pleased to observe that by the second week, things calmed down a bit and they’ve gotten better at playing peacefully.  It’s always a joy when the fighting stops and I can hear laughter and excitement in their voices on a more consistent basis! 

Savvy was excited to call me in to my room to show me how she was "doing what the Angolan women do."  Her baby doll on her back and a load to carry on her head that is resting merely on a piece of fabric.  It definitely looks easier than it is although all of the Angolan women say that it is easy for them!

On a Saturday, we decided to take our car for the first time, out of the Luanda city limits.  We had planned on going to the beach because the day before was nice.  But alas, we woke up to rain.  Still, we ventured out with the hopes that the rain would stop as we got farther away.  Unfortunately there is still a lot of traffic driving on a Saturday out of the city, and the rain only made it worse.  Unbelievably, the street vendors that walk through the traffic to sell their wares were still out and about despite the rain.  I wanted to take a few pictures, but there are a lot of "smash and grabs" here where someone will literally smash your window and grab what you're holding or your purse/bag that they see through your window.  We had an American recently that was working here, get his cell phone stolen right out of his hand when he rolled his window down for a second to throw something out.  He had to fight to keep his bag from going out the window too.  :) Needless to say, I got pictures only when we were out of the congestion, moving at higher speeds.

The trees (in the pic above) are called baobab trees.  They are the National Angolan tree.  It was amazing to us how green Angola is outside of the city!  It's beautiful, and very muddy on rainy days.

We drove a few hours, about one hour past the traffic, and found a beach all to ourselves.  We played at the beach for about an hour despite the heavy sprinkle.  The waves were dangerously large and fast in speed for the kids to use their boogie boards, so we kept them out of the water. :(  But they still found shells and random items on the beach to keep them busy.  I packed some rice and beans and snacks to eat, so we ate real quick under the cover of the trunk hood, cleaned off as much sand and mud as possible, and hopped back in for our 2 hour drive home.  There was more driving than play time, but we were glad to get out of the crazy city, see some greenery, and play at the beach.

On the side of the road, next to where our car was parked (no parking lot, luckily we have 4-wheel drive to get out of the mud), was this beautiful area of greenery with purple flowers.  We feel almost deprived of nature here being surrounded by so much concrete and asphalt in the city, that it's always so refreshing when we see beautiful pieces of nature.  These pics aren't ones that I would think could come out of Angola!

On our way home, we saw these giraffe statues.  We're guessing this use to be an entrance to the beach, or was supposed to be an entrance.  It's run down and not used.  We liked the giraffes though.

The baobab tree again.

No street sweepers here, or good drains.  :) The muddy streets and "sidewalks" don't seem to faze any of the locals.  I felt guilty driving in my nice car though.  Below are people waiting to catch taxis in the rain.

If you look carefully at the pic below, you can see brown water from all of the dirt/mud that has washed into the ocean.

With the rain and lack of desire to sit in hours of traffic to go anywhere else during the week, we simply hunkered down in our apartment and had quality time as a family--which is how most of our time is spent here in Angola.  A blessing for sure really, even though we wish we had more to do and the ability to move around more easily.   Still, we enjoyed reading the first four books of “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”  We’ve been playing the board game “Ticket to Ride” ad nauseam (per Thomas’ OCD request), and watching 1970’s/80's movies from our childhood like “Pollyanna,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” “Escape to Witch Mountain,” "The Apple Dumpling Gang," and of course more "Little House on the Prairie."  We even pulled out the board game "Celestial Pursuit" that we've had for years, but had to wait until the kids could succeed at answering the trivia questions.  This is a game that both Briant and I have fond memories of playing as children.  

"The Apple Dumpling Game" inspired creative play for the kids.  Here Thomas and Savvy are acting out being robbers, and tying Rhea up.  I walked by to see what they were doing to Rhea, and got taken hostage as well.  :)

Luckily the clouds parted the second week of the break and we got to enjoy swimming almost every day at the pool of our home teacher once and the pool of some friends where we were cat sitting.  The  kids love racing, diving, doing cartwheels into the pool, and especially climbing on dad.  

 I loved this interaction with Savvy and Bri.  Savvy was feeling needy in the pool for one on one attention from Bri and I.  Here it was Bri's turn.  Savvy is not bashful about being in another person's personal space.  I laughed when I heard Bri's subtle humor in his sarcastic statement to her talking about their relationship, but really referring to their actual physical distance:  "Savvy, I feel like there's too much distance between us."

Thank goodness for dads!  They take a beating--a beating that I'm too wimpy to take in the pool or wrestling on land.  In our family, Bri and the kids refer to me as a "fragile flower." :)