Counting down...

It’s on days like today that I look to our “countdown wall” to see how many days we have until we leave on vacation to the states.J

I should be at work right now, but Briant called in sick for me after I fainted twice this morning, on and off the toilet, as I was dealing with intense stomach pain and cramping.  Bri had been talking to his mom on the phone (catching her at the end of Mother’s day there because we ran out of time with the missionaries here using our phone and electronics to skype home to their moms and visiting with our friend Aaron that is here without his family).  Luckily Bri came in moments before I fainted on the toilet, and then after I came to, he helped carry me to bed where I passed out again.  My body apparently didn’t like something I ate yesterday.  My guess is that it was the grapes.  Grapes are hard to find here, are very expensive, and they only come in one variety.  Red, large and seed-full.  This was my first time eating them here.  Bri knew how much I wanted them to use in my favorite poppy seed pasta dish with chicken, celery, etc. so unbeknownst to me he went searching for them and bought them for me for Mother’s day.  Thomas made me breakfast in bed with eggs and grapes that he had washed, halved, and seeded.  We decided to make the pasta dish the next day after we bought celery (if we could find some that didn’t look pale yellow and flavorless).  Needless to say, after this morning's drama, the rest of the grapes will probably not make it into anyone’s mouths.  I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

This experience came the morning after Mother’s day where we went to church and had the generator break down at the beginning of our 3 hour block of church meetings.  We sat and sweat for 3 hours.  It was only Mother’s day for Americans so we didn’t have a special program or anything to distract us from the sweating.  :)  And Mother’s day came after Saturday when after giving English lessons at the church, we drove straight to the kids’ school for a fair.  We sat in traffic for 40 minutes to get there for only an hour left of the fair, and then drove an hour and a half back home in traffic.  It would have been probably double had I not turned off onto some side road that took us through some sketchy areas of town that we were totally unfamiliar with (probably shouldn’t do that again), but ended up taking us far enough to bypass the traffic.  We had no idea where it was going to take us, and a few times we thought we should turn back, but I felt that we wouldn’t have been any worse off than the traffic we would be sitting in.  We still can’t figure out where we were, but it worked out so perfectly because it plopped us out on a major road that we recognized and we literally didn’t have another drop of traffic the entire way home.  I was so grateful because it really is stressful to drive here.  I said a prayer of thanks.

Despite the traffic, we found some things to laugh about (besides the crazy driving:  2 lane roads made into 4 lanes, being literally only 6 inches away from other cars on all sides, motorcycles going wherever they wanted to).  There was an accident with a large open truck carrying beer cases that had gotten hit by a large tour bus.  Beer bottles fell off the truck and sent glass onto the opposite side of the road from the truck, which was our side of the road (that had finally become clear of traffic after passing a garbage truck causing all of the traffic.  We accidentally missed our turn off, so we would have had to turn around onto the other side of the road where all the traffic was because of the beer truck accident—traffic everywhere!!).  All around the beer that had landed on the street were Angolans grabbing multiple unbroken bottles of beer and walking away.  While trying not to drive over the glass, we all had a good laugh as we watched people running around with free beer and how the situation was being handled, Angolan style. :)

So, here is our list of things we are excited to go back to in the states this summer (besides our wonderful family and friends).  I don’t want to sound like we’re complaining (although I think we're entitled to some!), but rather noting the differences between a large city in a 3rd world African country and suburban U.S.  I don’t think we’re asking for the moon, just the basics we have taken for granted for so many years of our lives:

* Silence or at least the ability to hear other things besides sirens and horns ringing in your ears all day

* Fresh produce that won’t make you sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* Fresh produce that's not rotten and looks normal in color and size and doesn’t look like its been dropped a zillion times before it got to the store

* A variety of produce—more than one kind of apple or pear, along with berries! melons! grapes! spinach and other greens!

* Non boxed-on-the-shelf milk and other dairy products like sour cream, cottage cheese, and yummy cheeses!

* Deli meats, sausages, and other meats without questionable quality and flavor

* Drinking water from the tap at home and in public

* Being somewhere where we don’t stand out because of our light-skin

* Safety to walk around freely and feel pretty confident that the person walking by you isn’t going to jump you

* Walk out of a store or anywhere with purchases or money without worry

* The ability to dial 9-1-1 if there is an emergency and know that there is help on the way, and quickly

* Good health and dental care

* “Normal” drivers—I’ll take Vegas, Utah, California, Oregon, and even New York drivers any day!

* Paved sidewalks and roads that you won’t fall in to

* Street sweepers that can control the amount of dirt on the streets

* A regular, organized and sanitary system of trash collecting

* Fresh air, not obstructed by the stench of the sewer or still water growing “who knows what” nearby

* Other deodorant users besides us, thus contributing to the quality of air we breathe as well

* Street lights and road signs, including business and home addresses!  

* Wide streets!

* Parks and playgrounds!

* Things to do like Thanksgiving Point, Amusement parks, museums, theaters, university campuses

* LDS temples!

* Church with a/c, good lighting and non patio plastic chairs, in ENGLISH without headphones :)

* Libraries

* Little Caesars, Dominos, and any other fast food and sit down restaurants with yummy food!

* Cheaper prices

* Hikes, bike riding, running, walking, and any other outdoor activity you can think of

* Consistent power and high speed internet service

* Being able to plug something straight into the wall without a transformer or adaptor

* Ice

* Being able to park my car without having to pay some local just to park on public property for him to “watch it” and come back knowing that my car will not be scratched up or broken into

* Costco, Walmart, Target, and other stores that have a selection of high quality goods

* Central a/c in your house or apartment

I’m pretty sure there are things I'm missing but this pretty much sums it up!  The United States, despite its many issues, is a pretty wonderful country to live in.  The patriotic spirit in our family is growing!

These pics make me smile!  Here are a few of the Elders talking to their moms on the phone and skyping.  They were on cloud nine for at least a week after they talked with their families on Mother's Day.