Our friend Aaron comes to Angola every other month to work for an oil company.  He started working in Angola just a few months before we moved here, and he'll be leaving just a few months before we finish our assignment here.  The timing couldn't be more perfect because Aaron is Santa.  He runs to Costco and buys cheddar cheese, sour cream, and meat, freezes it, and then gets on the "Houston Express" (a short 14 hour non-stop flight as compared to 23-40 hr. ordeal of traveling through Europe and making multiple stops) to Angola, where he delivers it right to our home on the first Sunday that he's back in town.  We have him over for dinner and a game or dinner and an episode of Little House.  We have a lot in common with him and his family, including his childrens' love of Little House too.  :) Before he left town again this month, he had us over to his apartment where he lives when he comes into town.  He shares the apartment with a few other employees that he works with that come and go every month as well.  It was our first time in his "home" so it was exciting for the kids.  He served us Costco pork roast and a potato bar that included cheese, sour cream, and bacon!  There's nothing like bacon from the U.S.! 

 We couldn't believe this long hall!  The kids would love this hall to ride their ripsticks or just to run and get their energy out!

 Aaron suggested that we do a dinner and a movie.  He forgot his cord that we needed to watch the movie from his system, so Briant found a "kid movie" called "Shark Boy and Lava Girl."  Now, Briant and I have loved most of the kid movies we've seen during our years as parents (Briant actually chooses to watch the Penguins of Madagascar" series after the kids go to bed because of the clever humor), but Briant showed me the trailer to "Shark Boy..." hours before and I said something to the effect of, "Are you kidding?  Just kill me instead of making me watch that movie!"  And he said something like, "Oh, it doesn't look that bad.  It looks fun and cute.  Like the Spy Kids movie."  Needless to say, my instinct was correct and Aaron and Briant were the peanut gallery for the whole movie, making sarcastic remarks or faces to show how much they loved the movie.  The kids were oblivious to their sarcasm because they were so focused on and wholeheartedly enjoying the movie.  And it's not like there was any meaningful dialog that they were missing during the peanut gallery's interjections.

 Three kids that loved the movie and two men from the peanut gallery:

The next day at church, Aaron played Santa one last time by handing out American chocolates to the kids in the branch.  He will be more missed than we will be when we leave Angola.  :)

 We had the opportunity to participate in the 5th Annual Charity Jogathon at the kids' school.  They were raising money for the "Casa das Criancas," which means House of the Children or The Childrens' House.  It's an orphanage in a nearby province.  The school worked on collecting running shoes for the orphans before the race so they could run with the school kids as well.  Briant and I were grateful for this opportunity (being parents), because despite being in Africa and surrounded by poverty, the kids, being kids, forget how blessed they are and need to be reminded to think of others.

On our drive to the school, we took a few pics.  I love this one below because of the lone fisherman out in the calm waters, fishing in front of the purple, green, yellow and gray concrete and cinder block houses.  And I love the landscaped grass and plants.  A rare sight in Luanda.  This was in front of a really nice gas station, meaning it was clean and felt safe; free of vendors trying to get you to buy things while you're sitting at the pump which allowed us to relax a little.  There's nothing like having to have your guard up (windows up, doors locked, wallets, cameras, phones, bags, purses, boxes, etc. out of sight) when vendors walk up to your windows and look in, and stubbornly refuse to go away.  

And some close ups of the houses on the water.  Definitely not the million dollar waterfront houses we have back in the states.

And below, is a major landmark on the way to school.  It's what the embassy kids call, "Trash mountain."  Appropriately named because of the trash piled up in the crevasses of the "mountain."  We always know we're going the right way when we pass it.

 The kids played on the trees and playground before the race started:

 The mascot for LIS, the Lion!

Before the race started, a member of the LIS staff led the children in some warm-up exercises.  We definitely have some natural born athletes.  :)

 And they're off...

 The kids had a goal of how many laps they wanted to run.  Thomas wanted to do 10 while Savannah and Rhea wanted to do 5.  I got to run with each of them on their last lap as they were pooping out, to keep them motivated to finish their goal.  They did a great job!  Surprisingly, after about a 15-20 minute break, Rhea got a second wind and ran another 7 laps!

 The orphanage arrived about 45 minutes late due to traffic, but it was great for the kids to see them participating as well.  We noticed that the boys all had "Mud Masters" shirts on, and all of the kids had the shoes that were donated to them.

 A fun experience that we would love to repeat again next year!

As usual, we were about 3 weeks overdue on Bri's much needed haircut. :)  I've been cutting his hair for our entire marriage, now almost 16 years.  We try to set up a night that works for both of us, and then it usually gets postponed when we realize how tired we feel that night, and we continue to procrastinate it until he can't handle his hair any longer. No, I really don't know what I'm doing, but he insists that he likes my cutting better than a stylist he pays for.  And here in Angola, we really don't know where to go to get our hair cut because our hair texture, etc. is completely different than that of the Angolans.  So he said recently, "See, it's a good thing you've been cutting my hair all these years because now we're in Angola."  :)  Well, before I cut it this time, he gave the kids a chance to play hairdresser.  The kids love playing with his hair because he has so much of it...and hair is just fun to play with.  So they went at it:

The 80's hairstyle in this video totally reminds me of how I remember Bri as a teenager!!  It makes me laugh!  And of course he acts like an 80's teen by saying "gag me with a spoon," "just leave me alone," and "whatever!"

Needless to say, we had a fun night playing with dad's hair. We have to enjoy these times while he still has hair right? :)

One thing that we noticed right away when we went home to the states, was how clean it was!  When we were on walks in suburban neighborhoods, the kids and I had to look really hard to find trash.  Every now and then I'd hear the kids say, "Look mom.  There's a piece of trash!"  And even in cities it was difficult to find more than a random piece of trash here or there.  In Luanda however, the game to finding trash works the other way around.  The challenge is to try and find a piece of sidewalk or street that doesn't have trash on it.  :)  Managing the garbage collecting here in Luanda has got to be overwhelming in such a large and populated city.  And sadly, the people litter freely as they walk around, dropping their food wrappers, drink bottles, etc.  We're not quite sure what the system is or if there is a system of garbage collecting.  From week to week there doesn't seem to be any predictability or rhyme or reason to when or how they pick up the trash.  So the sidewalks are clogged much of the time with large piles of trash that are covered in literally hundreds of flies.  We walk around the piles and hold our breath.  Unfortunately, on windy days like today, you can't possibly hold your breath for as long as you need to with the breeze carrying the stench right to you, whether you're nearing trash or not.  And on days like today as it's starting to warm up for spring/summer, I'm reminded that I've had it pretty good the last few weeks with the trash not smoldering in the heat day after day.

Our walk to work every day, note the chunks of sidewalk missing.  If you're not looking down to watch where you're walking, you'll end up on the ground.  One of the many reasons this is not a city of bicyclists, skateboarders, or roller skaters!

Here's the pile above, being picked up on another day, by tractors.  Not sure where the garbage truck is or whatever they're going to dump it into.  I'm not sure I want to know where the dump is nor do I want to know what standards or requirements they have, if any, for the maintenence and upkeep of it.  :)

With the layer of dirt that constantly covers the street as well (see pic above), it is no surprise that our car looks like this after only driving it a few times and it remains parked in a parking structure.  We wash it, but it's hardly worth doing.  Nothing really to complain about though--Angola wouldn't be nearly as "exotic" or have the character that it has without the dirt and trash everywhere.  It's something we'll probably actually miss!

Hard to believe, but our oldest child is now 11 years old!  We are all getting old.  :)  Thomas has been a wonderful son and part of our family.  Truly, we feel lucky to have him as part of our family!  With all of the fun that we were going to have over the summer, and the exhaustion factor for me, we told the kids that instead of having big parties, we were going to celebrate all of their birthdays as part of our trip to Disneyworld.  We did end up celebrating Savvy's in CA with Grandma Marlene and everyone and then in Utah before we left, Grandma Becky and Auntie bought cakes and we sang to Thomas and Rhea.  Here, Thomas got to be sung to by the missionaries in Portuguese the night before his birthday when they came over for their weekly meeting.

 Thomas requested that I do the yearly tradition of hanging streamers in his doorway.  Luckily I had streamers.  Without a Walmart down the street that I could run to, I was lucky that I had them.  We hung up a poster and a few balloons to try to make it a little festive.  And for his birthday morning, he was excited to have a present to open.  Grandma and Grandpa B gave him a little gift to bring back with him from the states.

Here's Thomas being entertained by Briant, who was talking to him while biting his tongue.  It's a new thing we started when we were bored on a shuttle taking us home from Disneyworld one day.  It makes the kids laugh hysterically!  Bri was saying how "special" he was (which accentuated the funniness as he said his "s") and how glad he was that Thomas was born.  It was even funnier as he acted like he was emotional as he said it.  Thomas loved it.  :)

 His gift from Grandma and Grandpa was a drone.  The perfect gift for a boy that had been saying how much he wanted to get a drone!  He also got some money from Grandma and Grandpa P. that he is planning on combining with allowance he is earning to buy something--the discussion has ranged from a Lego set, to a Raspberry Pi kit to make a little computer to start programming, to a watch. :) 

Thomas had a good day.  We walked down to the bus where the kids started singing "Happy Birthday" to him as he got in and he took cinnamon chip cookies to school to hand out to his class.  A simple but nice birthday.

The sounds of Luanda were here to welcome us home!  Coming back from the fairly "quiet" vacation we had in the suburban neighborhoods of California and Utah, the noises of the city are quite noticeable.  What we hear from inside our apartment are sounds that are obviously lessened in intensity, but not as much as you would think because the windows and doors aren't sealed well.  So the noises of construction, cars honking, braking, accelerating, etc., along with ambulances and police sirens, are the "norm" for our background noise.  Let's be real--sometimes I want to cut off my ears (or at least put on some peaceful music to try and dim out the sounds), but it's home and it's what we're growing accustomed to.  :)

The weather has been sooooo nice since we've been home!  Right before we left in June, it started cooling down, so sadly we didn't get to experience the cooler weather longer.  The winter here is in June, July, and August, with it starting to warm up in September.  I've been told that we only have about 2 weeks left of winter.  It's amazing how the cool breeze helps us not mind our daily walk to work every day nearly as much.  Less perspiration, less sun in our eyes, and the smells of piled up trash and urine are less pungent.  The skies are grayer as well.  Every day we wake up to a thick dark fog that remains for most of the day, becoming lighter in color as the sun comes up, and dispelling only slightly in the afternoons.

Amazingly, after a wonderful break in a 1st world country for 2 months, we feel at peace back in Angola.  It's nice to be in our own beds again and inconveniencing only ourselves with our noises and messes.  There's something comforting too about being back in the routine of work, school, church, and family activities, with a more productive-less play focus.  I returned to work this week, preparing the class schedule and lessons for starting classes next week.  As I fluttered around the embassy, I ran into most of my students, one at a time, who each greeted me with a huge smile and hug as they said in their Portuguese accent, "Welcome back teacher!  We missed you!"  And of course I missed them.  Getting "back to the grind" is sometimes a good thing. :)

Despite their jet-lag, the kids jumped on the embassy "bus" and started school the day after we flew in, and Briant went back to work as well.  I need to compliment my kids because I'm realizing more and more how adaptable and well adjusted they are with the changes that have occurred in their lives over the past 15 months or so.  Rhea, for example, only attended Kindergarten for a month, was then homeschooled the rest of the year, then started 1st grade (only 2 months) in a completely different state and school not knowing anyone, then moved out of the country to Angola (3rd world) where she started school 2.5 months after her classmates and left her mom every day to ride a bus for an hour to school and over an hour home, crying only a handful of times during the year as she begged to stay home with mom.  For me, and I think any other mom would agree, that is amazing!  Especially at her age.  That was three schools (homeschooling and the Waldorf program included) in one year. But I have to say that the challenges for Savannah and Thomas were equal in degree as they left friends and bounced around to different homes and schools as well--they just had a slightly higher level of maturity to deal with the changes.  And here they were again, the day after we returned from our trip, jet-lagged and all, eager and ready to start another school year despite the fact that many friends from last year are gone and they would have new teachers.  Briant and I are very proud of them and are grateful for the help that Heavenly Father has given them this year.  We know that they have been supported and strengthened in their weaknesses as much as we have.  We have much to be grateful for!