On Saturday, we went to the "Forteleza de Sao Miguel."  In Luanda, there are only a handful of "tourist sites" to visit, and this is one of them.  It was built by the Portuguese in 1576.  In the 1600s it was a major port used for slave traffic to Brazil.  As Wikepedia says, "The fort was for many years a self-contained town protected by thick walls encrusted with cannons.  Inside the fort, elaborate ceramic tiles tell the story of Angola from early years, and in the courtyard are large imposing statues of Portugal's first king, the first European to reach Angola, Diogo Cao, renowned explorer Vasco da Gama, and other notables.  Until 1975, the fortress serves as the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Armed Force in Angola.  Today, it holds the Museum of the Armed Forces."

We loved all of the views of Luanda:

Thomas confiscated my sunglasses.  It was a very hot, humid and bright day (nothing out of the ordinary here) so I decided that it was worth giving up my glasses so I didn't have to hear too much whining from the kids.  The glasses got passed around and Rhea got carried by me at one point because she was so tired from the heat.  Bri was off taking pictures.  We had some role reversals going on.  :)

I love this picture because it captures the fort, built in the 1500's, with new construction cranes behind, working on the high rises that are so popular all over Luanda today:

Kids having fun getting their heads squeezed:

     

Cooling off in the air conditioned lobby of the Armed Forces Museum
that we had to ourselves.  As we relaxed, we practiced some Portuguese
and dreamed of being somewhere cold for our next post.  :)

 

Using Thomas' sweat to spike up his hair.  We all could have done that to our hair with the amount we were sweating!

This is Thomas sharing about his field trip this week:

My class went on a field trip this week but I was sick.  Here's dad carrying me to bed.  I had a fever of 102.  Savannah had it first, and then I got it, and now Rhea has it.  The good thing about being sick was that I got to go to work with mom and see her teach English.  Savannah and Rhea did too.  I also got to eat french fries at lunch with dad at the embassy.

Luckily the next day I got better and my teacher said that I could go with the other class from my school in year 5 (4th grade).

        

We went to Oceaneering, a "global oilfield provider of engineered services and products to the offshore oil and gas industry."  The Oceaneering group also helped to develop the "Mars Rover" that went to Mars to explore.  We went because we wanted to see how ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) impact the environment.  We found out that they don't impact the environment.  Oceaneering uses ROVs underwater.  They have to stay under water or else they get fried in 15 minutes.  They use them for exploring under the ocean for oil drilling, exploring sea life, tracking plane accidents to get the black boxes, and many other uses.  We got to see some of the ROV parts that they make: Here are the pictures!

talking about a clamp bending metal:

              Small mini-version of parts in an ROV:                                          

 Cycle process of building:

 Real parts inside of ROVs:

 Cameras and radar signal tubes that are used inside of ROVs:

 ROV arm:

 Very large, strong ROV arm:

 Controllers for ROVs used on land for the underwater ROVs:

 Lunchtime in the cafeteria.  They fed us sandwiches, and really yummy french fries, and fruit:

 Closing discussion about ROVS:

ROVs are cool.  I'm glad I got to go!  I think my family should go too.  I want to be an engineer some day.

Teaching English at the embassy is going well—I love it!  It is certainly keeping me busy.  Sometimes I think I’m a little busier than I would want to be, but at the same time, much of my sanity is coming from teaching and the interaction that I’m having with these wonderful people.  One of the frustrations that I experienced for a few weeks, was the lack of teaching space in the embassy.  I don’t have my own room or designated area for lessons, so I was bouncing around from one conference room to the next to find somewhere to teach.  And whenever another section of the embassy needed those rooms, I was “kicked out” and had to find somewhere else to teach...sometimes ending up outside (that is fine, except that 4 hours in the heat and humidity of Luanda is not always fun!).  This sign demonstrates the number of times I was having to change locations from hour to hour.  Briant took a picture of the sign, but it was taken before I added one more change to it. :) 

  Needless to say, I couldn’t help but feel like a homeless bag lady carrying my three bags of teaching supplies with me up and down the different floors of the embassy.  I finally had someone in the leadership of the embassy walk around with me until we found that I could use a small kitchen that is usually unoccupied in the morning.  It’s a little tight, but it has a table and chairs!  That is where I am the majority of the time, until lunch starts and then the classes held during lunch are in a conference room that always seems to be unoccupied during that hour. 

My students are so fun.  I try to incorporate games, videos, music, etc. to liven up the lessons. 

  Last week we were working on forming questions so we played “Headbanz.”  Everyone wears a picture of something on their head that they haven’t seen, and they have to ask yes/no questions to the other players to figure out what they are.  It was a riot.  They love to tease each other as they play and they laugh a lot.  I taught them the English Idiom, “You crack me up!” because they seriously were making me laugh. 

 Savannah had a high fever one day so she missed school and had to come with me to work.  There happens to be a couch in the kitchen where the classes are held, so she was able to rest there.  It was cute when she said after the intermediate class where I taught how to use in, on, and at, "Mom, I didn't even know a lot of those things you taught."  I guess she got to go to school after all.  :)