Briant had to make a trip out to a notorious prison in Viana, a township a little further out from Luanda to visit an American citizen that got arrested (American Citizen Services is one aspect of his job).  He didn’t have to go very far because the prison is relatively close to the city, but with heavy traffic, he was in the car for two and a half hours.  While stuck in traffic, he decided to take pictures with his phone of the area and people.  These pics are not of things that are unusual or rare here, but represent perfectly the picture around us every time we walk out our door.  In order to get these kinds of "real life" pics of people on the street, we have to do it behind the window of a car for safety reasons.  His phone doesn’t have the best camera, but he definitely captured the day to day street life here in Luanda--"interesting" roads, street vendors on their feet all day, sitting water from the rain (and mud), trash piles, people digging through the trash, and an overall sense of disorganization and craziness.  We know that behind the walls of their homes, life is a little more relaxing and home is possibly an actual haven for the Angolans with laughter and interaction.  I see that at the embassy when the locals talk and meet together--but street-life is hard and represents chaos, filth, and work. 

I love this picture--This little girl is totally smiling, in her own little world.  When first looking at people in the street, they're not usually smiling, especially if they're focused on selling things or balancing things on their head.  The little smile brightens this otherwise dismal scene.

This building, or at least part of it, is a "barbearia" as the sign says.  Barber shop.

I'm not sure why there is a crowd in this pic, but I think it might be outside a health clinic.  This looks a lot like the maternity clinic we have close to the embassy.  People hang out for hours trying to get care.

This pic with standing water and electrical wires soaring above, with the electrical pole leaning, makes me nervous.  Angolan construction is not known for its attention to detail or for having any sort of construction regulations that are enforced or followed.  Safety issues and mishaps that would cause multi-million dollar lawsuits in the states, are the norm here.  One of my students witnessed his elementary school friend be electrocuted on their way to school after stepping into a puddle of water with an exposed wire.  Our building had a backup generator start on fire in the basement two nights ago, and none of us residents knew about it because the fire alarms didn't go off.  Luckily there were guards nearby that smelled it.  I'm not even sure that firecodes exist here--there is only one stairwell in our building so we're hoping there's never a fire there!  And our apartment has had electrical issues for months now with lights not turning on or if they do turn on, they can only be turned on from a light switch in another room.  We've gone months without overhead lighting in our bedrooms because of this issue and we're not sure when things will actually get fixed.  After coming to fix an a/c unit back in November, embassy workers discovered that the circuit board for our apartment was way too hot, and found that too many of our a/c units are on one line.  Fire hazard.  The landlord's men will be coming in April to fix it by tearing into the ceiling, and moving electrical wiring around.  It's hard not to be afraid that the work will be done incorrectly.   

People crammed into a taxi--no a/c or deodorant.  :)

A little outdoor "market" of sorts:

Street vendors--fish, bread, ginger, fruit, etc.  I love looking at the babies on their mothers' backs when they bend over.  They always look content and complacent.

A lady selling bread with her baby attached by fabric to her back so she can move freely and sell her bread, staring at two women that obviously have money, carrying groceries and nice bags, one of which is carrying her baby on the front in what appears to be a modern day "Snugli-like" holder.  That is a rare sight here.

People digging through the trash piles.

After making it only 5 miles in heavy traffic, they called it quits and Bri went back to the embassy.  Even with the sometimes unappetizing aspects of walking around in a dangerous and dirty city, we are grateful every day that we have a walking commute!

I believe these images will be forever seared into my mind.  Right now the Angolans are hoping for forward progress with their country and government, but are many times frustrated with how slow the progress is and how they feel the government disregards their needs.  Trash and cleanliness issues, disease and short life span due to poor medical care, roads and traffic, and now food shortages, etc. due to the economic downturn, are some of the blatant issues they're facing.  Gabriel, one of my students lost a cousin recently after she had a toothache for almost a year.  It got infected and he said her head swelled really large and then she died.  A condition that probably just needed a good dentist, killed her.  And Gabriel said that he has had a similar issue with one of his teeth for a while.  He said that there is a new Russian dentist here that he's going to see in case he can help him.  People are really struggling right now--in the past 16 months of living here, I have never seen the quantity of people digging through the roadside piles of trash as I do today.  Angolans are hopeful, because hope springs eternal, but they know that a government that listens to the people and improves education and training are key to making lasting improvements to their country.  It's going to take time to get there though.

Last weekend we visited a new mall that has a movie theater, KFC, and even a Pizza Hut!  Briant went there to see Star Wars with a few colleagues when it first came out, and came home raving about the theater and how “normal” it was, as well as the pizza.  So we thought it was time for the family to make a trip.  

It’s funny how this sort of outing is so normal and “every day” back in the states but has been such an out of the ordinary treat here!  There is another mall out by the kids’ school that we could have gone to before, but the value of the dollar was lower so a movie with the whole family would have been $75.  Just the movie, no popcorn, dinner, etc.  Right now (until the value of the dollar comes back down, which could be tomorrow), we’re able to see a movie, get popcorn, get a family bucket of chicken at KFC, salad, 2 medium pizzas from Pizza Hut, and drinks for $42.  Even substantially cheaper than the states at this point, so we’re enjoying this while it lasts!  It took us about an hour to get there because of mid-day traffic, but we were able to return home in 15 mins.  Not bad at all if we can time it right.  There was only one movie for the kids, “Shaun the Sheep” so that’s what we saw.  It was the perfect movie because of the little amount of talking that was in it, but it was in English anyway with Portuguese subtitles.  

We had the whole theater to ourselves and Briant was right—it was a wonderful theater, “normal” in every way.  The seats were clean and comfortable and the picture and sound were good.  We went straight to the restaurants and enjoyed our pizza and chicken (I ate a veggie cup--less than satisfying canned corn and unripe tomatoes from Pizza Hut). Here the kids are running to KFC & Pizza Hut after the movie. :)

We thoroughly enjoyed our pizza and chicken (I ate a veggie cup--less than satisfying canned corn 

and unripe tomatoes from Pizza Hut).

We walked around the mall after eating, to see what the stores were like.  We didn’t recognize any, but found it interesting how many home décor/supply stores there were—one was called “Kinda Home,” drawing the attention of the expat community of course as does the KFC and Pizza Hut.  We're always still surprised to see "normal" functioning stores here.

We also found a playground to let the kids get some energy out!  This, along with every other aspect of our trip, is something we have missed and do not take for granted anymore--playgrounds and the freedom to play there freely.The kids ate it up and even made a few friends to play with while there.  It’s amazing how little we need to talk to actually communicate and how quick they are to reach across linguistic and cultural barriers to find playmates.

We love federal holidays.  Presidents' day was a holiday for Briant and me, but the kids had school.  So we decided to make it a day for a date (and a late Valentine's date) without the kids.  We were invited to join a group doing a "boat cruise" on the Kwanza River.  It launched from the Kwanza Lodge, about 2 hours from home; an hour or so from the city limits.  So we tackled the traffic and got out of the city to quiet and calm.  We reached the river and turned onto a partly paved road (or maybe "formerly paved road" is a better description), following the other cars in our group.  It was muddy and full of bumps and uneven pieces of pavement.  This picture is of the better part of the road.

We passed by a Catholic church being built.  I think almost all Catholic churches and government buildings in Angola are painted pink.

Inside the cozy Hemingway-esque lodge, where we escaped the rain:  The whole drive, and the first 15 minutes after our arrival, it was pouring.  We deliberated whether or not to wait and see if the rain would subside before we all decided to jump in the boat and go.  Fortunately by the time we made the decision to brave the rain and had waterproofed everything, the rain lightened up and eventually stopped.  It was a miracle!  We were absolutely rain-free on the 2 hour boat ride except for a few minutes of sprinkling.  Considering that this is the "rainy season" and that we had experienced hours and days of rain before that morning, we were very lucky!  It was amazing weather--cool with the clouds, and a small breeze.  I think it was the first time I have experienced being a bit cold in Angola!  We were very relieved that we didn't have to be "soggy" the whole trip.

Outside the lodge:

Our captain and crew.  Julia and Gostavo, Connie, Alex and Caleb, and one of the Marines.

Coming up on the beautiful Kwanza River bridge.

We had so much fun looking for animals and interesting things.  Of course we saw our favorite monkeys that we always see as we come back over the bridge on road trips.  There are about 10 in the pic below.

The eagles were huge and magnificent.  Apparently there were a few different kinds, one of them being the Fish Eagle.  Looking closely at the dark silhouette in the sky, we could see him carrying a fish.

We saw smaller yellow, orange, and blue birds, but they were hard to capture on camera.  This bird helped me out by sitting on a long branch free of foliage.

And then we saw this large lizard (a "sengue" lizard), all alone hanging out on a branch.  We were shocked at his size (at least three-feet long)!

We saw a few houses along the way, as well as a few fishermen.

Briant said this is our retirement home.  It looks so relaxing!

The river empties into the ocean so we drove a little ways out to see some small waves come in.

The tour unfortunately had to end, and we were back on land.  

I felt like we definitely got our money's worth with the length of the tour and the chance to be in the wild though.  When we first arrived in Angola, the tour cost $75, but now with the exchange rate, it's more affordable at about $20 per person.  We'll have to bring the kids back and do it again!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

I just wanted to capture some pics of those things that surround us and that we look at every day from our high-rise apartment.  As the pics show, our environment looks the same year round.  It's difficult to tell the time of year we're in because we don't have the drastic variations in seasons here.  There is no snow or cold in the winter, or a massive change in leaf colors in the fall, or spring flowers in the spring, etc.  I did happen to catch a few of these pics at sunset so there are beautiful colors in the sky.

Here is the view from the back of the house.

 Some teenage boys looking for their ball they lost among the satellite dishes up on the roof of their apartment building.  Not the best place to be playing ball, but I get it--the space to play ball here in the city is very limited.

Across from our building is  an open green area with some small brick sidewalks.  It's an area that attracts homeless people and men hanging out together.  People pass through on their way to work or school and women selling food on their heads all day will relax in the shade as well.

I noticed there are a few trash cans around the grass, and they actually have trash in them.  These are literally the first public trash cans I think I've seen here--not a pile of trash accumulating  every day, but an actual trashcan.  The government apparently cut the trash collecting budget last year from $30 million to $10 million after oil prices plummeted, so now Luanda is suffering from more malaria and now yellow fever as a result of the mosquitoes, as well as cholera, diarrhea and other illnesses.  There have been a number of deaths reported, as well as very ill people just since December.  The Angolan government has been meeting to try and figure out how to deal with the crisis.

 And because of heavy rains and the piles of trash contaminating the local water (and budget issues), the drinking water is now colored and is brown, especially in outlying areas of the city.  Our water, in one of the nicer buildings in the city, is discolored, which is not nearly as bad as what the poorer people are dealing with.  The embassy facilities guys are trying to manage this issue in all of the embassy residences.  Luckily we still get our water through a distiller which provides drinkable water.  Here's the water in our tub that I prepared for the girls to take a bath in last week:

Kids playing soccer in an open courtyard area, houses around us, a street light that doesn't function properly but just blinks yellow all day, and a Coca-Cola logo.

 A few mornings, Thomas caught the sun as it was rising (the kids get up early for school):

 
Night lights.  I love our night view--things are slower and quieter, and I love the lights.