After two months of being away from the computer, I'm playing catch up on our lives.  As the school year ended, we prepared for our trip back to the states, so things were a little crazy.  Here are the kids getting ready for one of their last days of school, and doing the daily ride down the elevator to catch the embassy "bus" (van).

Sadly, we've had to say good-bye to a lot of friends.  Friends from the embassy that are moving on to other posts, and friends from school returning to their native country.  Thomas' best friend Mudanch is one of them, returning to India.  We're missing Kalen and Kera as they move to Lesotho, a small country that lies within South Africa.  Our friends Becca and Jesse are moving to Liberia, Patricia or Poopee as she is nicknamed is moving to Kenya, Briggs is moving to Mozambique, and Rora and Mia are returning to D.C. for an assignment after being out of the country for several years.  The long, daily commute of these kids every day to school in this van has been a challenge in many ways.  But I believe that this ride with friends (who are more like siblings, fighting and all), has provided my kids with a support group they could count on. 

 Savannah had a grade-level play that she was singing in, so I took the day off to go to it.  I got a ride on an embassy van that leaves to go out to the school at 12:30pm to make sure it's there by 3pm.  Traffic is unpredictable, so better safe than sorry.  We got there a little early, so I bounced around the school to see my kids and get pics. Thomas was in his classroom playing games that they had to create on their own.

 Savannah's Portuguese class, watching a movie in Portuguese.

 Rhea with some of her friends and her teacher, Ms. Karisse whom we absolutely loved!

 After school, we all loaded up in the embassy van and got dropped off at "Poopee's" house.  Her mom works for the U.S. government, but she was in Angola on assignment for the Angolan government, so they lived right by the school.  The only embassy family that had a literally 4 minute commute!  And they lived in a house in a gated community with lawns, streets to ride bikes, etc.  A few of these communities exist, along with the kids' school, because they've been built mostly by the oil companies that are established there.  This was the first time in a YEAR that my kids had been on a bike and a neighborhood (with grass!) for that matter.  They were extremely happy to say the least, as was I walking around freely in this quiet neighborhood with noone around and listening to my kids let loose in their outdoor freedom.  And it was so clean.  :)

Savannah and Poopee were in this school play about penguins traveling around the world and learning about better ways we could take care of our environment and the world.  Savannah did a great job learning the words to all of these cute songs.  They take months to prepare in music class, and I can see why!  After the play we got to see her teacher Ms. Ruth and other embassy kids that performed or attended the play. 

It has been a good year for these kids!  The school has played a crucial role in their adjustment to Angola, so we can thank their three wonderful teachers that have taught them so much and that the kids looked forward to seeing every day!

It has been no surprise to Briant and I, that our very verbal daughter Rhea, is now expressing herself verbally in Portuguese.  Or should I say, her version of Portuguese. :)  She's got a great accent though as she uses her made up words, mingled with real words that she has heard.

Here are two videos of her singing and reading in "Portuguese."  The songs she has learned from Portuguese class at school, and the reading is her own translation of a book in English called "Over the Meadow."  She has been picking up books and reading them to the wall or her dolls as she's played teacher for years, so it is no surprise that she does it in Portuguese now.  On this particular day, she offered to read to me in Portuguese, an offer which I took her up on, and in the middle of it, decided I had better capture some of this memory on video.

And for fun, because I'm feeling like walking down memory lane a little, here are two videos of Rhea singing a song she made up and another of her reading a library book back in August of last year after we moved to Virginia.  These help to illustrate this ongoing desire she has to talk, teach, read, and sing.  She of course is making up the words in both videos.  I love these because they show her newly turned six year old brain trying to combine vocabulary she had heard from books read to her and words from church and even some family conversations.  During the year of homeschooling that had just ended when I took these videos, I always tried to get her to read the real words to a book, but gave up when she kept saying, "I don't want to read your way.  I want to read my way," and she would go on to surprise me with the stories she made up based off of the pictures in the book.  I realized that I would rather have her using her creativity to express herself through her own storymaking and telling, than learning how to read and robotically read the words already written for her (which is obviously the easier of the two choices and I knew would come eventually.  Which it has).  Nothing has changed with Rhea since this video 9 months ago.  Whenever we can't find her, we stop and listen, and sure enough we can hear her in her room or another corner of the house singing a song or reading a book outloud to the dustmites or whoever wants to listen.  We love this girl, even when we have to tell her to stop talking.  ;)

The locals at the embassy hosted an “Africa Day” celebration for the national holiday.  Unfortunately, it was after the half-day work day, so the kids missed out on it because they were still at school.  There was wonderful singing and dancing, with music provided by some of the embassy local staff, as well as a local Luanda band.  They also provided a wonderful meal with a plethora of desserts to choose from.  

 The ambassador expressed her appreciation to the locals for putting the event on, as well as for all of the work that they do for us at the embassy.

 They presented Heather, our Deputy Chief of Mission, with a nice gift and kind words for her as she is getting ready to leave Angola after three years of service here.  It will be sad to see her and her family go!

Claudia, on the left, sings with Gabis on the right, accompanied by the guitar and drum.  I love Claudia--she is a sweetheart that goes the extra mile in her job.  She has helped me a lot in my job as the English teacher with contacting students, scheduling rooms, etc.  She has a lovely voice!  Here they are singing a song in Kikongo, one of the tribal languages spoken in the provinces.

A local band that was invited to participate.  

A couple with the band demonstrating a dance.  They would emphasize feet stomping every 4-8 beats or so and people would hoot and holler as they stomped.

 The local embassy employees joined in the dance.

 It was so fun to see some of my English students there.  Here is Santos in the front, then Miguel and Demario.

 The beautiful display of desserts.

 The kitchen staff.

We’re not totally converted to the local food yet, especially cassava (looks like mashed potatoes but is really the starchy root of tropical trees mashed up--The first time Briant ate it he asked for a big spoonful on his plate and dug into it expecting it to be similar to mashed potatoes.  He was totally disappointed!).  None of the Americans are keen on cassava.  As another embassy employee put it, “Cassava and I have reached an understanding.”  Basically if you mix it with other things, you have a slight chance of enjoying it more.  I dug around with a spoon in this pan of chicken, trying to find something I recognized.  I found two chicken feet and other parts that I had never seen before. :)

Claudia with a couple of sweet custodial ladies that work at the embassy.  Briant nominated the one left of me with the pink shirt for local employee of the month a few months ago, which she got.  He described her to me and I knew exactly who he was talking about.  She is the happiest lady (normally always smiling) as she cleans the embassy day after day.  She always greets me with, "Bom dia Dona" in her sweet way.  We call her "Tia Domingas."

This was our first Africa Day celebration and we enjoyed seeing a side of Angola we don't usually see during our commute and busy day in a dense city of 7 million.  It was fun to slow down and appreciate "the fun side of Angola," as the Ambassador described it, and the heart and soul of the local staff with whom we serve at the embassy.  

This past month, our family has really been excited to return home for vacation.  We have felt our taste buds craving the flavors of home, our eyes craving the beauty of the west, our ears wanting the quiet sounds of suburban life and nature, and our hearts wanting to see our loved ones again.  After my bout with bad grapes a few weeks ago, I have felt even more physically and emotionally exhausted than I had before.  My friend living in Mauritania (northwest Africa) with her family, is back in the states now for vacation.  She describes her time in the U.S. as being a renewal of her energy that she has lost from always having to have her "guard up."  I realized that she verbalized exactly what I have been feeling--an exhaustion that has come from having my guard up and dealing with the unknowns or unexpected on a day to day basis.  I feel it mostly on my walk to and from work.  The streets are full of men with looks in their eyes that scare me, not knowing what intentions they have, along with beggars, drunks, etc. that aren't totally "with it."  Just a few days ago, I rounded a corner on my walk home and was spotted very quickly by a lady that had rounded the corner coming from the other direction.  She saw me and immediately started yelling at me at the top of her lungs, like you would have thought I had killed her family member or something, and she blocked the path so I couldn't get by on the narrow sidewalk.  Before she got too close to me, I cut through the concrete barrier that lined the sidewalk, and walked in the street with the crazy cars passing by.  She kept yelling until she couldn't see me anymore.  It shook me up a bit.  I walked home and actually broke down a little telling my housecleaner Zita about it.  She reassured me that it's not because I'm American or white, as I suspected.  She said, "No, we're family.  Skin color doesn't matter."  I'm not quite sure everyone feels this way with the hundreds of years of slavery we put them through.  :( Anyway, my gaurd is up...literally, you never know how people will surprise you here!

I went to church on Sunday and was greeted by working air conditioners for a few minutes before we lost it for the remainder of church--again.  A few weeks ago on Mother's Day, it was the same.  It has been three weeks now since we've had air.  I was really fighting the feeling to just go home and curl up in a ball and suck on my thumb, with air conditioning. :)  Bri looked at me with understanding eyes but said nothing when I said, "I can't do this again today."  There I was, sweating after I had arrived at church early to give a little lesson on how to conduct music to a girl in the young women's program, and I was already feeling irritable.  It was only 9am.  I knew that worse heat and discomfort were still to come and I wasn't going to understand half of what was being taught in the classes, except in Sacrament, if the headphones were working. And I needed to use the bathroom.  But who wants to use toilets that smell and don't flush, that are surrounded by little critters, and might not have toilet paper?   :)

So the pity party began.  Actually I think it began even before the generator died, probably during the meetings of the last Sunday where I was sweating like a pig and dealing with kids that were also uncomfortably sweating like pigs.  So the pity party continued.  But almost as soon as I told Briant that "I can't do this again today," my heart softened.  The pity party ended as I surveyed the chapel and saw all of the faithful members of the church that are there every Sunday, with smiles on their faces, attending church without expectations regarding their circumstances.  The spirit touched me and reminded me that these members have had to "endure" these circumstances and will continue to "endure" them long after I leave Angola.

The next morning on my walk to work, the every day things that I've seen for months, seemed even more noticeable to me.  The man without the leg, the woman grilling plantains on a piece of metal over some coals while her baby sleeps under an umbrella on a thin blanket on the concrete sidewalk (she would be there on my walk home from work 6 hours later), the drunk or "crazy" man talking to himself as he walked by with just a shirt on, 9-10 year old boys asleep on the rough sidewalk instead of being in school, and the brave man crossing a very busy street without legs--just on two stumps.  No wheelchair.  Again, like the day before, I was reminded of how good my life is and all that I have to be grateful for.  This is life for these people.  As Bri and I say, "This is as good as it gets" for them.  During this walk, I had an epiphany.  The majority of these people don't want you to feel pity for them because they're doing the best they can and that is enough for them.  So it's not so much a shame that people live this way, but that I don't live this way and yet I let feelings of ingratitude creep into my heart.

I was humbled again today as I heard a heartbreaking story from one of my students.  I hadn't seen him at English class for over a week, so I asked him if he went on vacation or if he had been sick (many of my students have gotten malaria and have been absent for 2 weeks).  He explained that two of his brothers had died and their funerals were last week.  I asked him how they died.  He explained that one of his brothers had bent down on a street next to his car to look at something, and got hit by another car.  He died instantly.  When another one of Joao's brothers was called with the devistating news, he had a heart attack and died.  So he lost two of his brothers overnight.  This is one of the many tragic stories I have heard since I started teaching.  Others include a sister dying during childbirth along with the baby (probably from something that could have been prevented with better medical care--she left a husband and three kids behind), a brother-in-law dying because he was poisoned by someone that was afraid of him getting the job promotion he wanted (the students in my class explained that poisoning someone is actually quite common here so they never leave food or drink unattended for fear of it happening to them).  It seems like I'm constantly hearing of siblings dying and have heard that many of their parents have already died, young, compared to the life span of Americans.

Despite my recent ingratitude and whining, Heavenly Father blessed me with some tender mercies.  In the last few weeks of feeling tired and discouraged with life here, I was able to be reminded, and needed to be reminded, that what I do and how I live my life here, matters.  After missing work for two days from being sick, my students were very concerned for me and my health.  With the number of deaths that occur because of health issues, the locals take illness very seriously, so they were genuinely happy to see me back at work.  They told me how they had missed me and they missed learning English for those two days.  Then randomly, a whole class of my intermediate students, suggested that they write a "speech" to the ambassador in English to show her how much they've learned from me (I expressed appreciation for the idea but said that it would not be necessary :) ).  A few days later, I was working one on one with a man that is trying to apply for a job that would be a huge promotion for him in the embassy.  He has to take a test to show his English proficiency to apply for the job.  He expressed his gratitude over and over for my help and for all that he has learned over the past 5 months from me, and then said, "I can imagine that when you leave Angola, we will all be happy for you but we will also be very sad.  We will be very emotional saying goodbye.  I can imagine it now."  I sooooo appreciated these tender mercies given to me at a time that I really needed them.  I know that I am here fulfilling a purpose, the largest one being my own personal growth and learning.  And my purpose from year to year, country to country, stage to stage, will ever be evolving.  What I think I knew before, but realize even more so now, is that my daily purpose should never be driven by an ungrateful or selfish heart.  It should never be driven by the world's sense of what purpose is either, found in the size or decor of my home or other material possessions, physical appearance, prestige or fame.  Because true fulfillment and purpose never come from them.  I believe they come in the every day things like morning greetings to a stranger, extending a listening ear, in giving a simple hug to a sorrowing soul, or in simply learning someone's name.  Ironically, I read out of "Stand A Little Taller," a book of quotes by President Hinckley, the very morning that I received the expressions of gratitude from my students.  I opened it to August 2nd, which is my birthday, to see what it had to say. "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.  Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.  (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33-34).  This was followed by the inspiring words of President Gordon B. Hinckley, "The major work of the world is not done by geniuses.  It is done by ordinary people who have learned to work in an extraordinary manner."

RIGA, LATVIA!!!

After almost 4 weeks of waiting, we finally found out that our next assignment will be Riga, Latvia!  It has been driving Bri crazy to wait for the news.  He has checked his email no less than 50 times a day, but I'm pretty sure that number is much higher. ;)  We always checked his email when we went to bed around 10pm because that is 5pm in D.C. which would be the end of the workday.  We had a feeling that his CDO would click "send" right at 5pm to give the news on whatever day he decided to send it.  Sure enough, it was right at 5pm that it was sent!  The wait was over.  It was a nice way to end our day, because this was the same night that Savannah got stitches on her heel. :)

We have heard this city described as "beautiful, quaint, lovely, cold in winter, gorgeous in the warmer months, safe, full of parks, full of Christmas fairs that make the winter fun, and it would be a slice of Latvian honey cake in comparison to Luanda.  Sweet and gone before you know it."  

A cold, 1st world country sounds really nice right about now.  :)

For a family living in Luanda, this picture of the "Riga Central Market" literally brings tears to our eyes.  All of that fresh produce!!!!!   And I'm pretty sure I can buy sweet potatoes there that aren't full of maggots. :)

Language training will be in Russian.  It will begin after we leave Angola and will last 9 months.  It's a 2 year assignment.  It's actually a Political-Consular job so Briant will have 1 year as a Political officer and one year as a Consular officer.   

Latvia was #2 on our list of bids.  With a lot of prayer, we researched it well and talked with other LDS families there.  They all had wonderful things to say about it.  We'll make the most of our time here in Angola now while being excited for our future in Latvia!

So this week we are grateful that "it could have been worse." :)  The girls are constantly doing cartwheels and handstands in our apartment on the tile.  I would love to prohibit them indoors, but we don't have an "outdoors" to do them.  So they're allowed.  But Briant and I have had to remind them several times to make sure they look behind themselves before they do them so they don't hit someone or something.  And, as we've had the kitchen glass door hit a few times by cartwheels, I reminded them that they shouldn't do cartwheels next to or coming out of the kitchen.  Well, this wise counsel was forgotten, ;) and Savvy did a cartwheel as she was leaving the kitchen.  Briant happened to be right behind her, carrying a stoneware plate full of chicken (we had just gotten the plates a few weeks before to replace our plastic plates with BPA or other harmful chemicals :) ).  The plate cracked at the impact of her heel hitting it, and food, sauce, and stoneware went flying everywhere.  The plate shattered into a zillion pieces, and as soon as it hit the floor, so did Savvy grabbing her heal, screaming.  Thomas and Rhea joined in the crying when they saw all of the blood.  They were very concerned about her.  As kids, they assume when there is a lot of blood, that someone is going to die.  :)

(I had to grab these pics before we took her to the nurse.  These were taken after we had a grip on the situation and had cleaned up most of the blood, food, and dishes:)

The blood flowed quickly out of her, before we could even process what had just happened.  I ran and grabbed a cloth and the first aid kit while Briant put pressure on her cut.  We couldn't see the extent of the damage for a little bit because there was so much blood, but then we saw what looked like a serious laceration, too serious for bandaids.  Even in her pain, Savannah said, "It's all my fault.  I shouldn't have done that!" 

 We were afraid because we didn't know if the embassy nurse could handle her wound, and if not, where we would go to get good medical help.  We chose to start with Tracy, the embassy nurse.  We loaded Savvy up in our car and met her at the embassy.  I think she was as shocked as we were by the size the cut, but she kept her composure and witts about her despite all of Savannah's crying and screaming.  Not an easy task of course.  :)

She started out by washing the cut with sterile water, which started the screaming.  The open wound did not like the water.

After drying it, Tracy applied some durabond superglue to see if that would hold it instead of stitching it closed.  She had to squeeze it shut to see if the glue would hold, which only caused more pain to Savannah.  Seeing that the glue wouldn't hold, we decided to do stitches.  Tracy tried numbing the cut, poking it several times all over, which was one of the most awful things I've witnessed.  I usually have a strong stomach when it comes to things like this, but I had to turn away. It looked so painful and I could't blame her for screaming.  Briant was holding the leg with the cut, while I layed my chest over Savannah's back to help keep her from moving while I also held her other leg still.  

We tried to distract Savvy with a movie that she chose, but she was only able to watch about 30 seconds of it before the poking started up again and she couldn't be distracted from her pain.

Those pokes lasted a lot longer than we would have liked, but Tracy wanted to make sure it was all numb.  Unfortunately, the medicine didn't work.  AT ALL!  She started stitching her and she felt everything.  She stopped at 8 stitches, even though she would have liked to do about 12, but the pain was too much for Savannah.  She covered all of the stitched and non-stitched areas with steri strips in hopes that it would help everything come together and heal.  Needless to say, we were all grateful after the hour and a half of screaming and pain to be done.  

Here's Tracy, our wonderful nurse.  She was amazing.  Talking with Savannah, trying to distract her, and being so patient.  She sent Savvy home with a foot boot to protect her heel, along with crutches so she can stay off of her foot.  We were so grateful that we didn't have to find a hospital and deal with the long wait time there.  We also walked out of there very grateful that no ligaments were cut.  It could have been worse.

The next two days, Savvy stayed home from school, and got used to using the crutches and recover a little bit from the emotional trauma.  :)

 

She wanted to cuddle on the couch a lot with mom over her two days home.

First day back to school.  She was mentally and emotionally ready to go back and deal with not being able to participate in P.E. and swimming.  :)