Oh my gosh! It's working!

So, it seems the pictures are working...but now I am encountering a new problem where my firefox keeps crashing, so, with every further picture I post I am tempting fate to not erase/lose every picture I've uploaded. So, at this point, I have a whole lot of pictures here, and I'm going to leave it at this for now. I'll try for more tomorrow night.

Forgive the fact that these pictures are in some total mixed up backwards order. :)

Joel out walking his lion...

The girly lions...fierce!

Me taking my lion for a walk!

Lazy lions start to perk up when the air cools...

They were just saying hello...

Posing...

Petting lions...who gets to do that?

Me too...

Dinner? Oh no, that's Joel...too scrawny to eat anyway! :)

Just as we walked up to the lions...

Joel and his elephant friend. :)

Trunk up!

Feeding our elephant.

Elephant ride!

The babies walked with us and ate, ate, ate.

Beautiful Zambian sky...

Doesn't it look like he's giving Joel a kiss? :)

Before our ride started...

Baby! :)

Our elephants!

This is the croc we saw behind our chalet.

The pool at our lodge. Joel sitting where he sat, I sat next to him in the empty chair. We spent whole days there!

These are the bushes that were covered in butterflies- there were so many, it almost seemed the bushes themselves were alive.

In Mosi-o-Tunya national park- Giraffes! :)

What are you looking at?

What can you see in this picture? See, game is hard to spot!

Impala

Zebra

Croc

Hippo!

Giant spider. We saw ridiculous amounts of gigantic spiders in Zambia. Ew. But maybe that is why there were much fewer mozzies.

The chalet we were supposed to stay in...

The water level was so high!

Sunset on the Zambezi

Me, in the sunset

More sunset

Joel, squinting in the sunset...

On the African Queen

Ready to cruise

On the boat

More pictures to come soon! Yay for things working again! :)

The rest of the story...

Ok, so where was I?

Oh yeah, so, on Saturday, we rested again. :) Actually, I think we might have gone out to dinner that night, which was nice. We went to an Indian restaurant that had lovely food. On this day, and a couple other instances, we hit the strip mall as well- it had a grocery store (a bit nicer than what we have in Luanda, but not by too much- except, the produce was probably nicer), an internet café (we stopped in there once or twice), a post office, a few shops and a few restaurants. They even had a Subway, which we both had a desire to eat at “just because” but we never were in the right place at the right time (that is, there and hungry). Anyway, the Indian was nice, and as you always do with Indian, we left with a doggy bag (well, in countries where it’s legal to take doggy bags).

The next day, Sunday, was the biggest day I guess, it was the day we headed to Botswana for a day trip to Chobe National Park. We got picked up fairly early, and driven to the border. The border happens to be the river. So at the river we took a boat across- thanking the divine that we weren’t a truck driver waiting in the miles long line to cross the river one truck at a time on a very slow ferry. Our boat buzzed across the river, and we were in Botswana. Another car picked us up- this time it was a safari vehicle. A safari vehicle is one that has three rows of 3 seats across behind the driver’s seat. It had a shade for a rood, and no sides. It is, as you might guess, ideal for animal watching. :) We were driven to very nice hotel where we joined 7 other people who were to spend the day with us.

We started by taking a boat trip down the Chobe River (indeed the same Zambezi River, but called by a new name in a new country). The river runs through the national park, and this was when we started to see animals like no where else. It started slowly, I’ll admit. First it was a couple birds, then three hippos with their backs to us, so that they really just looked like big boulders (boring). Then some more birds, and maybe some impala. But finally, we started seeing more- elephants, hippos, eagles, crocs, more elephants, more hippos, more elephants, more hippos, more impala, and more elephants and more elephants and more hippos, and some more birds, and more elephants than you can count and more hippos.

If you didn’t notice by now, what I’m saying is, we saw A LOT of elephants. It was *almost* to the point of, “Oh, it’s just another elephant.” Which of course is completely absurd. They are so cool! We saw them walking, we saw them eating, we saw them swimming, we saw them drinking, we saw them giving themselves a mud bath, we saw them giving themselves a dust bath. We saw one pee (um, elephant penises? GIANT!!!) and we saw another poop (elephant poop? REALLY BIG!). We saw mammas and papas and every stage of baby- lord were they cute. Again, I wish I could show you pictures. My words do little justice.

The cool thing about going on a game drive or boat cruise like this is that the animals are used to seeing boats and cars- they just see them as another odd animal I guess. But, they don’t see the people in the vehicle as separate from the vehicle. Since they know that the vehicles are not predatory/anything to worry about, they are not afraid or really even bothered by them. If only I could show you the pictures and let you see just how close we got to these animals. It was freaking awesome! This one time, we were so close to this elephant who was drinking/bathing, that some of us actually got scared. We might have bothered him a little by just getting too close- the boat drifted- but the guide reassured us that elephants are not territorial, and that he was only mildly annoyed that we’d invaded his space. As soon as we got out of his way, he went right back to what he was doing. In the meantime, we could have reached out hands out of the boat and touched him.

We floated by lots of hippo pods that morning. Hmmm, pods? I think so. I decided on this trip that hippos are my new favorite animal. They are awesome. My obsession started before I ever saw one too. Why? Well, because we were hearing them so much! Every night, and even often during the day at the lodge we would hear this noise that sounded something like a pig, something like giant frog croak. It’s loud, and deep and surprisingly a sound that Joel also makes now and then when he’s clearing his sinuses or something. Anyway, after hearing it so often at the lodge we asked what it was, and were told, it’s hippos. But, because the water was so high, we never saw the hippos by the lodge, no matter how hard we tried. On the day when we went on the elephant and lion walks, we heard them again at that place (most of the places we visited were all along the river). The guide there told us that just at dusk the hippos would all come out of the water and go graze for the night- of course, this was going to happen just minutes after we would be gone! Dangit! But, we asked the guide there how close the hippo was based on how loud the noise was- he said it was quite near, maybe 40 meters (we were probably sitting 20 meters from the edge of the river, so, the animals were close, but they hide SO WELL!). We knew that this meant that every night at the lodge we were more of less surrounded by hippos, but we couldn’t see them. I often longed for a spot light, because I am sure we would have seen them if we had one.

Anyway, so, by the time I finally got a chance to SEE a hippo, I was obsessed. And they did not let me down. They are awesome. This is why I like them so much. They are huge, roly poly animals. They are of course vegetarians. They sleep in the sun all day, half in the water or fully in the water, if it’s too hot. At night they slowly walk about eating their way from one place to another. Now, don’t get the impression that they are just lazy fatties. They are fierce! Hippos are territorial. So, watch out, because if you get too close, they will mess you up- but not in the way you think they might. They won’t eat you of course, because they are veggos, but, if you’re in a boat, they will walk under your boat (did you know, hippos don’t swim! They WALK!) and then pop up underneath it, thereby overturning it. Then, they will just leave you there, either to drown, or get eaten by something that eats humans- like crocs! If they encounter you on land, they will simply charge you- run straight into, or more like through you. But mostly, I reckon they keep to themselves, hanging out in the water, popping up for air, dipping down below again. I love that the are so big, but have these tiny little ears, and gigantic mouths. I just love em. I looked everywhere for a painted wall hanging of a hippo, but, alas, never found one. I did however find a small hand made felt thing, not very African at all, more like made for a baby’s room of a hippo which I bought. It’ll be put to good use someday, I’m sure. :)
So, after seeing hundreds of elephants and hippos from the boat we headed back to the lodge where we had lunch. The funny thing was that just as we were finishing up I looked up and said, “Isn’t that (insert our Director’s name)?” And it was. He, his wife and another lady from school were just checking into the hotel for a few days stay. We recommended that they go ahead and sign up for the cruise! We didn’t have too long to chat though, as the second part of the day was about to get underway. Now we were headed on a game drive, in one of those safari vehicles, through Chobe. It really was an awesome drive. First of all, Chobe is just beautiful. Trees, hills and valleys, the river, islands etc… but then there were the animals. Again, elephants, elephants and more elephants. Apparently, Chobe actually has some 60,000 elephants, which explains why we saw so many. :)

We also saw more giraffes, birds, impala and other kinds of antelope, kudu (beautiful antlers on those things!), and warthogs. Of course we all desperately wanted to see some cats- the park has lions, leopards and cheetahs, but, because it was so wet, they didn’t need to come near the river for water, and therefore stayed well hidden in the depths of the bush. We learned from some of the other people on the drive with us that to see cats you really have to be up at the crack of dawn or at night, as this is when they are active- we saw how much the cats didn’t like the heat of the day when we walked with the lions a few days earlier, so of course, it made sense. If I could I would just post you more pictures of all the animals, and you would be amazed, but as it is, I’ll just stop here.

On Monday we rested. :) I can tell you that I read well over a 1,000 pages of books during this vacation. I started by finishing Jodi Picoult’s Songs of the Humpback Whale. Then I read Wally Lamb’s latest The Hour I First Believed, which was over 700 pages on its own. Great read by the way, only took me a few days. I also read a nice little romance novel- Nora Roberts anyone? And then a serious literary work, Jose Saragamo’s Death at Intervals. This last one came highly recommended by a colleague, and I hate to say I didn’t like it as much as she did. Oh well. It was a good story, but, his style got to me.

Tuesday was our last full day in Zambia, and we meant to make the best of it. Joel had his heart set on doing one thing- jumping off a 100 meter high bridge over the madly rushing Zambezi River. Yes, he wanted to bungee jump. So, that was the plan for the day- we headed back near the falls to the bridge that connects Zambia and Zimbabwe and Joel jumped. I have a video of the whole thing, which I would again, love to post. I will someday. After the fact I realized it was a good thing I was videoing the jump, as it kept me from really focusing on what he was doing- my tummy was all aflutter anyway. He survived it in one piece though, so we headed off to the next thing.

We had signed up to pay a ridiculous amount of money to fly in a helicopter for 15 minutes over the Vic Falls. I guess I have to say it was worth it. I mean, first of all, how often do you get to ride in a helicopter? It’s not really an every day event. So that was cool on its own. There were a couple little dips in the ride that made me feel like I was going to toss my cookies, but, the ride ended without incident. And it was of course very cool to see the falls from such a vantage point. The falls are a whole kilometer in width which you cannot take in from the ground. Also, after the falls the river flows through deep gorges that twist and turn, which you couldn’t see at all from the ground. Lest I repeat myself too often, we have great pictures, and I’ll post em when I can!

That day we also went to a nice souvenir/local artisan shop and picked up some nice stuff. Joel got an awesome photo album, made from what else, but recycled paper and elephant dung. :) I picked out a hand painted cloth wall hanging of 5 African figures. I also got a safari hat- it’s zebra striped. I wore it to the beach after we got back. :) Everyone is always getting at me to wear a hat when I’m outside here, so now at least I own a hat. :)

So that was about that. Our trip. Oh but wait, there was another wildlife incident that happened not on a game drive, but in our chalet. It involved the mosquito net, as I mentioned in my last post. One morning, must have been the morning of the Chobe trip, as we had the alarm set to wake early, the alarm rang and I snoozed it. But, seeing as I was half awake, I noticed a sound… it sounded like a mouse. I came fully to pretty quickly, and in the dark, followed the sound with my eyes. I realized it was ABOVE us. I looked up and saw that there was definitely something INSIDE our mosquito net, up at the top, trying to climb out, but clearly not making it anywhere, as the net is closed at the top, obviously! I sat up as soon as I realized this, and said to Joel, “Joel there’s a mouse, there’s a mouse!” I jumped out of bed in about 2.2 seconds. Joel of course, half asleep, was asking, “What? Mouse? Where?” “There!” I pointed! He jumped up then too, and decided he would catch it. Then, as soon as he got out of the bed, the mouse dropped right onto the middle of my pillow! Oooeee, I told him then, he was damn lucky that happened then, and not a couple minutes earlier because then he really would have had a frantic female on his hands! Anyway, he said he was going to try to catch it, and he couldn’t, so we left it. We showered, dressed and went off to breakfast, and reported the story.

When we got home from Chobe that day we went into the room only briefly- dropped our bags, and went back to the main house to have dinner. We ended up having a few drinks that night in the bar, so it wasn’t until late that we came back to the room. When we did I went into the bathroom to use the toilet, and guess who I found again? The mouse. Except, he wasn’t really in a position to say hello. Poor little sucker was floating upside down in the toilet bowl. I didn’t like him when he was crawling up the inside of my mosquito net, but, drowning in a toilet is no way to go. I screamed and then made Joel flush him.

Hmm, lets see… what else can I tell you so that I don’t have to end on such a sad story? I mentioned that we really liked the staff at the lodge. Because we were the only ones there, we got to know them pretty well. I also mentioned before that we were always being warned about the crocs. Well, they really worried about us going back to our room at night because the water level was only a meter or three from our front door. Some nights a guard with a flashlight would walk us to the room from dinner, which felt silly, because it took less than 20 seconds to walk from the main house to our chalet (it wasn’t far!), but, of course, better safe than sorry. On one of our last nights, Vera, the office lady came running out of the main house after us as we headed back to our room. We stopped and turned asking, “What? What’s up?” And she, totally straight-faced said, “I just wanted to tell you there is a croc, on your doorstep!” Joel and I both turned and gasped- searching through the dark for the croc. Vera started laughing. She was joking. She had the next couple of days off, and wouldn’t see us again, and wanted to say goodbye. We both regained our breath then, and laughed. I slapped her on the arm in the way you do, and said thanks for scaring the life out of me! :) She was a really nice lady though- funny too! :)

So, that is our trip to Zambia. I think that was pretty much everything. There are so many pictures to show, and I promise that once my blogger rights itself, I will post them.

That’s it for now!

Let's see if this will work...

I’m sick of not being able to post. The posting page still isn’t loading right, but, I am going to try to post something. Most of the buttons are there, so let’s see if this works. I can’t post pictures, because THOSE buttons are missing, but I will try to add in a link to my pictures on face book.

So, Zambia- it was really great. It was, as my sister-in-law (to-be) keeps referring to it, the stereotypical African experience- probably what people think we live in every day, until they think about it for a second. :)

The lodge we stayed at was lovely- not fancy, but nice. It was outside the town of Livingstone, right on the Zambezi River. Funny thing is, the Zambezi is flooded right now (or was when we were there). Flooded higher than it has in 60 years! We had booked a “riverside chalet,” but we ended up in what would usually be the garden view chalet, but now was a riverside, because the river had flooded past the riverside chalets! (Did you get that?) So, yeah, a whole row of chalets was in water, so we took the next best thing. :) One thing that we were told every where we went because of the water level was to watch out for crocs. At all the lodges, etc, everyone asked everyone to stay away from the edge of the water. There was one morning that we saw a croc in the river behind our chalet. It was just a small one, but certainly big enough to take off a foot or whatever.

As I said, the lodge wasn’t fancy- in fact, it even had river water in the taps/toilet/pool- and they provided drinking water. The chalet was nice and cozy, even if the bathroom looked like it needed a good bleachy scrub. The bed had a nice big mosquito net over it- a fairy tale looking like one- as big as the bed- and I have an interesting story about that later.

What made the lodge feel fancy, was the fact that we were the only guests there! So, the staff that was there, were there for us! The office lady came to check on us often, asking if she could organize anything for us- and then following through and doing it all! The waiter from the restaurant would check on us every hour or so on the days when we hung out poolside to see if we needed a drink or snack. The owner who lived just up the street from the place would come down and hang out often. She herself is a Minnesotan, so she was a shot of home for me. We talked about all kinds of things, and by the end of our stay she’d floated a fair share of drinks and desserts on the house our way. Nice.

The lodge had a main house that housed the restaurant, bar, and an upstairs area that had a tv (where Joel watched quite a few hours of soccer games, while I read in the room). We ate all our meals there- mostly breakfast and dinner. I’m not sure if it happened right away on the first day at the first meal, but very soon, we started being visited by a cat at every meal. She was a pretty little tuxedo cat- black with a white chest and white paws. She would come down for EVERY meal and sit and wait for scraps. Liking cats and being a softy, I fed her. We later found out that the reason she was so hungry, was because she was nursing 4 tiny, tiny babies. We got to see them one day, and they were SOOO small. They didn’t even have their eyes open yet. After we got to see the babies, I fed her everything. She got half of Joel’s meat at pretty much every meal, no matter what it was. I fed her bits of my eggs, bread, and I think she ate some of my baked mac and cheese. I actually think that at one meal, she ate MORE than Joel. She was one hungry cat!

To get to our lodge from the airport or town you actually have to drive through a national park- we were lucky enough right on our first trip on our way to the lodge to see a giraffe. It was just right there, on the edge of the road, munching on leaves. :) That was cool.

That first night we went on a cruise down the Zambezi River. We were on a big ole river boat called the African Queen. The cruise was nice, and of course, as luck would have it- who sat right next to us, but an Australian couple! They were not quite our parents’ age, and had been traveling for a month or so. They’d seen a LOT. They let us see some of their pictures on the camera. Very cool. I got very excited about the possibility of seeing hippos. Unfortunately, we didn’t see a single animal while on the cruise. Because the water levels are so high, because it’s the rainy/wet season, there are lots of watering holes in the parks, etc, so the animals don’t need to come to the river to get water. The sunset over the Zambezi was spectacular though. And, heck, the open bar wasn’t bad either. :)

The next morning we rose fairly early and went on a game drive. This game drive was just in the local national park, the same one we drive through on the way to town. It’s not a big park, and had only herbivore animals- elephants, hippos, giraffes, impalas, zebras, rhinos, etc. We saw a couple hippos in the water (so we basically saw their eyes and ears), loads and loads of impala, and lots of giraffes. We also saw a couple zebras, but they were pretty far away. Oh, the park does have crocs, because they just come from the river when they feel like it. They are carnivores, obviously- but, I don’t think there were any other predators in the park. We did get some great pictures and videos of the giraffes especially. I wish I could share them with you! The crazy thing about going on a game drive was that all of a sudden the driver would stop and say, “giraffe.” We would sit and stare, “Giraffe? Where? Do you see a giraffe?” Finally, one or the other of us would see it, and help the other out. I even commented, “It’s like he (our guide) has magic eyes!” If it had just been us driving through the park, we probably would have missed 90% of what we saw. That said, by the end of the drive, I was spotting things too. In fact, one of the best few minutes of giraffe viewing we had was because I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, and made the driver turn around and go the other way. A pack of 10 of them walked right past us. It was awesome. Like I said, I wish I could show you the video!

After that game drive, which only lasted an hour and a half or so, we drove into town and stopped at a market. It was funny because the people all spoke English! Zambia was an English colony so it makes sense, but, we’re not used to it! So, of course, as usual in these types of markets, every stall is basically selling the same things, but every seller begs you to come in, promising that he has nice, but very cheap, things, better and different than anyone else. The signature line that I would attribute to Zambia is, “Looking is for free!” They all kept saying that. It made me smile. I did pick up a little dish made of soapstone that looks like a pond with a hippo in it. :) Joel got a box. Oh, and I also got a print of an elephant. Nice prices too. :)

A great thing about this trip was that every other day, we just stayed at the lodge. We would get up late, have a leisurely breakfast, and then lounge by the pool reading and napping. Livingstone was not nearly as hot as Luanda. They (the locals) kept saying it was hot, but Joel and I had to disagree almost every time. It was beautiful weather- the sun shone every day, only big fluffy clouds in the sky. But the temps stayed more around 25C/77F, rather than the 30-35C/86-95F that we’re used to in Luanda. Mostly, we just noticed that we didn’t sweat every time we went outside, and that even though our chalet didn’t have air conditioning, we were comfortable in it, even midday (unthinkable in Luanda!). Both of us liked this. I know I chose the heat over the cold I left behind, but, I am willing to admit that if I could, I could take having average temps more like that, rather than what we have here. I guess we’ll think about that for our next location. :)

On our third day we had a big day of riding elephants and walking with lions. It was a great day. It was my second time riding an elephant, and I had done it before in Thailand. But it was Joel’s first time. We were both very excited about it. I just think elephants are awesome. You can tell that they are really gentle, smart animals. They have personalities (we rode on the teenager who ran away and came home pregnant!) and their own stories. They were all orphaned elephants, except the ones born at this sanctuary. The place seemed like a nice place too- the elephants were used for rides twice a day, but the rest of the time were let to be elephants- wandering the bush stripping branches of their leaves in one movement of the trunk. Their enclosures did not have gates on them- the elephants were always free to go, but, basically, chose to stay. It definitely seemed that they were happy animals. Again, I wish I could show you pictures, because, well, they are worth a thousand words. Trusting that blogger will work for me again someday, I’ll leave this at that, and post the pictures someday. :)

In the afternoon, after a few hour wait, we met with the lion keepers. The lions that we walked with were also part of a program- a repopulation program. We were participating in the first stage of the program, which involves humans raising lion cubs, and teaching them to live in the wild, and have a social hierarchy. Those lions go on to live in monitored habitats. Once they demonstrate normal pride behavior, they then go on to live in monitored habitats that have other predators and no interaction with humans. Finally, when these lions have cubs in those habitats, the cubs are taken to the real wild, and continue to repopulate the wild lion population.

So, we got to walk with these lions- there were three of them, 2 girls, sisters, and a boy. The girls were 7 months old, and the boy was 9 months old. We were each given a stick to defend ourselves with, and taught how to use it. The stick was to be used as a distraction, and our voices/gazes to be used as the real behavior management. A stern look in the eye and No! was apparently enough to keep these lions from misbehaving, if they tried. We just had to show them that we ranked higher than they did. So, we walked with the lions. We stopped and took lots of pictures with the lions. We pet the lions. We got to hold the lions’ tails as we walked with them. We got to watch the lions perk up as we neared the river and the air cooled. They started playing with each other- just like Bumbi used to play with me really- except obviously, which much more serious consequences! It was really a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Very cool. Again, we have lots of pictures, and someday I will share them.

On the fourth day, we rested. :)

On Friday, we finally headed to the falls! Victoria Falls is of course the biggest attraction in Livingstone, but, for some reason, we had left it for late in the week. It didn’t matter- it was amazing, seen on the first day or the last day or one in the middle. The falls is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. Latvia’s biggest waterfall in Europe looks like a puddle compared to what we saw here. It’s just so big, and there is just so much water (especially now that the river is flooded) that when you get too close, you just can’t see anything, because of the mist. In fact, we even were able to see the falls from our airplane as we flew into Zambia, not because of the river or falls itself, but because of the mist that rises up from it. SO MUCH WATER. I really cannot tell the story of this without the pictures- we had to wear two raincoats to go near the falls, and we still got wet. It was cool. I’ll upload pictures as soon as I can!

Now, I’ve been writing for over an hour, and it’s getting late, and I need to sleep…so if this post works, I’ll come back tomorrow or the next day, and tell you about the rest of the trip. Let’s hope it works and that some of you are still coming back to check on me, even though I haven’t posted in so long! I’ve even contacted blogger help services to try to figure out what is going on…but no luck so far… I’ll keep working on it! :)

Something is wrong with our internet connection or with blogger or some combination thereof- we're back from Zambia, and for now have pics on facebook

Mood swing?

Today was a beautiful, sunny, hot day. It was a typical day in Angola. But about five minutes ago, the weather had a mood swing apparently. I noticed it because from the couch, it sounded like cars were being blown past my windows outside. Yikes.

I went outside and saw this:
(As you can see my neighbors were drawn by the noise as well)

This picture was taken in the other direction- the funny thing was at that moment it was actually REALLY dark to the left (previous picture), and bright to the RIGHT (this picture), but the photos have captured the opposite!

The clouds were AMAZING!

(The picture does not do them justice)

The wind was so strong- unfortunately, this little video missed the worst of it!
(and don't mind the bit at the end where I try to figure out how to stop recording...)

The crazy thing is Joel and the guys were out playing a football game when this started! Even as I was standing on my porch I was being sandblasted with sand/dirt/etc, he said on the field it was worse. I think it's safe to say we can expect another rain storm tonight. One can only hope! :) (Just not in the middle of the night when it wakes me up!)

Oh, and also- Yay for the fact that school is out for two weeks! We leave for Zambia on Saturday and I think it's safe to say we're both pretty excited!

And finally- Whoever voted "all of the above" on my poll is my new best friend. :) Hee hee!

Because I'm obsessed with finding good pictures of myself...

I know I am not the only woman out there (maybe just person?) who is slightly taken with finding pictures of herself that she likes. Possibly more than others, but I know I am not alone.

Anyway, I am even kind of obsessed with pictures. Someone told me that it's been proven that what we see in the mirror is different than what we see in a picture. This explains why often when I look in the mirror I tend to think something along the lines of, "Looking good, hot stuff!" and then I see a picture and I cry out, "Dear God, tell me that is not what I look like in real life!?!" with a knife to my wrist and tears in my eyes.

I know, we see things in pictures of ourselves that other people don't see. We should all try to see pictures of ourselves through other people's eyes, but, well, I think that is easier said than done.

Picture taking in general makes me kind of nervous. Some may recall a point in time when I became aware that by sticking my neck out and flexing my neck muscles during picture taking I was less likely to end up with a "schneck" (the dreaded combination cheek/neck which makes anyone look like a complete fool). I remember another friend, the awesome Dom Nem once told me (and two other gals, we were having a meal at a restaurant in Hainan, China, where someone later spilled a mango daiquiri all over me- like my psycho memory?) that in order to look good in pictures one must put the chin down. This frightens me, because being of short, stocky neck, putting the chin down increases the chances of two or three chins popping up instead of just the one. But she said that is what models do. Well, if I looked like a model, it might work for me too.

Anyway, the point is that pretty much any time a camera comes out, thoughts start racing through my mind- tilt head, suck in stomach, don't swivel head, stand up straight, arms slightly out from sides (to avoid full unflattering flattening of upper arm), avoid profile at all costs! I can't just take pictures. And every picture that has been taken of me, especially for something like 4 windows, has been taken again and again and again, because no doubt, I always forget to do one of the things I am meant to do!

So, it's really no surprise that every once in a while, when I want a new picture for a profile or something, I end up standing in the kitchen snapping pictures of myself. The good thing is, every once in a while, I hit the exact right angles, the right light, the right flexed and relaxed muscles, and the right sparkle in my eye, and I end up with something like this...

a good picture of myself. :)

P.S. You can only imagine what kind of terror wedding day picture taking inspires in me, because God forbid that I get so caught up in feeling good that I forget to suck it in, stick it out, etc, that I end up with loads of pictures with doubles chins, pregnant looking bellies, and arms like tree trunks. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the incredible feat of trying to keep my eyes open! Oh lord.
P.P.S. And you may desire to comment that I'll be so happy on that day that I won't care, but, guess what? I promise you that at this point in my life, bad pictures still have the power to make something blow- even if it is after the fact. What I'm saying is, it's very possible that I could end up hating my wedding pictures, no matter how happy I was that day.
P.P.P.S I am working, very hard I might add, at becoming a person who is not bothered by bad pictures. Or who doesn't see bad pictures as bad. Or something. It's a work in progress.

Happy Name's Day to Me!

Today is my name's day (varda diena), which means that today is the day when Latvians celebrate all people with the name Mara, Marita and Marite (and some boys names too). Tomorrow it will be completely different names. I'm not sure how the names get assigned to days, but, rest assured nearly all Latvian names have a day on the calendar. And if they don't, I believe there is a day that actually says "the day for all names not otherwise appearing on the calendar." And yes, nearly every calendar you buy in Latvia (well, all the ones that are printed in Latvia for sure) comes with all the names on it for every day. Anyway...

The funny thing is, I forgot about today. Here in Angola, I don't have much need for calendars in my daily life. Every once in a while I make an appointment or have to confirm something, but generally speaking, even on those occasions, it's easier for me to think in terms of days of the week (this Friday, next Tuesday, etc) than to think of the date. Today, it wasn't until I logged into draugiem.lv on my lunch hour and saw a happy name's day message that I remembered. The funny thing is that shortly thereafter emails and messsages on facebook, etc came rolling in from all over the world...so it wouldn't have been long til I remembered/realized either way.

Now, when you're in Latvia, it's fair game to make a pretty big deal out of your name's day- people do it for you even. I had at least one party while I was there, which had a pretty good turn out if I don't say so myself. Even when I lived in China I made everyone go out to a bar and drink with me. People were down. And the one Latvian friend I had in China brought me flowers, so it was good.

Now, Angola here is another story all together. Obviously, first of all, I wasn't in the least bit reminded that it was my name's day- not by any calendars, not by other people, not by nothing. Then, even when I did remember, it was like, hmm, well, so? What can I do here, especially on a Wednesday night? There is no local bar, there is no local restaurant. It would take hours and at least $100 to go out to dinner in town (not worth it). Joel can't buy me flowers, as there is no place to buy flowers. Pretty much, there isn't much to do.

So, I made myself a special dinner.


Joel doesn't like sushi, so I made him some chicken nguggets and fries. We were both happy. The good thing about the sushi is that I had a whole jar of ginger to eat with it. Yummmm drool. The bad thing was, the only really appropriate sushi filling I had was a cucumber. So I improvised with some zucchini sautteed in sesame oil and some boiled carrot. I couldn't eat it all, and the carrot ones were the ones that got left- really not that good. I had an avocado only two days ago, but alas, we had Mexican that night, and it got eaten. And all my red peppers/capsicums got eaten the night before that. So, cucumber, zucchini and carrot it was.

I'm also having a cocktail to celebrate. Just me. I'm having a vanilla coke, and Joel is having a coke. Happy name's day to me!

Mini pizzas for trivia night

How cute are my little pizzas? We had friends over tonight to play Buzz!, our Playstation trivia game. I told them to bring drinks, and that I would provide snacks. I decided that I could make pizzas. Made the dough, and topped with a variety of stuff we had at home- spaghetti sauce out of a jar, pesto sauce out of a jar, shredded cheese, canned mushies, and olives! They were yummy! And so cute! :)

A short story of deep sea fishing

Here goes:

We headed out to sea. Everyone started getting sick. The captain spent 15 minutes setting up all the fishing poles. Joel helped. Everyone got sick. The captain spent 15 minutes taking down all the fishing poles. Joel helped. We went to the beach.

The end.

:)

So, as you can see, not much came of our deep sea trip. We headed out this morning around 9 or so. We got picked up by the family who was hosting us- the mother of one of my students (we'll call her M1), and both of her daughters, and then went to pick up another mother of one of my students (M2) and her eldest daughter (the one in my class was sick). So, poor Joel it was him and 6 females. He's such a trooper.

We got to the boat, everyone got strapped into their life vests, it was good. This was my first time going out deep sea I suppose ever, although I know for sure I have been out on boats on big water before like in the middle of Lake Michigan, which is big enough that you can't see either shore from the middle. It was not Joel's. It was also M2's first time. M1 and her daughters had been out before, on this same boat.

I guess the water was very choppy today. The captain said it was because of the wet season. There was a pretty big swell. Heading out it was ok though, because when you're going fast, while there is some bouncing on the water, it's not that sick-inducing (although I guess it starts to build). When we stopped to hook up the fishing poles though, we were totally at the mercy of the swell, and we were all over the place- up and down and up and down and nearly sideways.

My student who was there turned green and then puked, right there on the boat. Luckily she had an empty stomach, so it was just a bit of yuck, and then mom went and held her over the edge to finish. M2 started turning green at this point too, and I have to admit, I wasn't feeling 100% myself.

M1 though, was pretty keen on catching some fish- she said the captain told her that recently everytime anyone went out fishing they were coming back with 10-15 dorado. So she really wanted to catch one or two, just to have some fish, and enough to give her help at home some (the maid, the driver, the gardener). Well, she made the mistake of saying, "But whenever we get bored, we just tell the captain, and he'll take us to the beach."

Once the fishing poles were set up, it took about 10 minutes if that, of slow movement through the water for M2 to finally just say, "Can we go to the beach NOW?" She was NOT feeling well- you could tell. Her daughter had also really quieted down. Both of the other girls had fallen asleep. Joel and M1 seemed to be the only ones that were totally ok- Joel was even drinking a beer. But, sick people are not fun people, so, they took down the poles they had just taken so long to put up, and we headed to the beach, sans fish.

We didn't even take any pictures during any of this, because it all happened so quickly.
But, here are some beach pictures. You may recall that soon after we arrived in Luanda, we took a trip to the beach on an island just off shore. We headed back to the same island today- although to a different spot.

This spot had bigger shelters, but there is no restaurant or toilet. That is mostly ok, because we had all packed food today, and had plenty to go round. Pretty nice shelters at that- look like they are made of palm trees- trunks for structure, and fronds for shade. Works for me!

Just behind where we were across a little bay of the island are these "weekend houses" for local rich people.

This is the view down the island from where we were. Nice, hey?

This is the boat that we actually rode today. It was pretty nice.

These are the kids.

Me on the boat- these pictures were all taken basically when we were packing up and leaving.

Us posing at the front of the boat. :)

So we ended up having quite a nice day that was quite different than what we had set out thinking we would get. The beach was beautiful and really serene. There was one other group of people on the beach, but they were a few huts down, and weren't loud, so, it was really peaceful out there. Both of the moms we were with are cool, good for conversation, etc, so it was nice to just sit around and chat. The water there at the beach was nice and warm and clear- there were hundreds and hundreds of little fish. And they were swimming so close to us- we could see them through the water- there were just MASSES of them. We also found a few hermit crabs, and saw some tiny, tiny shrimp. But that was unfortunately all the wildlife we saw today- no dolphins, no turtles and no whales. Apparently it's not even the right season right now, which I didn't know until today. Oh well.

My souvenir from today? This is what you get from sitting on a boat for hours without having put sunscreen on yet!

(Unfortunately, the tops of my arms look similar!)

Yay!

RSVPs are one thing- my mom has been sending me updates as to what is rolling in- understandably more "we'll be there in spirit"s than "we'll be there in person"s- but, on the booked guest list on our wedding page (destinationweddings.com) we can see how many people have actually booked a hotel room (one might call that a pretty firm rsvp!). The list is now up to 17 guests, plus us two. :) A couple of the people that have rsvp-ed yes (so far), have not yet booked their rooms though, so hopefully we'll still see that list grow! :)

On a not-so-yay note- I took the clocks off the blog because they were just pissing me off! It seems they were never showing the right time. After the last time change, the clocks were showing the same time for Michigan and Arizona, which are two time zones apart. WTF? Whatever... so I took em off. But of course, now I'm lost time wise. I don't know what time it is anywhere, and I miss that. Oh well.

Oh, but another yay note- yesterday was a pretty great day for more than one reason, but the main one being that I finally bit the bullet and paid off my student loan from my undergrad in one big payment! Wahoo!! Because I had the 4 year scholarship to university, my loan was a very small one comapred to what most people accumulate in 5 years at university, because it was only for my fifth year of school. But, it was a loan that was slowly taking money out of my account every month, while also earning interest, and now it's gone. Now, of course, I still have the twice as big one from grad school to worry about, but at least it's only one instead of two now. :)

Lastly, following the lead of my faithful reader Eileen, I added sitemeter to my blog. Sitemeter gives you all kinds of statistics about what is going on on your blog- who is looking at it, when, where they are located, etc. I can see by what means they got to my blog (by following a link, or by going directly to the homepage). It's interesting to follow it. And the cool thing is that you can also see your visitors on a world map. So last night, the first dots that showed up were in South America and Indonesia... I know who you are! :) Of course, I myself show up as being in Windhoek, Namibia, which is funny.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow being Thursday but acting like a Friday in that it's the last day of school for the week. If that isn't yay, I don't know what is! :) I've been enjoying work a bit more lately- maybe because we're nearing a 2 week holiday, maybe because it's just getting closer to the end of the school year, maybe I've accepted something and am moving on- either way, I'm having a better time when I'm there, but just the same, I'm happy about a day off. :) All because of the Pope, if I didn't mention that before. He's coming for a visit. Angola is largely Catholic for those of you that don't know- I wasn't aware when we were first coming here either. But it is- all Portuguese influence on that one. We might have a chance (although it's looking slim) to go out on a boat with the family of one of my students that day. We've heard that you can see dolphins, whales, turtles and more when you go out a bit further, so it would be very cool to do that. We'll see if it works out though.

I have totally had several blog posts floating around in my head in the last few days, and tonight I have lost them (for the life of me, I cannot remember what I wanted to write about), so I will try to write them down when they come back to me. But for now, that's all the good news out of Namibia, I mean, Angola. :)

Oh, and here's another picture from St. Patty's Day- we were dancing. This is my new desktop background, because how cute are we? :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last night we attended what was probably the best St. Patrick's Day party I have ever been too! It's hosted by an Irish couple that had been in Luanda for 20+ years (throughout the war and everything- not sure of all the reasons on this, but I guess they love it here). Anyway, they live on a compound of a house- actually, I guess there are two houses on the compound one which houses grandparents and one which houses the hostess and her family. The place is huge, with very big gardens, a pool, etc. It's nice. And it was all decked out for St. Paddy's Day- green lights everywhere, etc.

This party is actually a charity benefit, I believe proceeds go to one or more orphanages. So, it was fun, and it was for a good cause. The highlight of the night for many were the fish 'n chips that were served sometime past midnight, wrapped in newspaper and everything. I can attest that the chips were nice. :) The party drew in at least 200 people- which was amazing, because we knew SO FEW of them. Joel and I both noted that in Latvia we often had some connection to nearly all the English speaking expats in Riga- or we felt we did anyway- but here, my goodness, there were just hoards of people that we had never seen before, all in one place. A little weird, but nice. :)

Here's Joel looking extra cute if I don't say so myself. :) He felt silly in the hat, but I thought it actually suited him, like, if he wanted to wear it in black and be an artist type or something (obviously, not going to happen).

Mon and Don at the party. The hats and leis were handed out at the door.

Us. The glo-necklaces and bracelets were also handed out at the door. I was wearing some green glitter around my eyes, and had on very green nailpolish as well!

One of the funnest (uh, most fun?) parts of the night was the dancing. They had a DJ and a LOUD sound system, and a big ole dance floor. So, we boogied down for quite a part of the night. The best part for me, was that the hostess had obviously had a large say in the music played because it wasn't your typical Angolan club music- it was a lot of popular music from the 80's, 90's and so on. So, for the first time in Angola (er, the first time in a long time actually), I found music that I could really enjoy dancing to, and went for it!

Here's a horrible picture of everyone in it, but basically, you can see just how steamy it was outside, combined with how much we had all danced- everyone is WET, red-faced and nasty looking slicked back sweaty hair. Ah, good times! :)

That last picture was taken sometime around 2. We left soon after that. It really was great fun. And the best part is, because Joel and I spent a lot of time dancing that night (instead of drinking) we both feel pretty good today! :)

On another note, actual St. Patrick's Day (on the 17th, of course) is my mom's 60th birthday. I know she had a party last night too, and I hope they had as much fun as we did! :) Happy birthday Mom!

St. Paddy's Day is also my good friend Kat's birthday- so there's a shout out to you Kat! Happy birthday! :)

A few things that happened today...

This morning I went into the office to take care of something, and since I was there, of course, I checked my mail box/pigeon hole. I saw that there was an easily recognizable yellow and red Shoprite bag in there, with something inside. I wasn't expecting anything, so, was curious as to what it could be. Well, my very own to-borrow-and-pass-along copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting! Yeah, no, I'm NOT pregnant. But there it was none-the-less! It was a bit of a surprise. But then, with a little think and the help of a couple other teachers who walked into the office, we figured out it was the last expat teacher who had a baby, who has now passed it on. Although I am quite certain there is another couple actually trying right now (that is trying to conceive), the she of that couple passed on the book. So, whatever. We all know I like books, and I'm happy to have this one.

That said, I have had one friend tell me already, "Don't read ANY pregnancy books, you'll just get yourself scared that every little thing means you're losing the baby." I had another friend tell me that she read stuff, but chose it carefully, and was happy with that decision. Because I am one of these granola, crunchy, vegetarian, hippie types, I am quite interested in making pregnancy/labor/birth more a natural life experience, and less a medical experience- which means I'm not particularly interested in hospitals, drugs, etc. So, on that note, I am interested in reading about natural pregnancy and childbirth. And I'm not entirely sure, but I think the book I now have in my hands, might be more the other end of the spectrum from what I am looking for. But, the only way to find out is to read a bit. :) The first two chapters are about pre-pregnancy anyway, so, I *could* read it now. :)

Now, the next thing that happened today, might be a little mundane to write about, but I am going to! When I got home from work, eventually I headed into the bedroom to put on my workout clothes. As I walked in, I got the surprise that I get about every two weeks. The maid had changed the bedclothes and the white sheets and duvet cover were on the bed! YAY! I know you're thinking it seems inconsequential (or maybe you're attached to the maid part), but the whole feel of the room changes when the bedclothes change. The heavy blue stripe that is the theme of the other set is manly, heavy, over-bearing, a little bit nautical and mostly, just not up my alley. But this white set, it's airy, and light and lovely. It's all white save for small little concentric circles embroidered in neutral tones in a couple rows across the duvet cover. It invites a space of comfort and relaxation and a clear head space. And I feel this distinction every time I enter the bedroom on a day when the maid has changed the bedclothes. I feel it enough, that I am almost willing to buy a new set of bedclothes to replace the blue set (both sets we have now belong to the school, and were here when we got here). We'll see if I can find some cute, cheap ones in South Africa. :)

I think I am on the verge of becoming a person who exercises. I make a plan for myself at the beginning of the week, and then I try to stick with it. I give myself one or two days of rest, and the other days I'm out there kicking my own butt. For the last few weeks (like as many as 5 possibly?) I have missed none, or only 1 or 2 of my planned sessions. And mostly, the reason for the missed workouts is foot pain (which has now gotten to a point that I am considering a longer break from running, but not exercising, to give my feet a chance to heal). Basically, I am sticking to my plan pretty well, and feel good about that. One of these days, it'll show up in the way I look too.

Oh, I remember the last thing I was going to write about is sort of about babies again, but not really. (Yes, ok, if it's not the wedding I'm thinking about, then it's babies- SO SUE ME!) In the last few years I have been through some tough head space. Mostly it's been because most of my best friends have gotten married, become "married people" (yes, they are different than single people) and then started having babies too. Because this is what I have wanted since I was like old enough to know what it was, I often felt left out, left behind and well, just plain jealous or envious- probably the uglier of the two. Anyway, so finally, here I am, and well, these things are in my future, my almost immediate future. Yay! So, I guess the silver lining to my self-made cloud of yuck from the last few years is that I am overly conscious right now of how my life might change sooner or later.

These days Joel and I both live very single-people lives. That is, we move when we want to. We travel with ease. We spend money on what WE want- clothes, electronics, surf boards, expensive food and toiletries. We take long showers (especially Joel!) We sleep a lot- I sleep early on weeknights (my bedtime is generally between 9 and 10 on weeknights), and we both sleep late on weekends (yes, we both still sometimes sleep til noon or later now and then). We're so single-people that I am probably not even thinking of the ways in which my life is going to change. :)

But yeah, so, the cool thing is that, right now, especially seeing how my friends' lives have changed, I can over-appreciate that which I have. I can just love and fully appreciate being able to do all the things I can do now, so that I can fully love the things I will be doing later, that will mean less of what I am doing now. I think it's cool. I'm feeling confident that I'll be mostly like any other newly married woman, or new mother- that I'll love where I am then/now, and will only look back on "my old life" with sweet memories- the kind where you say, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice...but I would never trade what I have!"

Yeah, so that was what happened today... would you also like to know what I had for breakfast? ;)

Taking it personally

The writer of one of my much loved blogs recently posted about money, which she starts off by saying, right off the bat, is a bad idea. I totally agree with her- it's a bad idea (which is not to say that I didn't immensely enjoy her post, because I did, always do). But, here I find myself. I'm about to do it too. So bear with me, as I make this mistake.

Financial crisis means different things to different people. For some people it's something like, "You mean I have to fire my personal chef?" "I can't have my 3 hour personal training sessions with Hans at home anymore?" You know what I mean- these are people who are generally far too used to having everything they want when they want it the way they want it, that a financial crisis could mean one of the above.

I guess there are probably more levels of "feeling the crisis" but, I'm going to bring it on down to near the bottom. At the very bottom I know we have people who are subject to things I can't imagine- losing their jobs, their homes, their cars, their grocery money, etc. People who are left on the street because of it. But, I will admit, just as I don't personally know anyone in the earlier mentioned personal chef category, I am lucky to also say I don't know anyone in this category.

So, I know lots of people in the middle- people who are having to re-shuffle their priorities. Having to do things like downgrading their cable/internet package, buying generic brand instead of premium brand, eating out less, buying less clothes and other *stuff*, artfully arranging the payment of bills so that it all adds up, etc. Things that are not really nice to deal with, but that none the less still have one's self and ones family under a roof and fed at the end of the day.

I, on the other hand, am beyond extremely lucky (and I know it!) to be in what must be quite a minority of people who are not really feeling the financial crisis on a daily level. Be it because of our location, our job sphere (including the unmentionable o-word companies), or who knows what...but we're just not really feeling it. We're hearing a whole lot about it. But we're not feeling it.

Well, but I guess that is the lie. We are feeling it. Or I am. We're just not feeling it in the pocketbook. I'm feeling it because I'm planning a wedding in the middle of all of this. I'm planning a wedding that I wish people would attend in the middle of all of this. Now, my friends and family might be inclined to say, "Well, you should have done it at home!" - but I reply, would this have been fair to Joel's friends and family (for whom I might add the whole thing is much more expensive anyway, even with it being in Mexico)?

So, it is what it is. I'm kind of starting to realize the impact of being forever attached to someone who is from the other side of the world (literally)- my goodness, that could be a whole other blog post in and of itself- where to spend the holidays, the "sharing" of grandchildren, deciding where to live, how to do it all without offending someone at every turn! Oh God, what am I getting myself into? But I digress...

I'm not upset that we're getting married in Mexico- I'm happy about that. I'm excited for the resort itself, for the people that will be there with us for a week, for the people who will be there with us for THE day. But it does suck that people I never imagined would even question being there, are probably not going to be there. :(

So, I've said it recently out loud, and now I'll say it here, I'm taking the financial crisis personally. Because it's happening during my wedding year. Because it's affecting who will be at my wedding. Because in some small way it's sucking some of the joy out of what should be totally joyous.

And I know, maybe you want to class me with the "I have to fire my personal chef" person for saying it...but so it goes, I'm taking it personally. This is me today.

**updated** In an attempt to possibly make myself not look so bad, I just want to say that it's not that I am complaining because of the way the financial crisis is affecting me, I would have no right. I'm just saying that if there had to be a financial crisis, couldn't it have started NEXT year, or two years AGO? Why now? That's all.

People die here

I know, people die everywhere, but, people die here a lot. But the thing is, it's happening SO often, that my reaction to hearing about a death or a funeral is becoming numbed.

Just this morning, when I asked my teaching assistant how her weekend was, she said, "Oh it was pretty good, except I had to go to a funeral of a friend."

She only told me a week ago that a friend of hers died, so I asked if it was the same friend, "no, another one."

A few weeks ago, she told us the story of how two boys (aged 20, 22) had found a gun on their street, and were playing with it. They thought it was not loaded. Then, the one pretended to execute the other, and "oops" shot him through the head, because the gun WAS loaded.

Before that, she went to the funeral of her cousin.

And this is only since coming back from Christmas break.

Another thing is that infant mortality is REALLY high here. In fact, it seems that all of the locals who work at school and have been pregnant in the last two years, have lost their babies- either by miscarriage somewhere between 3 and 6 months, or by stillbirth. They even started having a bit of a conspiracy theory about how it was something AT SCHOOL that was causing this to happen- something in the food, or in the water. Needless to say, I got pretty freaked out.

Before Christmas, one of the gardeners that we know was gone for a few days because his brother was shot and killed. His response to Joel's words of condolence? "This is Angola. This happens here."

We have collected money on several occasions through the front office- once because one of the gardeners or maintenance guy's one year old died. I forget the reason other times, but I'm pretty sure it was to help out with someone else's funeral.

The thing is though, when you get an email or hear a story EVERY week, that someone else has died, you really do start to get numb to it- which is sad, because when you think about it, you think, the person who died left behind a mother, a father, siblings, friends, perhaps children, perhaps a wife or a husband. And that makes it real, and devastating. But, then, when you hear someone who is experiencing it, tell you about it, without much emotion, you're left wondering again, if being kind of numb about it, isn't kind of normal. Maybe even the locals are so used to having people die that they are numb to it as well?

Someone who lives in town near a maternity hospital (the GOOD one, so they say) says that she sees at least one big body and one little body carried out every day. Every day.

At the beginning of the year, we heard a story about a guy who was supposed to be teaching tennis after school. He had just had to bury his 2 week old son, because he got sick, and needed oxygen. The hospital they were at didn't have oxygen. So then sent an ambulance to pick him up to take him to another hospital that did have oxygen. But they sent the ambulance without the oxygen, and the baby died in transport.

So you start to get numb to it, unless you think about it. And of course, there is a privileged voice inside me that reacts right away with, "Why don't they take better care of themselves?" For instance, one of our TAs is pregnant right now. About a month ago (when she was maybe 5 or 6 months) she went to the doctor, and the doctor told her that she is leaking fluids. She came back to school the next day, and said that she would continue to work for another two weeks, until the end of the month! Of course, in America, Australia, lots of other places- she would just be put on immediate bedrest, no questions. But here, they let her work two more weeks, as she slowly leaks away her baby's fluids. The sad thing is, she already lost one baby (stillborn) a few years ago. God forbid it happen twice!

Anyway, so, in her instance, I don't know what it is that stops her from taking the time off right away. I think it is a combination of ignorance and needing the money (but she and her husband are better off than the average Angolan).

I was talking to my co-worker today about this, and she agrees that in a lot of these cases it is some combination of lack of medical care, ignorance, lack of nutrition and desperation.

The only thing that also happens often, is that people die in car crashes, but this, we agreed is their own fault. People drive SO CRAZY and SO STUPID here, it's a wonder there are any people left at all. The way people drive here makes all the drives in Latvia and China seem like top of the line safe drivers. Of course, this is also why the school has to train and fire a lot of drivers- because none of us will accept drivers driving like a local, so they have to be taught to drive safely.

Now, don't worry- if and when *I* or Joel needs medical care, we get it at the clinic that the locals can't afford. At the clinic where they will tell you pretty honestly that they don't have the doctors or the equipment to take care of you- and they will send you to South Africa right away. And there are other expat teachers who have been pregnant here, carried to term, and are now living here with the babies, safe and sound. Some people say that they would never live here with babies- but, these are people who don't have kids. Needless to say, if I ever feel that I am putting myself or my child at risk by being here, we will leave, no question. But for now, we're here, and planning on starting a family while we're here (don't forget, we plan on being here for two more years most likely).

So, there you go. Death. Something to get used to?

It's LentAl time!

Do you remember LentAl from last year? I gave up dairy to see if it would affect my health. It did, but, alas, I still eat some dairy now and then. Anyway, it's LentAl time again.

This year, I decided to embrace the "adding something positive" part of LentAl. But, there is a story behind this LentAl what I have committed myself to.

I recently finished reading a book called 365 Nights by Charla Muller. The basic idea is that Charla, for her husband's 40th birthday, gives him The Gift, the Gift being one entire year of sex every day, for better or for worse. Of course, at this point, you're probably asking yourself, "Is Mara really going to tell us about her and Joel's sex life now?" Of course not! :)

The truth is, the book, while it's birth came from The Gift, is largely not about sex. Of course, it is about sex, but, it's a lot more about marriage, life, relationships, and much more.

What Muller comes back to time and again throughout the book, is that it's quite normal for married mothers these days to focus their energy on either being the best moms they can be, or on balancing work and motherhood and therefore trying to be the best employee they can be- but rarely do they spend lots of energy thinking about how to be a better wife. Now, I realize I am only getting close to either of these roles, but, well, I reckon the book was a good way to get myself thinking along the right lines.

So, the then, the LentAl goal for this year is about intimacy. Now, intimacy does not equal sex, but neither does it exclude sex. But, the goal is that for 15 minutes a day, we turn off the tv, shut down the computers, close the books and just be with each other. We talk about our days, our plans for the future, anything that is on our minds...

For now, it's working. It's not that Joel and I weren't intimate before; I think we had quite a normal relationship that includes a bit of the tug of war of the genders (she wants to talk all the time, he doesn't want to talk at all, etc). But, for me, this added bit of intimacy is indeed making me enjoy our relationship more. And I think that is great. I'm not entirely sure how Joel feels about the situation- but he agreed to it and he's going along with it, without resistance, so he must feel ok. :)

I mean, see how cute and happy we are?

There isn't too much to tell...

but I will tell you this...

This evening when we were at the grocery store, I was looking at the frozen vegetables, when Joel decided to look at the frozen meat- even though we were at the grocery store where we never buy meat (mostly because the electricity goes out often, and the items in the frozen section thaw and refreeze repeatedly). When I was done looking at the veggies, I walked over to Joel to continue our shopping, and he smiled at me in a way that showed he knew something that maybe he shouldn't share with me. But then, he just picked up this one bag and said, "Look."

Now, I knew it was going to be meat, but it was a big bag. My first thought was that it was one of those whole pig legs that you can buy in Spain and probably elsewhere. But no, oh no. I looked closer. It was not just a pig leg. It was a whole pig. There was the head, the legs, the body, the whole, whole thing. We didn't check the price. We should have.

Oh, also, I don't think I have shared that I finally got my posting for next school year. I have been told that I will be teaching year 2, which is known elsewhere in the world as grade 1. We're talking 6 year olds turning 7 during the school year. I am excited for that. Of course, it will be a new challenge, seeing as it's a new grade for me- but, it will be more like what I am used to than what I'm doing this year- that is, I will have a normal amount of students (20-22), and I will have my own classroom. And therefore, it will be good.

Joel has had his cast off for a week or two now, and is healing well. His hand looks a little mangled still- his pinky finger is fat, and doesn't really bend right, or, more so, it bends out in a funny way that it seems it shouldn't. But, the good thing is that he's gone surfing once and played soccer once since getting it off, and he can almost cut his own dinner up. :)

Oh, and, last weekend, I hit another milestone in my running. I ran 10k on Saturday in an hour and fifteen. I desperately need new running shoes (which I know because of the foot pain that I get when I do my long runs, or too frequent runs), even though I got new ones in Melbourne at Christmas. It's less than a month til we go Zambia, and then we'll have those two all important days in South Africa to buy up all the things we can't get here. And new running shoes are already on that list!

Oh, and finally, if all goes according to plan, on Saturday, I will finally have what will hopefully be the first of many massages! We'll see how it goes, but, if I like her, I am totally going to make it a weekly thing, no questions. :)

And now, just for kicks, this is the picture I have as my desktop background right now. It just makes me happy. :)