We Have Arrived

We made it!! We've been in Africa for 5 days now. Here is a summary of my week:

Flight over:
We were suppose to leave Houston at noon on Monday but on the way to the airport Craig called and found out the flight was delayed 3 hours. Our first reaction was..."Oh great!" We were already tense about the flight with 3 kids...we did not need a delay! We got our 30 bags checked in (1 ton total weight) then we headed up to the lounge to have snacks and drinks. We just thought we'd hang out in the lounge until time to go. HA! The kids wanted to run around and play. I noticed a door that said "Nursery" on it so I went over and took a peek inside. Jackpot!!!!! It was a large room with 2 cribs, 2 rocking chairs and a restroom!!! OMG! It was the perfect camp for my crew! The kids played and had so much fun in our hideaway.

At 3PM we boarded the plane and by this time the kids were tired. We took off and dinner was served shortly after. They had a special menu just for the kids..it was awesome! Before dessert, Carter and Miles were asleep!! The rest of the flight went very smoothly thanks to Legos and a $20 box of Bendaroos!!

Arrival:

We arrived Tuesday afternoon to find out that our house was not ready!! We were told to go to an apartment in the city.....you know how I feel about the city!! We arrived at the apartment and a co-worker of Craig's was here to greet us. She welcomed us and gave us the keys and took us up for a look. WOW! The apartment is nice. It has 3 large rooms and 5 bathrooms. The hallway is literally 1/8 of a mile long. All we need is a bowling ball and pins. We were also given a "welcome packet" of bread, fruits, veggies, cheeses, chicken, a case of coke, coke zero, fanta, beer and 12 bottles of wine! The apartment also has a gym. It is nice....but the kids need a yard. There is no where for them to run and play...except for the hallway...which they have enjoyed! They told us the house would be ready in about a week and a half...so we are almost there!!

School:

The kids started school on Wednesday because I wanted them to adjust to the time as soon as possible. They were very excited and Sam and Miles went right on in without any problems. Carter always seems to have difficulty with transition and change so this week has been harder on him. His classroom is right across the playground from Miles', so when I go to pick up Miles at noon (Carter's lunch time) he sees us and doesn't understand why Miles gets to go home and he has to stay. I ended up taking him home on Wednesday and Friday. Hopefully next week will be better.
Sam loves the school and has made friends. A few of the girls in her class are European and speak Portuguese and English. She is in awe and follows them around. She really wants to learn the language. Craig and I went to have lunch with her on Thursday and it is just soooo different from the "school" we all know. I think it's going to be great. She has language class twice a week so hopefully she'll be able to teach me! She also has swimming on Wednesdays, music and PE twice a week, and computer once a week. She is in 1st Grade but they call it "Year 2".

Traffic:

As I've mentioned before, traffic is awful! From the apartment to the school is an hour and a half round trip!! It sucks bad! But the good thing is, I get to see LOTS of interesting things. I'm such a people watcher so it is perfect for me. It amazes me to see the people here and to watch them go about their daily routines. The women work just as hard, if not harder than the men. With no running water in their homes, you'll see people of all ages carrying empty water jugs to be filled. I have no idea where they get water but anytime that I've seen a puddle of water on the ground, people are using it to wash! People sell everything on the streets. The entire drive to the south, you'll see people lined in the streets selling such random things. The men tend to work in the streets ( I guess because it's dangerous) and the women and children work on the sidewalks. This week I've seen men selling lint brushes, highlighters, phone cards, DVD players, shoes, toilet paper, ironing boards and other random things. The women tend to sell all of the food items. They carry the big bowls on their heads with bread, fish, fruits, veggies and today I saw one carrying a big cooler and ice cream cones were sticking out...so I'm assuming she had ice cream on her head?? Sam and I are always fascinated by their lives. It's just unbelievable seeing these people that live half a world away and they wear, sell and use the same things we do, but their lifestyle is sooo different. Today we saw a kid wearing a Texans jersey! Just about everyone has Nike or Converse tennis shoes. Funny how the world is so different yet connected in so many ways! It's also common to see very young children running down the sidewalk...with no parent! I mean kids that are like 3 and 4 years old!!! They are just on their way. Sometimes there might be a few together. It's crazy! We wont let our kids in the front yard by themselves and the kids here just roam free.....next to crazy drivers going various speeds down the road. I'm always so worried about them. They obviously don't have to go to school because I see tons of kids all day long. I'm curious about that...I tend to investigate!


Other than that, all is going pretty smoothly. I had an incident at the mall that cost me a hundred bucks but I learned a lesson! (I lost my parking ticket and they obviously took advantage of me and wouldn't let me go without paying. I'm not sure if my driver didn't make a buck or two off of it as well since he was translating). I've also made some friends and have a few things planned for next week that I'm looking forward too! One being the "Hash" which is a running club that meets every other Saturday for a 6 mile run through the city. Craig has done it and apparently it is pretty fun and involves beer afterwards! Should be interesting.


Today we took the kids back to the mall (which is very nice and reminds me of a smaller Baybrook Mall). It is very clean and very nice. We ate pizza and wanted to catch a movie but the only one in English was G-Force and they've all seen it. We also went to the Shoprite which is kinda like the "walmart" here. I got carrots, cucumbers and a few snacks for the kid's lunches. I was looking for bread but they sell it by the loaf there and I've heard it doesn't last more than a day or two, so I've got to find the right place for bread because I use a lot for lunches. Then tonight we got dressed up and went to a very nice Chinese Restaurant called Chez Wou. Craig's birthday is next week so we thought we'd celebrate tonight. It was pretty good and Sam even tried the sweet and sour chicken!! Huge deal because she's so darn picky!!

That's it for now...I'm off to put the kids to bed. I appreciate all the emails I've received. It's nice to hear from everyone! I miss you all!!

T