Our First Day Out in Luanda

I was trying to post about our travel and first few days in Luanda, but I’m still not done with those posts. If I wait to do this chronologically it may never happen so I’m jumping in with our first Saturday in Luanda and will hopefully post about the trip here soon.

Also, disclaimer… I am mainly blogging for myself and my family. I have looked back on our RV blog several times and it is so lovely to have a record of our time spent traveling the US. I hope to do that with our time in Luanda.

I suppose I should start with Friday evening. We met several other families at the pool around 5 pm. We brought sausages and chicken hot dogs to grill. The chicken hot dogs were the only hot dogs I could find until someone told me the are actually packaged in a jar here. Now I know to look for hot dogs in jars. We headed to the rec center thinking we would be there for two hours max which was not the case. Since we had been quarantining for two weeks before our departure it was so nice to be around other people. Hudson and Lucy were swimming and playing with other kids. We were having adult conversations which mostly revolved around where to go grocery shopping. It was really nice. It was also really late by the time we got home. I think our kids went to bed around 10:30 pm. We all woke up late Saturday morning and were moving slow. I think Lucy didn’t wake up until 10 am. By the time we got ourselves dressed and ready it was almost lunchtime. I decided we are instituting a family curfew.

Our plans included going out for lunch and then doing some more shopping. Chevron gave us some food when we arrived, but it was a little odd. We have four huge boxes of Corn Flakes, 4 jars of jelly, pounds and pounds of rice, the thinnest steaks I have ever seen in my life and chicken breast. I tried to cook the steaks one night. We ate them, but really would have rather not. There is more food, but it is not what we want as a family or exactly a full pantry. I had gone to ShopRite, a South African grocery chain, on Friday, which was an experience I’ll recount later, but we still needed a few more things as you do when you move into a new place.

There is a large shopping center near us that had some restaurants so we had Emerson, our driver, take us there. To enter the center, you are required to wear a mask and provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test result. We walked to the restaurant and sat outside. It was an interesting dining experience. I keep thinking something will be easy here, but so far it’s all been a little hard. That’s not to say we aren’t enjoying ourselves, but when everything is different – even the dining experience – you expend a lot of effort which in the end just makes you tired. Going out to eat used to be relaxing for me, but this wasn’t. I’m sure it will get easier over time. Remember, this was our first time out as a family. It also didn’t help that we were all tired and a little cranky.

The waiter brought one menu to the table and gave it to Jordan. I waited for mine for a few seconds and then realized I wasn’t getting one. In all fairness, Jordan is better at Portuguese than I am so it probably made sense for him to order. I’m already practicing how to ask for a menu for the next time we go out though. Lucy ordered fish sticks, Hudson ordered a hamburger, and Jordan and I split was ended up basically being a huge plate of grilled meat that included octopus, tuna, chicken, and beef. The food was ok. Hudson’s hamburger wasn’t quite what he is used to in America. He had a bit of a hard time at the restaurant. I realized that it wasn’t really about the restaurant though. He was tired, and had endured a lot of change over the past week. I knew at some point he would hit a wall, as we all would, and his just happened to be at Taverna de Belas.

While Jordan waited for the check, I took the kids inside to a gelato shop. I can stumble my way through ordering (although I did order the wrong size cup), but the hardest part for me is payment. The money here is so different. 5,000 aoa (kwanzas) is about $9 USD. Our gelato bill was 13,000 aoa. If the amount is on the register and I can see it I can count out my kwanzas, but if the cashier tells me what the amount is I have no idea what he or she is saying. I’m working on learning 1 – 10 in Portuguese, but my time might be better spent learning how to say 13,000, 20,000, etc. I asked them to write the amount down for me and when I say I asked them I mean I used hand symbols trying to get my point across. The cashier obliged. I counted out my money and the kids sat and ate their gelato. It seems cliche to say, but I already have so much more empathy for people who are in a foreign country who do not speak the language or use the local currency. It’s much harder than I anticipated. I think I am a fairly intelligent human, but I felt pretty stupid when I was trying to pay for my kid’s ice cream.

We walked around Belas and I was surprised to see that there were a lot of stores. There is a store that sells luxury brands like Burberry, Marc Jacobs, etc. There is also an Aldo, a sporting goods store, a toy store, and an electronics store. We didn’t purchase anything (the prices are exorbitant), but it is nice to know if there is an emergency we can get something. I don’t know what emergency would necessitate a Burberry purchase, but I’ll keep you posted.

From Belas we went to Candando. Candando is Luanda’s version of Target. There is the regular Candando, where we went, and the Big Candando which I may venture to this coming week. We were able to buy a lot of things we “need:” deli meat, chips, produce (but no strawberries or broccoli), sandwich bags, beer, soy sauce, and a lot of other items so I can prepare lunch and dinner this week. Since it’s similar to a Target, there is also a toy aisle that included Barbies. I was curious how much a Barbie cost, so I did the conversion my mouth dropped when I read $50! Fifty dollars for one Barbie. The Barbie set with the ambulance cost over $200. People advised us to bring a lot of items, such as toys, birthday presents, etc. to Luanda for this very reason. My understanding is that prices are so high given everything is imported and there is a level of corruption to bring items into the country. Lucy didn’t want the Barbie, but she did want a $75 baby doll. I told her no which then cued her time to meltdown. Lucy doesn’t really meltdown in an epic way (we went though plenty of that in the toddler years), but she will throw a lot of side eye, make comments under her breath and generally have a bad attitude. Once again, I realized it wasn’t just about the baby doll, just like Hudson’s hard time was more than just a hamburger. She recovered, eventually.

Emerson met us at the checkout counter and helped get our groceries in the cart and then into the car. I’m so thankful for him. He really has been so helpful as we navigate life in Angola. A fellow expat told us that our driver is more like an assistant and Emerson is definitely stepping up to that level. He speaks some English which is not common, but for which we are very grateful.

Once we made it home, we were all pretty spent. We unloaded groceries and all found a quiet place to reset. After a while, Hudson went to another boy’s house to play, Jordan ventured back out so we can get better internet, and Lucy and I headed to the pool where she saw friends she made last night.

We came home and had leftovers for dinner. I went to bed super early and hope to run our neighborhood loop tomorrow morning.

Our first day out was a success overall! Everything is a little harder here, but I am hopeful we will adjust and it will feel like home soon!