Week 3: Pink Eye, Soccer & Mountain Biking

Week Three started off with our normal routine of school and tennis mixed with some pool time. On Tuesday, I mentioned to Jordan that I was “a little bored.”

I love routine, but I’m not nearly as busy as I was in Houston with various obligations. I’m trying to enjoy the downtime, but I also like to be challenged in some ways. Anyway, I suppose I shouldn’t have said anything about being bored because on Wednesday morning, Lucy woke up with pink eye. This wasn’t the type of excitement I was looking for, but our routine for Wednesday was disrupted. I took her to the International SOS which is around the corner from our house. It was the easiest doctor’s appointment. We walked in, they verified we were with Chevron, we waited a bit, saw the dr and she confirmed it was conjunctivitis. She told us she would be right back and 45 seconds later she was handing me eye drops and sent us on our way.

Lucy was fine and I needed to run to the store for a few things. She came with me and while there suggested we buy Paula and Emerson something. We got them both a small package of cookies they could take home to their kids. While we were out we passed a martial arts studio and I told Emerson that Lucy had asked to do Jiu Jitsu. He got the biggest kick out of that.

The kids started soccer this week. Lucy wasn’t going to play, but then was cajoled to. The lesson started at 4 pm and at 4:12 she came over asking me if she could quit. Ha! I told her she had to finish the class she started, but didn’t have to play soccer if she didn’t want to. She doesn’t.

Hudson started playing soccer on Thursday. Coach Tony played for the national team at some point and seems to be a very good coach. Hudson loves soccer (although he has only played one season of recreational soccer), and didn’t mind that it was blazing hot while he practiced. He immediately went from soccer to tennis so it’s safe to say he was pretty worn on Thursday evening. While Hudson was in lessons, Lucy was swimming in the pool with her friends. After all of her friends left, she continued playing with some Angolan children. Jordan looked over and they were touching her hair which we found amusing. We think it’s because of her red color.

Both kids have made friends at school. Given it’s an international school, they have made friends from Angola, South Africa, Peru, Columbia, and California. On Thursday, Hudson’s class hosted a “Celebration of Learning.” In normal times (do we even know what those are anymore?), parents would attend these in person, but this was on Zoom. Hudson’s class had taken the subject of flooding and incorporated it into every subject. He read about flooding, did science experiments on flooding, somehow did math about flooding, and conducted research on flooding. He was broken into a small group of three and their focus was the recent volcanic explosion and tsunami that affected Tongo in early January. To show their knowledge they hosted a “newscast” during the zoom call. It was fun to see Hudson interact with his classmates.

Friday, I ventured out to get my nails done. A neighbor had her nails done at a salon nearby, so I went to the same place. The location is interesting because it’s in a house, but most of the houses around it also were businesses. Another interesting thing is that the technicians did one foot and one hand at a time. In the states, they will clip the cuticles on one hand then clip the cuticles on the other. Not here. They focused on one hand and one foot at a time. I will say it was one of the more thorough pedicures I have ever gotten. The salon was nice and very affordable. In Luanda, it seems that goods are expensive, but labor is cheap which, I would assume, is problematic for the locals here. I met the owner, also named Sarah. I’m going back this week to get my hair done by a woman from Portugal.

Fridays are nice because there are no after-school activities and it truly feels like the weekend has kicked off. The kids and Jordan went to the pool for a bit that evening. Saturday, we went to what I call “the beer place” for lunch. Technically it is called Cerverjaria Pur Malta and they usually have imported beer on tap except for the Saturday we went which was disappointing. Oh well, we had caipirinha’s instead (which quickly becoming my favorite drink here) while the kids played card games and had plank and push-up contests with their friends. The food was good (Hudson gave the hamburger two thumbs up) and I expect we will be back.

After lunch we went to a hair salon and Jordan, Hudson, and Lucy got haircuts. They turned out great and the price ended up being about $10 per haircut. Once again, goods are expensive, but labor is cheap.

Speaking of hair… I’m going off on a tangent… my hair is so gross here. It’s hot and humid – not unlike Houston’s summers. It’s often during the summer in Texas I contemplate cutting off my hair which is what I am doing now, but then I would have a harder time pulling it back into a ponytail.

Saturday night we ended back up at… you guessed it… the pool. The kids have such fun there. Sometimes they play on the playground, sometimes they are playing swimming games. On Saturday night, an older girl was trying to teach Lucy how to dive. I bet in a couple of weeks she will have it down.

Jordan left about 6:30 am to go mountain biking on Sunday. He drove about an hour south of Luanda and then rode 23 km while ascending 241 km. He said it was very technical riding, but that he also found himself riding through a goat herd, private farms (the farmers didn’t care and came out to say hello), and saying hi to kids that came running after them. After the ride, the group went to a restaurant near the Kwanza river. He enjoyed himself and hopes to do at least a weekly mountain biking while we are here. He was also very tired and very red when he got home Sunday afternoon.

While he was mountain biking, I was preparing for the week. I made banana bread muffins for the kids to take to school as a snack and I made some hummus to go with our veggies. I hard-boiled some eggs so we have another easy snack to grab and go. I also went ahead and cut up our mangos and watermelon for easy access. Food here is still hard, but it’s getting easier. It wasn’t all work though. Hudson and I went and played a little tennis on Sunday.

Our shipment is still in Houston. That’s all I have to say about that at the moment.

We are starting to plan for our two-week spring break trip in April. I started poking around to plan it myself, but felt overwhelmed with my options so contacted a travel agent for some guidance. She has already proven to be invaluable! Once we are confirmed, I’ll share the details about where we hope to go.

This week felt more “normal” and for that I am grateful. I’m not as anxious going grocery shopping or running errands by myself because I have a better handle on the money situation. I finally bit the bullet and bought a couple of kitchen items to make cooking a little easier (a hand mixer and a couple of plastic bowls). It’s hard to spend a lot of money on items you know are coming in your shipment, but these were the items I was borrowing the most so I decided to go ahead and get them since we have no idea when our stuff will actually arrive.

Jordan is busy with work, Hudson loves his freedom running around the compound, and I’m having a difficult time keeping up with all of Lucy’s playdate requests from friends. It was a good week, minus the pink eye, and this place is starting to feel less like a long-term VRBO and a little more like home.

Until next time…
Sarah