A day to day glimpse

Day to Day in Angola:

Every day is different here in Angola, but I have had some people asking me for a run down on what our life is like here on any given day! So I will start with giving a few days from my journal.

January 22, 2006

8AM… Andre (Rosa’s (our house help) son) knocks on the door, he has driven his friends bike to our house from his (about 3KM+). Pete gives him the parts for his bike that he bought for him in Namibia, he is very happy! Meagan has already unloaded most of the truck. Pete gets the rest out while I unpack and put away!
9AM… we get ourselves ready to go to church.
11AM… church at Igreja Evangelica de Christo, this is the name of the UIEA church that we attend. We go to the youth service, in which the youth choir sings. There is no power, so we have a hard time hearing the speaker. The choir sings beautifully as always. At the end of service the usher, starting with the front row, gives the signal for each row to get up and leave the church. One row at time people are ushered out of the church, while the choir sings.
12:30… girls go to friends house (they all missed each other as we were in Namibia all week), after they visit they go back to the church for choir practice, which lasts until late!
12:30 AM… church is over, so we take Andre to his house and pick up him mom and his bike. Pete and Andre work on fixing his bike; while I give each of the family the gifts we bought for them in Namibia… they are all very excited. They each have a bath, and put on their hair conditioner, body lotion, and new clothes!
6PM… we take Rosa and family back home.
9PM… missionary midnight, so we GO to bed!

January 23, 2006

Morning… More unpacking, start the laundry, Rosa comes to work with Minda. I go out to run some errands, I buy flour and rice at a warehouse called Angolisar! Then I go to the internet café (thankfully there is a connection). I catch up on emails from the previous week while we were in Namibia.
Afternoon… Girls go to choir practice, for the festival that starts on Thursday. Pete heads out to the farm and loads up the truck with tomatoes to take to Lubango (2 hour drive) to sell for the farm.
Evening… we have a family from the church over for PIZZA! Some of them like it and some don’t! New taste for all of them! There are 9 extras, so including our family there are 15 for supper. We showed them video of the road to Namibia, they couldn’t believe it! The girl’s friend, Maezinha slept over for the second night! Went to bed around 9:30 (way past missionary midnight)!

January 24, 2006

Early Morning… 3 AM!!!! Augusto calls to see if his wife can get a ride into Lubango with Pete!!!! Not happy about that!
Morning… Pete gets up at 5:30 to get ready for his trip to Lubango, he goes and picks up Augusto’s wife, Kem (a fellow who arranged a ride the day before in the AFTERNOON), and Joao (one of the managers from the farm). I start laundry, but the power goes out half way through! Kids do school work.
Afternoon… Augusto pops in for Portuguese lesson, we work on verbs!! The girls go to choir practice after going to Edul’s house for math tutoring.
Evening… made spaghetti for supper; Pete came home just in time. Girls sleep over at Maezinha’s, Meagan will get her hair braided tomorrow.

January 25, 2006

Early Morning… power came back on at 3 AM… how did I know that, well because at 3 PM I didn’t go around turning all the lights off, plus some of the lights in the house up mean on, and some up means off, and since I am not sure… I take the chance!
Morning… power is off already! Must do laundry, so I turn on the generator! Finish up laundry from our trip. Rosa is working for Jacinto today. School with boys almost drives me crazy; they have a hard time concentrating after a week off, with traveling.
Afternoon…Once they finish, Pete takes them to the beach to go fishing, I go for a nap!!!
Evening… girls come home, LATE! I have a hard time sleeping, as I am coming down with a bladder infection!

January 26, 2006

Morning… up at 5:30, been up most of the night, with infection! Girls start getting ready to go to the festival at 6:30 AM… they must be at Impala (the theatre… or what used to be!!!) at 8 AM. Pete leaves for the farm at 7 AM, he does the fuel run today. NO water and NO power today! I suffer with the infection, take painkillers and muscle relaxants to ease the pain, and SMS (text message) the doctor in Lubango with what kind of drug I will need! Lucas, a nurse from our church, pops by to see how I am, he sends Augusto for the drug I need.
Afternoon… Augusto comes with the antibiotic. I slept most of the morning and all of the afternoon. Boys had a fun day off… because I was too sick to keep them focused!
Evening… girls came home to get their bedding and clothing for the weekend, Pete gave them a ride to the campground where over a 150 youth choir members from 13 provinces in Angola (all from UIEA churches) will be spending the weekend together! Pete made roast beef for supper, I ate and went back to bed!

January 27, 2006

Morning… still NO water! However we do have power, YAH, it came on this morning! I am still weak but the pills are now kicking in. The boys work hard today at their school work. Pete goes and picks up refills of gasosa (POP) for the fazenda lojas (farm stores). The boys and Rosa haul water from a neighbour who has a large holding tank! Bom Dia!!!
Afternoon… Pete bakes cookies. Boys took a break from school work and went out in the backyard and killed 2 mice (ratos), stoned them to death! Jacinto will be happy, as they get into his room and eat his food. Pete took Minda for a ride to the bread store, where depending on the line-up he could wait for almost an hour, however if it is a good day it will only take 5 or 10 minutes. Well it only took ½ an hour! Not bad. We were just about to sit down and eat but Pete had to go to check on the farm truck, as they were in some kind of accident. I think we may have a trickle of water now! That’s nice after 2 days without. I was hoping to get to the internet café this afternoon, but I guess it will have to be tonight. Sure hope they have a connection. Boa Tarde!!!
Evening…Well I didn’t make it to the internet café. We needed to pick up 3 of the guys that were in the accident and also things for the stores and drive them out to the farm. We left at 5:30 PM and now it is 8 PM and we are home… still NO water and now NO electricity! Good thing we brought some water back from the farm! Must get to bed early, we are going to get up early and go north to Bantiaba, which is close to Lucira. There are big tortoises up there that I am looking forward to seeing! Guess I will write more about that tomorrow! I must take my medication and get to bed! Boa Noite!!! Ate amanha!! (see you tomorrow)

January 28, 2006-01-28

Morning…We have water this morning, but no power. We wake early and head out to Bentiaba. After an hour and a half drive on a nice road (except for the last few miles), we arrive in a beautiful little river valley. The village is tucked between cliffs on either side. The boys are in seventh heaven, they have their new fishing rods that they purchased in Namibia with money from Gramma and Grampa Knightly. Pete likes to explore, so we get settled in one place and he decides it is time to move on… oh well, we wouldn’t experience half of what we do if it wasn’t for his HUGE sense of adventure. The only time I don’t like it is when he is heading into a sandy spot where we may get stuck! We are now parked at on the side of the village where there is a sandy beach, Pete has gone into the water with his mask, snorkel and fins to see if he can catch a BIG lobster (when I say BIG I mean BIG… that is the only size they come in). They are nothing like our lobster back in Canada, they do not have the big pincher claws, but they have a massive tail. A man just ‘ran’ up the beach to tell us he has 2 to sell. They don’t see foreigners often here, and naturally they figured we were from South Africa. Now he has gone out to the edge of the water calling Pete in, so he can tell him to “come now” and buy his lobster!!! We’ll see! We cut open one of our watermelon that we picked at the farm yesterday, mmm mmm good. I just shared some with 3 of the locals, they ate it right to the rind.
Afternoon…went looking for lobster, managed to find some. Drove around looking at some more sights, and then it was back home. Stopped to take some pictures of some interesting sights, Trevor found a black scorpion at the one place.
Evening… back home, ate our lobster and now it is time for bed, it is an hour past missionary midnight and I am EXHAUSTED. My infection is not getting any better and I have been on antibiotics for 2 full days how. We’ll have to see how that pans out.

Well, this gives a small idea of what each day is like… everyday comes with its different trials, and joys and we are thankful that God is in control!

God Bless,
Charlene

PS... I had to go on another round of Antibiotics. The Joubert family is back from South Africa and we are glad to have them back. No power for 5 days now, but we have water. We'll keep you posted, but this is just a small glimpse into everyday life, some weeks are more FUN than others!!!