Getting around town!

Did you know that Will has a new name around here? He goes by Oscar Quebec! Well, only to the chauffeur service that drives us around. Oscar Quebec is our "call sign." So when we are ready to go somewhere we have to contact the headquarters to let them know that Oscar Quebec at Casa Foxtrot (that's the name of our house, instead of an address) needs a "kilo" (taxi) at such and such a time. Crazy! So we are trying to learn Portuguese and Kilo-talk all at the same time! Zach and Colby ride to school on a mini-bus. It only picks up the kids on our compound and lucky for us, it picks up right in front of our house! Zach and Colby love riding the bus (and Nolan likes riding along just for fun too!) The roads here are interesting- sometimes you have paved roads with lines down the middle and sometimes you have curvy, dirt roads. In both cases, there are many, many ruts in the road and there are no set lanes- the cars just merge and pass to get to where they want to go! They never use blinkers, but they use their horns all the time! Amongst all of this chaos are street vendors walking down the middle of the road (remember, there is no "middle" it's just all one big conglomeration of vehicles) trying to sell things to the people in the cars! Most locals drive beat up looking cars and trucks or they get around in the local taxis which look like bright blue mini-buses. They also walk a lot- right on the side of the road! You often see men pushing wheel barrows full of materials and women carrying goods in baskets on their heads. Here are some pictures of the boys getting on the bus their first day of school, a local blue taxi, and the closest picture I could get of women carrying things on their heads...