Safari Time!

We all had SO much fun going on safari! We were able to find the "Big 5" (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo), as well as many other animals during our four day stay at a safari lodge (Lukimbi Safari Lodge) inside of Kruger National Park in South Africa. Here are some of our favorite pictures...

While watching the zebras up close we all came to the same conclusion....they are definitely white with black stripes (and still Zach's favorite animal)!

"You wanna mess with me?!" Nolan watching the "big, big pigs" (white rhinos).

Photographer Will at work- here he's taking 1 of the 3,000 pictures he took!

Hakuna Matata...warthogs are a lot uglier and a lot hairier than Pumba was in The Lion King (and this one didn't sing for us either)! Our safari lodge.

We followed these fresh paw prints to find these guys...

We pulled up into a circular clearing where 1 fremale lion and 5 male lions were just lying around. We sat and watched them (from inside the safari vehicle, of course) for about 25 minutes, from about 15 feet away. Once in awhile a lion would get up to stretch or find a new place to hang out, but for the most part they were just lion around. The lions really did not seem to be bothered by us at all. I actually think they enjoyed the paparazzi-ish attention. Look how well the posed for us.

We went out on two safari drives each day, for about 3 hours each time. Every trip we stopped about halfway through and got out of the vehicle (actually got out in the middle of the wild!) and had a drink and a snack. One time Lisa, Our Ranger, challenged us to put a piece of dried up antelope poop in our mouth and spit it as far as possible. And every one of us did it- all so we could get a "Junior Ranger Certificate" at the end of our stay (well, Will and I didn't get a certificate, so don't ask me why we did it!) The funny part is Nolan accidently picked up a wet piece of poop, so it got stuck in his mouth!

Can you find the leopard? He is a bit hard to see, but we were ecstatic when we spotted him (espcially Colby, since spotted cats are his favorite animal)! Our Tracker actually found him crouched down low in the bush. It's amazing he found him...although I guess that's what he gets paid for, right?

Our Tracker, Giddean, showing the boys how to make a toothbrush out of a certain kind of tree branch!

This was my favorite memory of the whole trip. We stumbled upon a journey of 13 giraffes, or as Zach named it, "our baker's dozen of giraffes". First we saw one tall, tall creature coming out of the bush, then another and then they just kept coming. It was so cool. They all crossed right in front of our safari vehicle and then stopped for a little leaf snack on the other side of us. They are beautiful and so fun to watch because they are so tall and elegant (sounds a bit like me! :)

Want to exactly which animals we found? Just ask Zach! He was a very efficient at checking off all the animals on his official Lukimbi Animal Checklist!

Family photo out in the middle of the bush.

Birds, birds, birds.

We stopped to look at a lot of different types of birds. We are not "bird people", but we did kind of get into it, as there are some really cool birds out there. Above is our pick for the prettiest bird we found and below- well, he gets the award for "not so pretty."

"What are you looking at boys?"

We found this family of baboons hanging out in the trees. Our Ranger, Lisa, estimated the baby baboon was only 5 days old!

Football Fever

It has been football (a.k.a soccer) fever around here! Angola just finished hosting the Africa Cup of Nations right here in Luanda. We did not go to any of the games, but we still got to join in on the fun. One thing I noticed and love is that there was a real sense of team spirit and country pride evident all over town. Cashiers at the grocery store wore jerseys, people had Angola flags hanging out of their car windows, and vendors were lined up on the streets selling Angola souvenirs. For a country that is still picking up the pieces from having just ended a Civil War here a little over a decade ago, it was great to see the unified atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Angola lost in the quarter-finals and even more unfortunately, 2 members of the Togo Soccer Team were killed in Angola on their way to the tournament. The bus was attacked by a group of Rebels living in a province of Angola called Cabinda, which lies between the borders of the country of Congo and the country of Angola. The Rebels tried, unsuccessfully, to fight for their independence from Angola for several decades, and entered a ceasefire in 2006, but hostility still remains there. The area where the shooting took place is hours away from here (it is only 6 miles from the Angola border), so we are nowhere near the tension, but it saddens me that the Rebels attack created a negative impression on the entire country of Angola.

The Imbondeiro Tree

This amazing and unusual looking tree, The Imbondeiro Tree, is very popular all over Angola. As the national tree of Angola, not only can it be found growing all over the country, but images of the Imbondeiro tree can be found on many different types of local art work such as paintings or carvings, and on clothing, car windows, signs, etc.

The Imbondeiro Tree, meaning "Giant Tree" can be found in other hot, dry, sub saharan African countries as well, where it is referred to as a Baobab or Adansonia Digitata tree. It is also known as the "upside-down tree" because the branches resemble tree roots, like it was planted upside down! According to legend...

"The Imbondeiro tree was among the first trees to appear on the land. Next came the slender, graceful palm tree. When the Imbondeiro tree saw the palm tree, it cried out that it wanted to be taller. Then the beautiful flame tree appeared with its red flower and the Imbondeiro tree was envious for flower blossoms. When the Imbondeiro tree saw the magnificent fig tree, it prayed for fruit as well. The gods became angry with the tree, and pulled it up by its roots, then replanted it upside down to keep it quiet. And it continued to grow like that."

It is said that they can live for over 1000 years! The massive trunk can hold up to 120,000 liters of water to endure a harsh drought. Sometime people live inside of the trunks or setup tiny shops or produce stands inside. The trees produce large white flowers and they have big, long, velvety fruits, called Mukua, that hang from the branches. The fruit is not usually eaten whole, but is said to be tasty when squeezed into juice. Other parts of the tree can be used for medicine, dyes, etc.

Our family has become quite attached to these trees too! They are so weird looking and it's fun to look at the windows while driving around town and find super funky ones. The name of our compound is "Imbondeiro" and we enjoy life here on the compound, so these trees will always remind of us of all the good times and good friends we've made while we've lived here!

Colby and Nolan making a pit stop in front of an Imbondeiro Tree while cruising around the compound

Rain Day

This morning my alarm clock went off at the same time it always does and just 3 minutes later, as I’m still lounging in bed, the phone rings with a message that there’s no school today! (There’s a large electrical problem.) Right away there was that familiar “snow day feeling” in the air that I remember from when I was a kid. So, I decided to make a big pancake breakfast to celebrate the special occasion. After eating (Isabel, our maid, joined us too- she had never had pancakes before!) the kids went out to play. Shortly after they went outside it started to drizzle, which is very rare here (It has only rained about 10 times in the year that we’ve lived here.) As the rain picked up the kids decided to play slip-and-slide on the trampoline…just like sledding! Then we all danced around in the rain, complete with a water fight…just like a snowball fight. The rain was actually chilly, so after about an hour we headed home to warm up with a nice warm shower- too bad we couldn’t have a nice, warm fire in the fireplace! It was only lunchtime, but the kids put on their pajamas so they’d be comfy to lounge around on this wet, wet day. And to top off our “Africa Snow Day”, a nice big mug of hot chocolate for everyone!

Hip! Hip! Horray for a Rain Day!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Can you guess who??

The boys showing off their tie-dye pumpkin shirts Transformers Colby and ZachThe Super heroes! The parents joined in on the fun too!

The kids went trick-or-treating around the compound. Zach and Colby ran from house to house and Nolan took his time and sampled some candy along the way saying, "more candy! more candy!" after every house.

the professional trick-or-treaters the whole gang- all the kids on the compound dressed up and ready to party!

After trick-or-treating there was a party up at the rec. center for all the kids, complete with games, dance competitions and lots of food!

Colby and his friend, Ty, competing in the doughnut game- racing to to see who can eat a doughnut off a string the fastest, without using any hands!

Willy trying to bob-for-apples... He got a little wet!

Happy Halloween from Superman Nolan, Transformer Colby, Transformer Zach, Batman Will and Cow Sandy!

Maritius Vacation

Mauritius!

We just got back from a week vacation in Maritius (rhymes with delicious!)- an island on the East Coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean (to the East of Madagascar).

just hanging out around the hotel

We had a great time doing beachy things like playing in the beautiful ocean, finding coral (no seashells on the beach!), and searching for the best "skipping rocks" to throw. We also went out in the middle of the oceon on a glass-bottom boat to look for fish. Our favorite activities from the week were playing in the hotel pool (where Zach learned how to do a back flip into the water!) ... ...and going down to the bottom of the ocean floor in a REAL submarine!

Oh, and we enjoyed all the delicious (Indian and seafood) meals and the beautiful sunsets everyday!

Whale Watching

Ay-yi-yi! We’ve been back from summer break for a little over a month now and I haven’t updated our blog. We had such a great trip home for the summer! It went by fast but we sure crammed in a lot of fun- lots of visits with friends and family, lots of trips to yummy restaurants, and lots of running around to get ready to come back here!

So, by the time we got back to Africa we were all ready to take a breather and slip back into the “simpler life” we have here. The big highlights since we’ve been back are; we’ve made some new friends with some really nice families that moved in, Zach lost two teeth in two days so we had our first visit from the African tooth fairy, Colby started kindergarten and is super excited about learning to read, and Nolan learned to ride his bike and wear big-boy underwear (which he likes to do at the same time!) Today we did something else new that we’ve all never done before- we went whale watching! We went out on the boat with some of our new friends, The Gants, who also have a household full of little boys. So there we are on a little boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa surrounded by new friends, good food, and big, huge whales! They were so big, so loud and so close to our boat! It was amazing! Zach said, “This is awesome!”, Colby didn’t like the sound they make when they blow water from their blowholes, and Nolan got excited to see “tall, tall fish” so close up! Pictures definitely don’t do it justice, but here’s a collection of some of our favorites!

check out the waterfall behind his tail!

look how close they are... that railing is the side of our boat

his bumpy head and tail

three of them together

4 of the 6 little whale watching fans

more tail...so cool

flipping over to wave goodbye :)

A short video of our whale watching trip

Home Sweet Home!

Yippeee! After a 14 hour plane ride and an additional 7 hours in airports...we're home!! The boys and I will be home for the entire summer break and Will is going to join us for the last two weeks. We've got a lot of fun stuff in store for the summer, but what we're looking forward to the most is just hanging out with friends and family and "enjoying 'All-American' lazy days of summer" (that's my motto for the next 7 weeks!) Over the last 48 hours I have realized how easy it is to forget everyday things! I haven't driven a car in 6 months and I had to ask the man at the car rental place how to put the car into drive. No joke...and it's a regular ol' automatic mini-van! When we pulled into our driveway for the first time Colby goes, "Oh! Now I remember this house!" Whenever we get in the car Nolan asks me, "home?" meaning "are we going home now, to our house in Africa?" Zach couldn't find the handle to flush the toilet! (The toilets in Africa have knob type things on the top of the tanks.) And my favorite....As the boys were parading from room to room in the house discovering things they had forgotten about, Colby said, "Oh, I have to go the bathroom!... Where is the bathroom in this place?" But, it didn't take long for us to readjust to American life- in the just 48 hours we've...been to McDonald's, shopped at Target, eaten Pizza Hut, enjoyed Slurpees, played at Chuck E. Cheese, met up with friends and eaten at our favorite sandwich shop! It feels great to be home. It's very true- there's no place like home! :)

Hospital Bags

I just started helping out with the “hospital bags” for the AIDS/TB hospital here in Luanda. The service project was started by a group of ex-pat wives because the conditions at the hospital are not very good. The only things that the hospital provides for its 250 or so patients are medicine (which doesn’t include pain medication) and a bed to sleep on (no sheets, just the mattress). These people are not provided with any food during their stay. It is assumed that relatives will bring them food, although this is often not the case. The patients sometimes have no family, the family could live too far to travel, or they feel that money is better spent on food for the children rather than someone who is dying. So a group of volunteers make up hospital bags every week to be distributed to the patients every Wednesday so that they have something to eat at least once a week. The bags contain; powdered milk (to be made into milk by adding water), a can of sardines, a hard-boiled egg, a yogurt and a piece of fruit. Tonight, Zach (with his love for Math) wanted to help me sort and count all the items to make up the bags. He was racing me- trying to see who was faster- me opening the bag or him measuring out the milk powder. He somehow also won. We had fun doing it together and I tried to explain why we were doing it, but it’s a pretty hard concept to grasp. I have not actually gone into the hospital because I don’t want to risk bringing TB back to my family, but I have heard that some of the patients are so hungry that they can’t get the containers of food open because their hands are shaking so bad. I decided to jump on the “hospital bag bandwagon” about a month ago because my friend, Hallie, is really involved with the project, it is something that I can easily do with kids at home, and I just can’t imagine being that hungry. As I stuff the bags I do often think to myself, “I wonder just how hungry I would have to be to enjoy that can of sardines!"

Check this dude out!

Check out this praying mantis we found at Zach and Colby's school!

He was huge! He was so fat he was having trouble walking- he was like waddling!

We moved him onto the grass because he was going so slow that he was going to get squished. And then I gave him a little advice- I told him to start praying that he loses a little weight (or he's not going to see too many more days)!