A Long, Strange Week

I honestly don't even know where to start telling you about my week.  To say that it's been a doozy would be a giant understatement, but at the same time, I know that it could always be worse.  Still - it's pretty darn amazing how many things can go wrong for one family in a short period of time.

So - we moved out of our house on Tuesday.  After the kids left for school, Adam and I packed up our things and loaded the car with everything we needed for four days in the hotel.  It took a little while, but finally we were ready to go....and then the car wouldn't start.  I called a friend who lives in the neighborhood, and she kindly sent her driver to get us.  We transferred all of our stuff to their car, and went to the hotel.  The hotel has about 15 'chalets' for extended stays, and we were put into one of them.  This is supposed to be one of the very nicest hotels in all of Angola, and it IS very nice - as long as you keep in mind where you are.  The furnishings are a little odd....like this coffee table.

Less coffee table, more coffin table

But the kids were jazzed to stay in a new place, so we tried to look at it as a little adventure, and settled in.  The thing I was MOST excited about was taking a bath.  It's been so long since we had hot water in our house, and this hotel has a beautiful big bathtub!  After getting the kids tucked in, I had a lovely hot bath.  I left the water in for Adam (we do this a lot, since he doesn't like having a HOT bath) and went downstairs.  As I was putting things away in the kitchen, I heard water draining, and knew he had finished with his bath.  I thought to myself, "That sure sounds like the water is draining right over my head!" but I figured the pipes must be right above me.  Until....water started raining down on my head!  Yep, we didn't leave our water problems at home, we somehow brought them with us!  I was so tired, so overwhelmed with dealing with stuff like this, that I simply threw a towel on the floor under the leak and went to bed.  

On top of this, we've all been battling a nasty cold.  I woke up yesterday (Thursday) with no voice at all, and feeling awful.  I've been to our house twice to get more supplies, and both times I've been appalled at what a disaster area it is.  They've drilled through the cement walls, the entire place is coated in a thick layer of dirt....it's a mess.  Supposedly we're going to be able to move back in today, but I'm not packing my bags just yet.

Since we're in a hotel, I haven't been able to cook.  This means we've gone out to dinner THREE nights in a row!  Twice we've gone to a Chinese restaurant that our driver took us to, and once we went to a new little bakery/restaurant nearby.  The Chinese food was really good, and when we asked our driver what the name of the place was, he told us, "Chinese Restaurant."  Okay, that'll be easy to remember!  And at the bakery/restaurant, they have a little store.  When JoAnn and I were in there a week ago, she had mentioned to the manager that it would be great if they carried peanut butter.  Well, this time I looked around the store and what did I see?  Skippy peanut butter!!!  It was the high point of my entire week, which is sort of sad.  

I guess it's a little morbid of me, but whenever I start feeling really sorry for myself, I always think about parents who have really sick children, or parents who have had children die.  It sounds terrible, but it does quickly bring me back to the reality of how little my problems really are.  So many times in the past year I've felt like I couldn't take one more problem, one more inconvenience or stress....but I guess we have no idea how much we can bear until we have to do it.  And as crazy as it sounds, I still do believe we're in the right place, at least for now.  Our kids are happy and thriving, making friends and learning amazing things.  Hearing each of them speak Portuguese makes me so happy, and teasing Adam about his Portuguese makes me happy, too.  So don't worry about us, we're doing okay - even if we do seem to be magnets for domestic disasters!

Two Months, 11 Days, and 12 hours

Our house is officially a disaster.  We're being moved tomorrow to a hotel, so that they can shut off our power for four days and (supposedly) fix it.  I've asked, suggested, begged, and demanded that they move us permanently to another house in the compound, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. So instead, I get to pack up my three children, the dog, school supplies, clothing, and everything else we'll need for four days, and completely disrupt our lives.  I've got to figure out where to move all of our refrigerated and frozen foods for four days, and find someone to fill in for me on bus duty.  Oh, and just to keep things interesting, I've also got two kids home sick!  So....I'm counting the days until we go on vacation.  This stinks.

Punished

When we first moved to Angola, I felt like I was being punished for something.  I'd go for a walk around the compound, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, and it literally felt like I was serving a 3 year sentence in prison.  Now it's been a year, and my feelings have changed so much!  Our neighborhood feels safe - our kids can run around the compound, visit each other's houses, and play at the playground.  Going to the grocery stores is no longer a scary prospect - it's still not a good time, but it's gotten to be no big deal.  Our driver is so friendly and dependable, as is our maid - these things make life here pleasant.

HOWEVER..... our house is a complete disaster.  Every day there is something new that's going wrong, something that should be fixed but instead is made worse.  I have become the most hated wife in the compound, at least to the maintenance supervisor.  I am exhausted, and so frustrated at being powerless to do anything about these problems.  It turns out that our water problems were due to the water heaters being installed improperly, and all they needed was to have the valves adjusted.  This simple process took over a week to get done.  And guess what?  Now that we have hot water, the entire city is in the middle of a water shortage!  The electricity is a nightmare - now, not only is the downstairs breaker tripping, the upstairs breaker tripped at 3am and will not go back on.  This means that I've been up since 3 am, and now we have no air conditioning in our bedrooms. I'm back to feeling like surely I must have done something horrendous in a previous life, because these problems are insane, even for Angola.

The kids and I all have colds, and we miss Adam terribly.  The only bright spot is knowing that he'll be home later today.  I know we will get through this, and I can still tell you that we are incredibly blessed in so many ways....but I really hope that this house nightmare is close to being over.