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.