Life so far in Angola

Sorry no pictures this time. I thought I'd just post a little bit about life here in Angola. We've only been here two weeks, but we feel like we've adjusted pretty well so far. Here's the pros and cons : )

Pros:
1) The boys are doing well...Nicholas likes school and is slowly adjusting to the all-day time schedule. Ryan is growing like a weed and has started sitting up now - Yay!!
2) The church is more organized and populated than we expected. In fact, it's amazing, but there was a family we met in Scotland 8 years ago when we were there for a summer. It was this family that introduced us to Westies. Well, guess where they are now? Here!!! And their Westie is still with them. In fact, we're going to be exchanging dog sitting. How amazing is that...Cheerio's inspiration in Angola...what a small world. There is a primary with about 40-50 kids in it. And there's even a nursery....yippee!! Since there a 3 or 4 expat families here, we're thinking about having Sunday school in English for the kids and then joining the Portugese kids for singing and sharing time. I was called to be the pianist so I'm excited to get everyone singing!!
3) The recreation center here in the compound just opened...it's beautiful!! A nice fitness center, pool, two playgrounds, tennis courts, soccor field. I went swimming this morning and it was so nice!!
4) Having a maid, nanny, gardener, and driver. And cook : ) I talked my maid into cooking dinner 3 times a week :)
5) Great neighbors. There are 80 homes here and most families have kids. So it's great for the children as they have lots of playmates. Plus everyone looks out for each other and there's lots of social activities.

Cons
1) Having a maid, nanny, driver, and gardener : ) You're probably thinking...come on, how spoiled is she. Well folks, it is hard work keeping everyone happy, working hard, on time, fed, etc. You'd think I'd have lots more free time right? Well, half the time I spend getting stuff for each of them to do (plants to plant, food to cook, cleaning products to use, etc). And you're never alone in your own house. But I can't complain...I've been blessed to find good help and I literally could not do it alone. I always griped about how tiny our house was in CA, but it's overwhelming have a big house. There's no way I could keep it clean with Nicholas and Ryan needing lots of attention.
2) Most things are spotty and of poor quality. We have a 2.2 million dollar house, but something's always breaking. Plus, the telephone service isn't great and internet comes and goes. The electricity goes off several times a day here.
3) Having to use cash for everything. No credit cards here so I'm constantly paranoid someone's going to steal my purse.
4) The malaria risk. Enough said!

Well, Nicholas is about to arrive on the bus so gotta run! We'll post some pictures soon!!! Gotta show you the banana tree we planted last week!