Namibian Safari

We just got back from one of my favorite vacations ever! Let me just say that as a kid watching Animal Planet, and The Crocodile Hunter constantly, I have always wanted to (but never dreamed I would actually get to) go to Africa and see animals in the wild!

It was wonderful.We used a travel agency so that we could make sure everything was good and family friendly since we brought the baby with us. As a lovely side product of this we didn't have to plan...well...much of anything. Hot dang!

Day 1:
On this day we flew from Luanda to Windhoek. There we were met at the airport and taken to our first bed and breakfast in Windhoek. We stayed at a place called The Elegant Guesthouse and it was small and sweet. There were only about 6 rooms so the staff knew everyone by name and was very nice. Since our room was just one room (like most hotels) we put the baby's pack-n-play in the big shower so that she could sleep in her own room. Haha! Poor baby!

That night we went to Joe's Beerhouse for dinner. It had been highly recommended from several people as a fun place to eat. It was pretty neat! It was outdoors and partially under thatch roofs. They had big campfires going and you could order all sorts of game meats. Phil ended up eating most of a safari...while I had a zebra steak.

Day 2:
We took off to the Waterburg Plateau early in the morning. There were a lot of dirt roads (which consequently made our luggage in the back of the covered truck bed quite dusty). It was a nice drive and the lodge we stayed at was almost like really glorified camping. As in, we had a two room suite to sleep in but we had to have a fire in the fireplace to stay warm at night. It was dipping into the low 40's. The staff at the Waterburg Wilderness Lodge was so nice and accommodating and the food was quite tasty. We hiked around a lot while we were there and enjoyed the MANY baboons and rock hyraxes that we saw around camp!

All of the black dots are baboons. We had to walk through the field of baboons to get to our first walking trail!

Down in the Waterburg Plateau during our hike!

Day 3:
More hiking at the Plateau! Alice was a champion and tagged along in her carrier for probably around 5 hours of hiking. Mommy was very tired when it was all said and done.

This is how I felt after a crazy leaf beetle thing attached to my hair. Seriously...we couldn't get it off. Then once we finally did it flew into my face and attached to my eyelid. That was less funny. But the view from our lodge was beautiful!

Day 4:
We headed to Etosha National Park this day. We stayed at the Mokuti Lodge (literally right outside of the park gates) and really enjoyed it. Our room was nice, the staff was super sweet, and they provided baby sitters for us when we went out on game drives. Alice wasn't so sure about the baby sitter thing at first, but I think she eventually warmed up to it...at least the nanny didn't run away screaming when we came back.

Anyways, on day 4 we hung around the lodge and went to their reptile park. We also stared at the Bontebok which hung out outside of our room for awhile.

The herd of bontebok that roamed around the lodge

Many of the snakes in the reptile park were fully enclosed...but not this dangerous puff adder. It seemed questionable. (It's above my hand in the den.)

Day 5:
We ditched the baby and went on 2 guided game drives. One VERY early in the morning (ugh...if I wasn't so excited I wouldn't have been pleased) and the other in the late afternoon. We saw some animals in the morning and even more in the afternoon. Including a lion cub waiting for it's mom in a tree by a water hole. It was very cute.

I think those may be black faced antelope, a black rhino and of course a giraffe at a waterhole.

We had SO many pictures of zebra. They were everywhere! But this one has some cool Eland in it as well!

Lion cub waiting for it's mama in the tree. It contemplated climbing higher but chose to stay put. 

Day 6:
We ditched the baby again and headed out in our own car to drive around the national park. We were specifically looking for cheetah and leopards but alas, they were too sneaky for us to find them. We did however see some pretty awesome herds of elephants and giraffes. Can I just mention how awesome it was? We would drive along the roads and have to stop to watch zebras and antelope cross in front of us! Not to mention being yards away from grazing giraffes!

Spotted Hyena

Oryx...I thought they were the prettiest antelope.

Mommy and baby elephant

We saw a huge herd of elephants at our last waterhole we visited!

I was proud of this picture.

Day 7:
This morning we headed back towards Windhoek and stopped at the Elegant Farmstead for a night. It was a nice little bnb and everyone was very nice there. The food was also tasty. By this time our little angel was DONE travelling and didn't cooperate well for dinner. She also slept in the shower again. :)

On our drive to the elegant farmstead bnb

At the bnb before dinner

That was it! Day 8 was spent travelling back to Luanda. We had a couple hour drive to the airport and then had our flight delayed by 3-4 hours. Needless to say we were all very happy to see home...and our puppy was even happier to see us!

Johannesburg and Benfica Market

Well, since going to Cape Town we have done a few more neat things. Life has been pretty normal. I spend most of my days playing with the baby while Phil is at work. We take Brea on 2 walks every day and walk about 2-3 laps each time, which totals about 2 miles (for the whole day). So that is good for both me and the puppy, I suppose!

The weather here has been wonderfully pleasant! It is staying in the 60-70's and will get a little cool at night. I have been opening up the windows in the mornings for the cool ocean breeze to air out the house.

The other ladies have been very sweet about inviting the baby and I to go with them when the go shopping and what not. Shopping here is like a sport. There are a lot of stores (which was apparently not the case a few years ago), but none of them will carry everything you need. The ladies are good about scoping out where has what and letting people know if something new and exciting shows up.

We also went to Johannesburg at the end of last month. We were told we needed to leave again to reset our visas, so off we went! It's nice because the company pays for the airfare, hotel, and cab rides. So pretty much we get a free weekend vacation.

We stayed at a really nice hotel on the Nelson Mandela Square. The service there was wonderful and the hotel was attached to some mall type things that had lots of stores and restaurants. The food was great and SO cheap! We have been impressed with how nice and cheap everything has been in South Africa both times we've gone.

While there we didn't do much that was picture worthy. We mostly just walked around and bought groceries to bring back to Angola. I was focused on granola bars, Phil was focused on cereal. You can get cereal here it's just ridiculously expensive.

Here's one of the few pictures we took while there:

At dinner at a nice Thai restaurant on the square. Phil was being cooperative as you can see. 

This last weekend we went with some friends on the compound to Benfica Market. It is a craft/art type market that the locals sell fabrics, paintings, jewelry and wood carvings at. I had heard that the vendors can be pushy and intimidating so I wanted to wait to go until we could get a group together. Safety in numbers. Or something like that. 

It was neat to walk around and see everything they had. Many of the wood carvings were very similar. Lots of elephants, rhinos, giraffes, masks (which really creep me out), and figurines of people. We learned that there is some sort of wood in Africa (maybe African Blackwood?) that is dark and very pricey. Most vendors don't have the real deal so they stain whatever wood they have with black shoe polish to make it look like the expensive stuff. Phil and I really liked some wood carved tables that they had. We didn't feel in a hurry to buy anything though, so we mostly browsed. I, however, wanted some fabric to make some cute baby clothes with. So we meandered to the fabric area and bartered a bit to get some fun fabric. I'll have to show pictures of the end products!

Among all of the people and things being sold, there was an adorable monkey. Alice was intrigued so we stopped and let her look. Here are a couple pictures:

Not so good of me, but you can see the cute monkey's face

If you look close you can see the rows and rows of tables with wood carvings.

All in all our adventures in Africa have been fun! We are looking forward to a safari in Namibia here soon. Lots of people from the compound have done it and we have heard great things. We are excited!

10 Months

Little girl reached 10 months!

We enjoy our time with her so much, even when she's teething and a cranky-pants!

Some things we love about her this month:

• She gets very excited every time Daddy gets home
• She is quite fast with her walker and spends a lot of time doing laps around the house. 
• She is finally getting some teeth...and I have a feeling she will have several by the time this first teething crisis is said and done. 
• She is such a wiggle worm and does not stay still long. However she loves to read books and will happily sit in your lap while you read to her.
• She will turn the pages of the book if you say "turn the page"

9 Months

Our girly is 9 months old! (Ok, really she's closer to 10...but I forgot to post earlier.)

She's is so much fun and we just love her to pieces!

Some fun things about her this month:

• She is getting pretty good at cruising.
• She will mimic noises we make at her pretty successfully!
• She loves to read and look at books! 
• She can now sit down from standing without just plopping down.
• She recognizes grandmas and grandpas on video chats and is very interested in them. She often reaches for the screen to tries and touch them. 
• She is still very social and loves to be in public. She will happily skip a nap to be in public and see people. 

Alice's first encounter with an Oreo went quite well. :)

Cape Town and Our First Time Out on the Company Boat

We've have a fun last few weekends!

Due to my visa currently only being good for 30 days, we had to head out of the country last weekend so that we could come back and reset the count. The nice part is that the company paid for our plane tickets, hotel and taxi fees! So that was great!

We chose to head to Cape Town and it was very nice. The travel time was about 7 hours (including a layover in Johannesburg), so it wasn't too bad. We flew business class so we got to enjoy some nice business lounges in Johannesburg and Cape Town. We got in late Friday night so we went straight to the hotel and went to sleep.

On Saturday we decided to try and scope out Cape Town and see what we want to do on our week long trip in August! We took a bus tour and drove around the city as well as walked all around the V&A Waterfront (which is probably the main tourist area). It was such a nice, clean city. On top of that, everything was super cheap to buy! I'm not sure that I've been to any touristy places that have been cheaper. We ate lunch at a really cool artisan market on the wharf and it only cost us $9. crazy. Perhaps Luanda's high prices are making it seem more exciting...but still...it seemed cheap.

Looking out to the wharf at the V&A Waterfront

Part of the way up Table Mountain. It was so foggy you still couldn't see the mountain!

There were lots of pretty beaches.

This weekend Phil set up to have the company boat take us out to a beach near Mussulo island. It was very nice. The boat comes with two captains (or boat drivers, or whatever you call them) and you just hop on and tell them what you want to do! We've been told you can ask them to go dolphin or whale watching, fishing, or just have them take you somewhere. We decided to have a little picnic on a beach and asked them to take us somewhere secluded.

Getting ready to take off!

We ended up on a tiny sandy island with this as the view across the way!

I accidentally took this picture, but I think she looks cute!

Alice wasn't sure about the sand at first.

We had a nice little picnic!

Thanks Phil for setting it up!

Angola has been good! The neighbors are still great and I'm getting used to the grocery stores and buying things with Kwanzaa! I'm learning how to cook new things and use the ingredients I can find. I think our meals have been a little better actually, because I put more effort into them than just opening a box and boiling pasta!

Little miss is as adorable as ever and is now a pretty accomplished crawler! She can also walk fairly well with her walker toy. She's growing up so fast!

I'll post again soon!

Anniversary and First Time at Church in Luanda

We celebrated our anniversary last weekend! It's been 7 sweet years and I have loved all of it! We had a sweet neighbor on the compound offer to watch Alice, so Phil and I went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant near the compound. It's called Casa de Cha do Leste. It really was very tasty!

I got this picture from luandanightlife.com...I forgot to take pictures.

Interesting fact: After the civil war in Angola, China offered to come in a help build up Luanda. The chinese workers have been building a ton around town. Needless to say it is not uncommon to see Chinese people milling around town. Here's an interesting article about it.

http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/chinese-angola-both-praised-and-criticized

Now to the church here in Luanda. I pulled this from mormonnewsroom.org

Africa

• Total Church Membership | 421,892
• Missions | 27
• Congregations | 1,281
• Temples | 3
• Family History Centers | 193

Worldwide Statistics

• Total Church Membership | 15,082,028
• Missions | 405
• Missionaries | 83,035
• Missionary Training Centers | 15
• Temples | 143
• Congregations | 29,253
• Universities & Colleges | 4
• Seminary Students Enrollment | 397,007
• Institute Student Enrollment | 359,828
• Family History Centers | 4,789
• Countries with Family History Centers | 133
• Countries Receiving Humanitarian Aid (Since 1985) | 182
• Welfare Services Missionaries (Incl. Humanitarian Service Missionaries) | 11,925
• Published Languages | 189

Angola

1,436

Total Church Membership

1

Missions

8

Congregations

Angola

Click here for the Angola Mormon Newsroom

Latter-day Saints have been living in Angola since 1985. However, many had been baptized while living for a short time in France or Portugal. After their return to Angola, they formed the nucleus of the Church there. Records indicate that some 400 members baptized in Europe from 1980 to 1996 returned to cities in Angola.

Needless to say there weren't too many people at church. There were 3 other people there that were expats (not including their kids). The service was in portuguese but there were headsets with a church member translating for Sunday School and Sacrament.

The building itself was in the heart of a more typical area of Luanda. Not terrible...not fancy or nice. It was kind of shell shocking at first, as this was my first time not just passing through an area/building that wasn't at least close to as nice as the US. I don't know what I was expecting though. There was no piano so hymns were being sung a capella.

Everyone was very, very nice and happy. I enjoyed how pleasant they were. There are also two sets of missionaries that seem to all four be from the US. Phil and I are excited to invite them over to have dinner (they probably don't get a lot of "american meals").

Sorry I don't have more pictures...but I'll keep posting as I think of things to talk about! 

8 Months

Little Miss is 8 months old now (well...over a week ago)!

She is getting to be more and more fun to be around. Unfortunately our whole house seems to have come down with the plague...so she's a bit sick at the moment...but still fun!

She has really turned into such a sweet, easy going baby. That is until she decides she's hungry or tired...then there's really no distracting her.

Some fun facts about Alice:

• She can say "mama", "ma mee", "dada", "nana" and a few combinations of those syllables. 
• She is very good at pulling herself up on things. Mostly mommy and daddy and her bathtub still. I have even seen her cruise a tiny bit on the sofa.
• She is o-so-close to crawling but can't quite get it yet. She knows the movements but doesn't get them coordinated enough to take off. (edit: in the time it took for me to play with my baby before putting her back to sleep she had her first few shaky crawls across the floor!)
• She has over the last month or two discovered that the faces in the mirror are real and will look at me in the mirror and then turn and look at my face, then back to the mirror. 
• She still loves her puppy and wants to play with her, mostly by trying to pull on Brea's ears. 
• She loves swimming but HATES going under water...my bad.
• She mostly sleeps through the night unless something is wrong. Last night was rough, but she had a good streak going before that.
• She loves playing with daddy!

We're are very happy to all be reunited again and Alice can't get enough of her fun daddy!