Kathlip & Phileen: Out and About

I've been on the compound now for about 2 weeks. It's most definitely different, but really not bad at all. Like I said before, everyone here is so nice and the compound really is beautiful. I love that there are children running around and playing outside after school (Alice loves watching them too)!

I've been to a few more grocery stores. One named Casa dos Frescos, Food Lovers and Kero. The first two are small and more expensive...like the Dillon's or Kroger of Luanda. Kero is like the Walmart...although still very expensive...I don't think many locals shop there for themselves...I could be wrong.

Finding produce that looks good is kind of hard, and you can never find everything you need at one store. For instance, I can get Philadelphia cream cheese at Casa dos Frescos, but I can't get Zuchinni or pasta sauce, or canned tomatoes, or dog food that isn't $100 per bag. By the way, dog food that looks relatively safe to feed Brea costs us about $70 per 15 kilo bag. sheesh.

I bought some tomato seeds and am trying to get some container tomato plants going. I'm hoping this will solve my tomato problem. I love tomatoes. I also love pasta...which consequently typically needs tomatoes.

Another thing about the stores that gets me every time is checking out. It's very hard for me to get used to the new HUGE numbers. 6.000,00 kwanzaa equals $60. And yes, they switch their placement of the comma and decimals, which still throws me off. I'm slowly starting to get used to it.

For Mother's Day the compound organized a brunch at nice hotel downtown. It was nice to get to know everyone and the food was good! I had hash browns, fruit, eggs, bacon and a donut. Their donuts here are a bit different, but still tasty.

Here are some pictures I took while on the way to the brunch:

Some of what I typically see out the car window.

I tried to show the hill in the background. Most of the hills are covered with tin homes.

More of the typical scenery on the way to downtown

It was really hard to take pictures while the car was moving

After brunch we went swimming again. Alice LOVES swimming. The water is like bathtub warm so she thoroughly enjoys being whisked around the pool by daddy!

We celebrated Phil's birthday this last week as well. I felt bad because I couldn't make him his usual ice cream cake (I couldn't find the marshmallows I needed for the homemade hot fudge). So I made homemade noodles with chicken and some delicious cupcakes. All in All I think it was okay. :)

Oh! So we have a housekeeper. It was real weird at first. But we're slowly getting used to each other. She's very nice and only speaks Portuguese. Speaking to each other is like a bad game of charades. The good news is my limited Spanish can help me usually get my ideas across. She's here Monday through Friday from about 8-4. It's crazy. My laundry gets done every day....and ironed...even the baby clothes. I even caught her ironing our bed sheets. I will be confused when I get back to Houston and have to clean my house again. Although I can probably guarantee the bed sheets won't be ironed when I'm the maid. ha!