ANGOLA SAFARI!!!

Well last weekend we went to Kissama National Park, it is one of the few in Angola. They have  a Truck Tour and River Tour that you can go on and the best thing is that it is only about a 2 hour drive from our house.  We went with 7 other families, some with children and other that just came along for the road pops.
Brett and I are the youngest family here that I am aware of but lots of other families have children our age or younger.  However we often get teased about how young we are.  Brett is turning 32 on Sunday and I was thinking that does seem older but both Brett and I look forward to getting old. And really Brett was nicknamed Old Man Layden in High School so really I think we are accepting the aging process quiet gracefully. Any one who has read my previous blogs is probably well aware of how my eagerness to get old and one day be thought of as older then 17.  (Note: this longing to get old maybe getting out of control -the other day a friend of ours who is probably around my moms age was telling me how they plan on going on wine tours for their anniversary and romantic lunches, ect... I blurted out way too fast how "I can't wait to get old to do that kind of stuff!" Yeah may have came out wrong, WHAT I MEANT was that I would love to have a romantic lunch at a beautiful vineyard but we can't do that with small children. So I meant that once Ella is grown, I would love to do that. Yeah I had to back peddle really bad and in the end I just shut up because nothing I said was helping the mannner. On another note.....completely off topic I saw my first Afro Mullet!!!!!  It was the funniest thing I have ever saw because it was a real mullet but even worse then normal, what I would have given to have a photo of it. I even would have changed the main photo on this blog to it if I could have got that  thing on camera. Also other funny things I have saw/heard:
- Very popular here are those umbrella hats so funny
-Brett saw a 90 year old really sweet looking lady with a T-shirt that said " I am not bald this is a solar panel for a sex machine"
- I asked my driver to stop for tomatoes today and he proceed to tell me about the people outside how they have given up their homes because the gov't  moved them and promised them new homes.....I never got any tomatoes.
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Speaking of funny things...back to the Angolan Safari. So a little history first.... most/almost all the wild animals in Angola were killed during the war, and I mean almost all. This fact didn't hit me until we got close to the park and you see how vast it is and it is only a small part of Angola. I couldn't even imagine how so many animals could be not only impacted by the war but completely destroyed.  I even heard (an saw later on TV) that even the animals in Luanda's Zoo were all killed and now there are only empty cages there.

Well some of the animals are coming back and we have photos to prove it....Look out Kenya you got some competition !!!

Our Safari Vehicle, aka old civil war truck

Macaco aka Monkey

Day at the Beach

Well last weekend we went to the beach with friends of ours and there twins who decide to dress up for the occasion. 

Loving the boat ride!

Also loving the boat ride!!

Looking for shells and finding lots!

Kwanza River

Well we decided to do some exploring outside of Luanda. Our first big trip was to the Kwanza River. It is located about one hour from our place about 45 minutes out of the city, a peaceful ocean drive. It was a beautiful drive there and we pasted some really interesting things along the way. We pasted a golf course, YES there are actually 2 golf courses here, one actually looks really nice, the other one you have to bring your own mat to apparently.  We also past huge cliffs that have been eroded and many little villages. 

I asked Brett if he got an pictures of Ella having lunch, he said yep, and this is it. 

This is your view from the table

We had lunch here and then went for a walk around, lunch was $50 each and was a buffet the only things we recognized was rice, potatoes, chicken and fish that later made me very ill. You can fish along the river and apparently there are crocodiles here too. 

This is our driver, he looks a little grumpy here (they don't smile for pictures - kind of funny) but he has a great smile and is wonderful, especially with Ella - he calls her bebe. 

Ella took this photo on the way home of her and baby jag who also made the trip.

Awwwh I love this place!

Well today was a great day, and as I was driving home today I was thinking about how much I really love this place. The people, both expats and locals are wonderful, the country is laid back, it is always warm!!!  Yes, the poverty is heart breaking but within it is an amazing sense of love among the poorest of the poor. No other place have I seen both adults and children watching out for every other little child. In the very poor areas it is like everyone is just one big family, it doesn't matter who is your biological family, if you live in the neighbourhood or if you are a small child someone is looking out for you.

I realize that I am choosing to see things this way and others will have there own perspective, maybe mine is seen through rose colored glasses, but it made me think can one have the best of both worlds? Or does this compassion for one another develop only out of necessity ?  Enough about my deep thoughts, I am sure you are probably sleeping on your computer by now. It is just so interesting to me to see how different worlds function.

Well today Ella went back to school, she was up at 6:30 all by herself ready to go, it was me saying 5 more minutes. Brett left for Soyo today till Friday so hopefully the week will go by fast.  BIG NEWS we got our wireless yesterday and apple TV, so I was able to watch Grey Anatomy and Modern Family!!!  Sadly it took me all day to set up ...



Went to the Orphanage today here are some pics

The children were playing with my camera so that is why there is lots of pictures of me and not so many of all of them, plus there were only 13 children there today.

Baby Sea Turtles... (or as Brett wanted me to call this post...Saving the world one baby sea turtle at a time!)

Well last week Brett was able to do something really amazing, he help release endangered baby sea turtles back into the ocean up in Soyo. He said they were the cutest things he's ever saw. I totally agree

 Haha I had to add this picture ...

what you didn't see at the beginning .... Brett asked someone to take his picture with the baby sea turtle and then he dropped it....not sure if that one will be making it to the ocean.

Baking ....sort of.

Well anyone who knows me or have read parts of this blog know that I lack any talent, ability, gift, ect.. when it comes to cooking, and I am only slightly better at baking.  But since Ella is back at school and I have finished all the chocolate chip granola bars from Costco (yes the big box) ...more on that later, I have had to make snack food so that I don't waste hours standing in front of my fridge thinking that something eatable will appear.

So the only thing I can make as of now that is delicious (as in all three of us will eat them and I am not too embarrassed about giving them to Isabel or Zeferino) is Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins or as I like to call them Lisa's amazing and somewhat health muffins - I don't have to get any more specific since I only can make one kind.  Anywho today  is a big day because I am trying a new recipe that I think might be a winner. Where did I get this recipe?  Well some of it off the web, but once I get baking I tend to add a lot of my own stuff. (note: usually this does not work in my favour but I can't help it.)

So to set the scene I have limited baking tools, all I have is a bowl (seriously just one I have looked through my cupboards once again hoping another will magically appear but no luck yet) so I have a bowl, a sort of measuring cup (goes up to 1/2 cup) and a teaspoon. Not to worry though I rarely measure things anyways. (Just to let you all know I am well aware that not measuring things out may contribute to my lack of success in cooking, even Ella has pointed out that I am suppose to level off the teaspoon with baking powder on it -  but it is just not going to happen - my free cooking spirit just wont let it. ) So back to the scene... I am attempting to make a new muffin recipe.  It is going to be a Blueberry Banana Bran muffin recipe- yeah doesn't that sound great. The original recipe was just for bran muffins - quiet boring.  So I have mixed all my ingredients up and the muffins are currently cooking.

I have to be honest this is not my first attempt at bran muffins I tried to make them before and when Brett took a bite of them his eye brows went up and he stopped chewing.  I knew they were bad but I didn't want them to go to waste. It may have had something to do with this oil I put in them because I didn't have any butter and you have to understand that all the food product labels are in Portuguese thus making it a little difficult to figure out just what type of oil I was using... anyways the muffins tasted like oil...they were SICK.  

Okay so the muffins are now out of the oven and look not bad. I am really hoping they are eatable because 1. the ingredients probably cost me over $50 and 2. because I want to give some to our neighbours who just arrived back here and are probably really jetlagged and I know they have no food in there house - until they go shopping so these could hold them over.

 Cooking supplies

My pineapple plant I am trying to grow

Update on garden: 

Someone picked my little lettuce plant and the peas all died.....damn it.