Driving

With 2 weeks under my belt I thought I would share some of the details of life in Luanda.  As some of you may know we are not allowed to drive here at all.  We have a dedicated driver and car assigned to us 7 days a week.  We have a normal driver, his name is Cunha, who drives for us 5-6 days and a relief driver, Martins, who works the other days.  Martins works for other families to round out his time.  The driver is scheduled to work roughly 8a-6p each day with a 2 hour lunch but everyone is at work by about 6:00a-6:30a so most drivers work 5a/6a to 4p/5p schedule - they are paid overtime for any extra hours.  Basically the driver is at your beckon call and will take you anywhere you want to go inside the designated safe zone to travel, which is most of the city proper.

Our driver speaks decent English and he is helping us with Portuguese.  Or I should say he is helping me because according to Cunha "Mr. Jason fala muito Portuguese" which means Jason speaks a lot of Portuguese.  I hear that every day so I have a lot of work toward!  Jason's Spanish helps a lot and he has the added benefit of sitting in the backseat and using Google Translate :)

Having to use a driver for everything is a bit strange and it requires lots of pre-planning.  Although the driver is at your beckon call they need some heads up on plans and once you release them for the night there is no "quick trip" out to the store etc.  It is also strange to be in the car with a driver all the time - thinking about taking the same taxi/Uber driver each day - do you talk to them?  If so, how much?  Just awkward.  The driver and car are deducted from Jason's pay and it is expected that we pay for dinner for the driver if we keep him out late.  The car is a Hyundai Santa Fe and it is pretty nice.  There is a fleet of them at our building since each family has one.  Most of them are white or grey (like ours) so the families with a colored car are lucky!

We are discouraged from walking and women are asked to never really walk alone- even a quick block to the bakery.  And a car must be used at night - they don't go as far to say you are not allowed to be outside at night (like other companies) but I am sure there would be an issue if something happened.  It doesn't feel scary unsafe here but you can see how things can happen.  There are some safe places to walk during the day as a group and we are taking advantage of that as often as possible.  I would liken it to being in a sketchy part of town in any big city in the US - you might lock your car door or choose to not stop for gas.  There are not gangs or loiterers here but the poverty level is extremely high so crime is an issue.   One statistic we have read is that 43% of Angolans live in extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25/day and adjust for local prices) for comparison in India the extreme poverty level is 33% and 0.7% in Mexico.

Beyond the safety issue we don't drive because traffic is crazy and there is no road signs or directions.  The city of Luanda's population exploded during the Civil War.  It went from something like 500,000 to now roughly more than 6 million with no infrastructure improvements.  We are lucky we live in the city as Jason's commute is 10 minutes or less each way.  Families that live in the compound down south (roughly 8 km) deal with 45 minutes or so to work (at 5am) and 90+ minutes home each day.  In the city they have traffic lights and some stop signs but those are basically NEVER obeyed.  Traffic is a slow motion merge in most spots- you enter an intersection very slow and wait for a break in traffic and then cross, other cars do the same and now your flow of traffic is moving and the others are waiting for a break like you did.  Although traffic is kinda nuts it is slow and mostly pretty calm- not a lot of honking or speeding - just lots of disorganization.  In addition there is almost no left hand turns just lots of roundabouts and J-turns (like in Louisiana) so although somewhere might be a block away it take 10 minutes to get there due to the road layout.  It is interesting each day to say the least!

Baskets and Lobsters

Countryside south of Luanda (click on the photo to make it bigger)

Saturday we meet up with an expat at a bar at the end of the Ilha which is the long barrier peninsula that creates Luanda Bay.  The Ilha is filled with bars and higher end restaurants on one side and a very pretty beach on the other.  Although the beach is pretty the general consensus is not to enter the water due to pollution.  I had my first Angolan beer called Cuca and enjoyed some nice weather.  The plan was to then drive down to the Kwanza River area and look for a local basket weaver.  The Kwanza River is the southern edge of the "safe" zone that we can travel - if we want to go further we have to have security approval and typically a second vehicle is assigned for safety (mostly risk of car trouble).  As you go south in Luanda the city opens up to countryside and you start to see some cattle and greenery and they have Baobab trees here which area really cool (we saw them in Tanzania) - here they are called Imbondiero trees.  After about an hour we found the basket weavers and bought a few baskets.  Angola is a haggle sale country but the prices were really too good to haggle.  We bought a basket with a lid that stands about 3 feet tall for roughly $16 - it took them 4 days to weave.

Basket Shopping

On the way back the expat we were with wanted to buy lobster - there are two spots on the road that have ladies selling them so we stopped.  The road is about 200 yards or so from the water and they have buckets and buckets of live lobster to sell - they hold them up by their antennas to showcase them.  The drivers typically don't interact much but when it comes to dealing with locals they do ensure they have a presence - so the driver got out to assist with the negotiations.  Our friend wanted a few lobster but didn't like the price  (about $6/kg or about $3/lb) so he said we would drive to the next place - the vendor said she was going to call ahead and tell them the price!  As were are about to leave on lady offers us the whole basket of lobsters for about $58.  This intrigued our friend so after a bit of negotiations he got a bucket of lobster for $45 - there must have been 20-25 lobsters in the bucket!  We loved that she was brave enough to offer the whole basket when he only wanted 3 to start.

The driver and the lobster lady packing up the basket of lobsters

But of course now what to do with 25 live lobsters!  We put them in a cooler in the back of the car and headed to a local bar (really just a shanty on the side of the road) and gave them about 8 lobsters (our friend knew the family from past visits) then we headed back to our friends apartment to eat lobster.  I was not too keen on killing them so Jason learned how to do it and prepped about 16 lobsters for dinner - we had the driver join us and he took a lot of them home to his family.  I was pretty hesitant to eat lobster caught in the local waters that we bought off the head of a lady on the side of the road but I did it - it was pretty tasty and best yet we didn't get sick!  So we lived to tell the tale.

Cleaning the lobster

Jason had the hard job of prepping the lobster for dinner

We rounded out the week with a bit more exploring on Sunday and Monday - Jason had the day off on Monday.  Tuesday we got internet in our apartment which was pretty amazing turnaround time (3 business days) and it works almost as good as home.  I have meet some other spouses and seen a few new stores and participated in a few activities like walking and Canasta.  It feels as though I will have plenty to keep me busy during the days but I am sure it will take awhile to find my niche.

Sunset view from our friends apartment (in a different building then us) 

Many of these building are unfinished (with no current work occurring) due to the oil downturn

We Have Arrived!

First sight of Luanda

After a whirlwind of activity we arrived in Luanda on Thursday, April 13.  So let's back up a bit - Jason had been rotating to Angola for about 18 months. He was working 28 days in Malongo Angola which is about an hour north of Luanda (by airplane) - he worked in a camp setting for awhile and most recently was working offshore.  Conditions were not great and we were tired of living apart half of the time.  He was offered a residentially assignment (to a better job) in late January and after waiting a bit for the official offer letter we got started in the visa process in mid-February and by the end of March we had my visa in hand.  We sold the cars, put the house on the market, packed, terminated my employment (sad!) and finally got on a plane.  We also sadly packed up Roux and sent her to live with Jason's mom while we are here.  We are sad to not have her but after being here for 2 seconds I know it was the right thing for her!

Last Meal- Rudy's BBQ!

Ok back to the original story - the flight is a direct chartered flight from Houston to Luanda - 14 hours!  The flight, called the Houston Express (or HEX) flies to and from Luanda 2 days per week and is oil company chartered.  It is pretty nice set up - I enjoyed a glass of champagne and a few movies and then off to bed.  We checked 19 (!) pieces of luggage as this is the preferred method of transport for immediate needed items (like linens, food items, medications, etc) and everyone does it the first time.  Our sea shipment will take at least 2 months to arrive.

Our luggage at check in

Cheers to new adventures

Thankfully all the bags arrived on the other end and after a bit of an adventure we got all the bags through customs without much issue.  We didn't have to open one bag which surprised me.  The company showed up with a van to collect us and our driver.  I will come back to the driver in a later post so stay tuned.  We arrived at the apartment in the center of the city - we are on the seventh floor of a very modern building (called the Palacio Real).  The apartment is nicer then you may expect but a bit smaller then we were thinking but we think it will work out okay.   After a quick shower and reorganization we had our driver take us to a closer grocery store (Kero).  Quite the initiation but we made it work and got dinner and a few days worth of food.  The grocery store is like Norway with some similar brands and a somewhat lacking produce section but did have some variety of items I was surprised with.  There was a sale on whole chicken and the locals were going nuts over that - lots of yelling and running - I stayed clear.

Friday was a holiday so we did some errands like ordering internet (which is fun in a foreign language) and went to the big "mall" in the south part of the city called Talatona - it is were many expats live in compounds.  Then we took a walk along the Marginal which is on the bay of Luanda and is a safe place to walk.  We experienced flying fish in the bay which was cool but there is tons of trash in the water which is sad to see.  That evening we headed back to the company compound called Monte Belo - if you have kids you live here.  The community is gated and is mostly our company - the houses are large and have a small yard.  The downside is the commute in the morning (at 5am) is 40 minutes and in the evening (at 4pm or so) can be 90+ minutes due to traffic.  By comparison Jason's commute so far is 8 minutes each way.  We meet up with a few families and had a BBQ - one expat had been hunting in Namibia and we got to try all kind of game meet including zebra, warthog, kudu, and hartebeest.  It was a fun introduction to the social scene here.  Saturday we had another adventure which warrants it's own post but we finished out the weekend and Monday (which Jason had off) with some more exploring and setting up the house.  Tuesday was my first day alone and the internet was installed - amazing fast for Luanda.

The "mall" - consists of a large grocery store (like a wall-mart) and a few other shops and movie theater

Overall Luanda is similar to my expectations.  Hopefully I can give you a feel for it as we go - pictures are harder to come by as the locals are not too cool with photos.  The language will be harder here then Norway but I hope to learn more (as I will need it!).  More adventures to come!

Catholic school

Did you know that most kids in New Orleans attend private school?  Evidently public schools here are not very good, imagine that?   We are in the city today volunteering at an event which happens to be at a fancy catholic boys school.  It is pretty amazing....it was destroyed in Katrina and just reopened less then a year ago.  The weight room is to die for and the gym is pretty amazing...and the cafeteria has about 8 flat screens.   Pretty cool but also pretty sad that people have to pay thousands of dollars a year in addition to taxes for a decent education.
And yes I know I haven't posted in maybe a year but now I have a phone app so I am going to try to post more often. 

Mardi Gras Avec Quelques Images

Sooo- I have been a slacker. It is hard to find time to blog when I am working full time, commuting 10+ hours a week, working out and taking care of the rest of those things that come with life. And to make matters worse I hate using blogger on my work computer.

So the post title translates as "Fat Tuesday with Some Photos" (right Phoung?) Mardi Gras refers to the Tuesday event only so usually it is referred to here a Carnival season. I promised some Mardi Gras pictures, here are a few but I have more as well. We did go to one parade which was a river parade (Krewe of Tchefuncta) which was interesting. We are pretty pleased to see that even in our old age we are still excited to catch beads. I got two days off of work, Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras - which means Fat Monday and Fat Tuesday. Jason got Mardi Gras and took a vacation day for Monday. He was invited to a "balcony party" by a large vendor he works with so we headed down to the city, with another Chevron couple, to experience bead throwing from the other side. The party was on Bourbon St on the second floor of a bar. There was a lot of good food and an open bar (which as the DD I didn't get to partake in). And then there are the beads- thousands of beads. We spent, oh maybe 4 hours, throwing beads from our balcony into the crowd. The party was from 11a-5p so it was still pretty tame but there were sights to be seen - some a little worse then others. We decided that being the bead thrower is more fun then catching!

On Mardi Gras day we didn't do much. Word from the wise- everything shuts down in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. All the stores close and yes there was NO mail service and NO it is not a federal holiday but that's how they roll in Louisiana.

I am starting month three of work and it continues to be pretty decent. Jason has been offshore alot recently working on his projects. We are getting ready to have some landscaping done in the front yard (which has been neglected for quite a while). And yes Dopler is doing great. He has been cleared for full activity and just started "spinning" again last week- mostly because we wouldn't allow him to do it before. He is getting walked twice a day and is taking the stairs like a champ. He has learned to use the ramp to get in and out of the car, we just need to refine that skill a bit. The doctor said he should be able to do the jump but we are being extra safe- we don't need the stress of back surgery again.

Walks at Work

The neighborhood in which I work in New Orleans is called Upper Audubon. It is historic and beautiful. I went for a lunchtime walk the other day to enjoy the warm weather we have been experiencing. I was amazed at the gorgeous old homes and all the flowering trees so I thought I would share.

It is Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans. It is really about a month long celebration but the real meat of it started last Friday and runs until Tuesday. We went to our first parade on Sunday, although I have been to Mardi Gras before it is different as a "local". Tulane has Monday and Tuesday off and Jason gets Tuesday off but plans to take Monday as well. Look for a Mardi Gras post coming up!

Fog Ahead

Winter in Louisiana means fog. Fog means that my commute goes from 50 minutes to up to 75 minutes. Fog means that Jason drives to the shore base in Venice, LA at 2:30am only to have to wait until noon to get a boat to his platform. So the work is delayed. Fog means that the day he plans to come home and fog rolls in at noon that the boat is delayed until 8pm and then the trip takes twice as long. Then Jason gets to drive home in said fog. This week he got home on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at 2am and had to be at work for a 7:30am meeting. Oh how life has changed from Norway. Jason did earn some brownie points at work from his last trip out to the "rig" when he helped the crew contain an small oil leak. He got covered in oil in the process and thankful kept all the oil out of the ocean. His boss was pretty proud that their new "doctor" could get dirty.

My foggy commute on a good day

The doctor getting dirty