It’s the news we’ve been waiting for!

I wanted to write about a yummy pumpkin soup but there is some bigger news to share. Really excited to say that we got our medical clearance today!

That also means that we finally can start packing up some necessary possessions we may need during our Angolan stay and getting ready for the move.

Some interesting pictures

Just received some interesting pictures from Rob's Angolan colleagues.
It seems they really want us to be ready for the adventure.

A large snake was hiding under the car hood. It must have taken some effort to get him out.

Naarden

Pre-assignment visit to Luanda (28-31/8)

If paying a pretty penny for the flight, one would expect a good quality instead of a broken seat. This wasn’t the best start of our Angola trip.

We landed in Luanda at 6:20 p.m. and, compared to Europe, it was already dark! Someone mentioned it was better that way since the airport surroundings are not that appealing.

Glad we finally made it to the hotel not sure what was going to happen next. It was Sunday night and after the dinner we were looking forward to a good and long night sleep. After all, our first appointment was not until Monday afternoon.
Well, early the next morning Rob’s cell phone was ringing.
“Where are you?! You should have already been here!”
The driver was stuck in the morning traffic and after some spectacular drive through the city he safely got us on the pre-assignment rollercoaster.
I would not list all the activities, meetings, dinners, presentations… I’m still busy sorting my head out. An endurance test?

We met many nice and welcoming people. I was shocked to see the abundance of choices at the local supermarkets. The high prices didn’t surprise me as I was already warned.
The Medical Clinic provides quality standard procedures, however we hope to need their services as little as possible.


Maarten’s future school was above expectations. Naturaly I love its international character. Every child in the classroom is from a different country! And his teacher is so friendly. She also has worked in Czech Republic for some time!

During one night I experienced some bizarre dreams.
In a drenched hotel room I was fighting huge immortal mosquitoes and chopping heads off of aggressive zombies.

Should I blame Malarone or my head had some difficulties to come to terms with the Luanda’s daily scenes, images as seen through the window glass of a chauffeur driven air-conditioned car; commuting between luxury hotels and restaurants, Western-like shopping centre’s and offices, passing never-ending townships, staring at the endless traffic jams, street sellers and people hazardously crossing streets, trying to forget the lifeless body in a puddle of blood in the middle of the street causing even more chaos...

Like two parallel existing worlds.

There and back to Czech (22-25/8)

Traditionally we spent a night in Plzeň had dinner together at the old town’s U Salzmannů that we both enjoyed. Here Maarten told me about his wish to live in Czech Republic permanently. He said he loves hearing people speaking Czech, he wants attend a Czech school and that he actually dislikes the Dutch language! Well, I’m sure that his wish to live close to his favorite babi is of a great influence, but still, he always finds a way how to surprise me.
Walking back to the hotel we had to cross the old square and I took him to the outer altar of the St. Bartholomews church to touch the head of an angel that is supposed to bring good luck.
Without doubt to him this was a truly magical moment.


Next day we finally arrived to babi’s and Maarten got all answers to his never-ending questions such as “what are the doggies going to say, when they see me?”




They were all happy to see each other again so I left the next day for Plzeň to meet up with my past school friends. Unfortunately I got stuck in an awful traffic jam just outside of Prague and because the tropical heats afflicted Central Europe those days, without an air-conditioning it must have been at least 45 °C in the car!

Luckily chilling out at the many terraces of downtown Plzeň with my friends made all well again.

I was afraid the Plzeň's football fans will keep me up that night as there was an important match between Plzen en Copenhagen. But heavy showers, hail, lightning, thunder and strong wind chased almost all the fans away from the square where thousands were watching the match on a giant screen. What a storm!

Even though I was happy for my hometown to beat the Danes I didn’t get much sleep that night, but somehow, miraculously I got safe home the day after not even feeling tired.

Fingers crossed!

What we feared has now become a reality as we are having a hard time getting our medical clearance for living in Angola.

I truly wish that keeping a positive attitude makes a difference and has a real impact on what shall happen.
But for now, it's kind of hard for me.

Please, keep your fingers crossed for good news!

About daydreamers and injuries

After weeks spent behind the PC trying to arrange all necessary documents for the Angolan visa, we were excited to go out on the hills of Wallonia again. As soon as we left the village of Grand Monchau and took the grassy path between fields Rob suddenly fell down moaning in pain.
This was the end of our long desired family outing!

Rob severely twisted his ankle and later at the emergency room the X-ray showed a ligament injury as well as a small bone chip.

So, there goes our hiking trip to Slovak mountains!

Rob's got the below-knee cast to wear for at least two weeks. Even though he is moving around well with the crutches we hope his ankle is healing on schedule so he can progress to walking boot by the end of this week.

As I’m not such a good nurse, luckily, there was no blood this time and I can manage handing crutches, ice packs or coffee quite easily.


Other issue is to keep Maarten in safe distance from Rob’s ankle.
Maarten is such a fantasy-rich child and I love to watch him build houses for hedgehogs and squirrels in our backyard and gnome dwellings in the woods.
He can weave never-ending stories about his future life on an island catching sharks and riding dolphins.

But sometimes his fantasy filled imagination is kind of dangerous. Like Friday afternoon while biking together he decided he doesn’t need his eyes. At first I thought he is not serious but before I could even warn him not to do anything such stupid he crashed into me at full speed. I flew over the handlebars and landed on my face. I realized Maarten is somewhere under the two bikes but incredibly, he didn’t have a scratch! I noticed a car that stopped right in front of us. My right calf bone was killing me as well as the right ankle. In an awful pain and furious I managed to get Maarten’s handlebars out of my front wheel and got us off the road.

I’d rather spare you the juicy details for now as I'm off to garden enjoying lunch with my special company.

Enrollment at LIS and Cultural orientation

This blog is a mess. I’m back to English. Can’t help it, but searching for translation specific terms into Czech takes even more time and effort than writing some sentences in English, even though in bad English.
Yesterday we got confirmation that Maarten's application is complete and he is finally enrolled to the Luanda International School. At last we can leave that sorrow behind. It wasn’t as easy as it might look. Luckily our company has priority entry because, like the other schools in the area, also this school has a waiting list as long as two years.

Last night we had a virtual cultural orientation with Anita (coincidentally an American Dutch we met once back in San Ramon) from Intercultural Group and an Angolan national. Even though I already did a huge research on the internet and also contact with friends who spent years living in Luanda are a great source of information, Seteko gave us an interesting introduction to working with Angolans and to the cultural issues we will need to be aware of.

Zdravotní prohlídka

Dneska je nejaky tezky vzduch. Ani svou oblibenou denni prochazku jsem si moc neuzila. Mozna proto, ze se po mesici konecne trochu oteplilo a nebo proto, ze napjeti kolem zadosti o viza vrcholi.
Zitra mame povinnou zdravotni prohlidku, o ktere, nevim proc, mam silne negativni pocit.
Take musim rict, ze jsem si to psani Cesky predstavovala mnohem jednoduseji. Ted se zastavuju u vyrazu typu "medical check", "medical clearance", "abdominal breathing"...

Hezky česky!

Po takove odmlce je vzdycky tezke zacit psat znova, aspon pro me. Nevim, kde zacit.
Kazdy den se deje tolik, o cem by se melo psat.
Samozrejme se nase denni aktivity ted toci hlavne kolem zarizovani visa do Angoly.
Nechci tady vypisovat cele seznamy vsech dokumentu a papirovani. Nema to smysl, navic bych musela hledat, jak se tem dokumentum vlastne spravne rika v Cestine.
Aha, pisu ted Cesky, teda aspon se snazim,i kdyz samozrejme bez diakritiky. Kdysi jsem zacla psat kdysi tento blog v Anglictine. Zili jsme tenkrat v Kalifornii, takze jsem to brala hlavne jako trenink v cizim jazyce. Taky krome toho, ze jsem to povazovala za takovy neutralni jazyk, kterym mluvi vetsina mych kamaradu, a psat trojjazycne jsem ani tenkrat nestihala.
Musim rict, ze mam celkem problem psat ted Cesky. Ne, ze bych zapomela svoji materstinu, ale v podstate ji pouzivam hlavne v komunikaci s Maartenickem, takze zadne bohate povidani. Takze ted zase po letech budu vyuzivat svuj blog nejenom k zapisovani svych zazitku, ale taky k znovuobjevovani sve krasne materstiny.
Takze tady ted kostrbate placam nesmysli na rozehrati, misto abych vubec napsala, co je noveho.
Taky je celkem mozne, ze slovosled nebezi tak jak ma. Bohuzel, to je vysledek 15 let "mezi cizaky".
Jeste bych mela poznamenat, ze diky nasemu eventuelnimu stehovani do Angoly se budu muset ucit dalsi jazyk, Portugalstinu! A to navzdory tomu, ze jsem se zarekla, ze v tomhle zivote uz se zadne dalsi jazyky ucit nebudu. Bohuzel, bez aspon zakladni znalosti Portugalstiny se v pry v Angole tezko preziva. Takze doufam, ze co nejdriv muzu zacit.
Tim jsem vlastne chtela rict, ze to je taky jeden z duvodu, proc ted budu psat Cesky. Kolikrat se me z tech jazyku uz pekne mota pusa. Salvatore?
Jsem moc rada, ze Maarten zatim ty jeho tri jazyky zvlada vyborne, i kdyz Anglictina samozrejme trochu upadla, a z Holandstiny je Vlamstina, nebo spis Gentsky dialekt.
Ale dulezite je, ze ty jazyky nijak nemota dohromady a vsema se dobre domluvi. A ani se z toho nezblaznil, jak kdysi mnozi sugerovali.

Ted nam k tomu tedy jeste pribyde ta Portugalstina. Jeste nevim, jak to budou resit ve skole, myslim, ze jsem pochopila, ze si muzou vybrat mezi Portugalstinou a Spanelstinou, nebo snad i Francouzstinou? Francouztina by byla asi nejlepsi volba, vzhledem k tomu, ze i tady ve Flandrech ma Francouztinu 3 krat tydne ve skole.

Nas Maartenicek Nejlepsi, (jak se on sam uz nekolik let nazyva, nemam tuseni, jak na to prisel)si sice uziva prazdnin naplno, ale i on se stale pta, kdy prijde leto.
Ja se bojim, ze uz neprijde. Tady v Belgii uz je urcite mesic pocasi jako nekdy koncem rijna. Me osobne to nijak nevadi, i kdyz o trochu tepleji by byt mohlo.
Maarten jde z tabora do tabora, silene si to uziva, i kdyz porad vedou Bobrici. Tam se mu libi nejvic. Myslim, ze to je jedna z mala veci v Belgii, po ktere se nam bude v Angole styskat.
Taky bych ho uz konecne chtela odvezt na Moravu, na jeho vysneny pobyt u babi, ale diky tomu nekonecnemu zarizovani se to proste porad nehodi. Ale uz ted vime, ze driv nez koncem srpna visa na predbeznou navstevu do Angoly nedostaneme, tudiz zrejme nas skolak zameska zacatek jeho prvni tridy. To me silene mrzi, ale co delat, kdyz ho s sebou vzit nesmime a tady se nam o nej nikdo nepostara. To radeji nebudu dal komentovat, abych se nemusela zbytecne rozcilovat.

Bylo fajn, ze minuly tyden babi navstivila Zdenku v Naardenu, takze jsme se jim do vseho jeste prichomejtli my s Maartenickem a bylo moc veselo. Kluci radili, dokonce i nejmladsi Rubinek vi, jak na to.

Nejak si myslim, ze to na rozehrati staci, ted jeste najit odvahu to publikovat. Na to je nejlepsi to po sobe uz necist a rovnou zmacknout oranzovy knoflik. Tak!