Trips into the countryside

That's what keeps me going!

Congratulation on obtaining MINPET approval!

Congratulations on securing MINPET approval! This is a great milestone on your journey to secure your Angolan working visa. You are now a few weeks to relocate to Angola.

Nice start of the day with this long awaited message from HRM.

After 7 months of bureaucratic snag if was difficult to believe and it even brought me to tears.
Hard to believe indeed!
I could feel that something isn’t quite right and unfortunately my guts were correct again.
The evening same day we received a message from our visa agent who just visited the Angolan consulate informing us about the processing time for the work permit.
From now on it’s going to take 1 - 3 months, another period of time-wasting bureaucracy!
Of course, we were still hoping it’s only an unfortunate typo. Weeks instead of months this is what the message should have said!
Sorry, no typo.

And what about the process flow chart we were sent months ago? Accordingly, it should take 10 - 15 business days to stamp the work permit visa in passport.

Surprise, surprise!
This flow chart is not applicable for expats outside the States.

Still in Belgium

Not a really post but rather a shout out of despair:
We are still in Belgium!
3 months after our planned (and desired) departure date!
Unfortunately some documents provided by the Angolan Ministério dos Petróleos were returned as Rob's name was misspelled. Now we have to wait until they reissue it again before he can finally apply for his working visa in the Netherlands.

One ice cold day at the beach

Why does it always have to end like this?
And don't you even think that Maarten was uncomfortable in his completely wet clothes!
We poured water out of his boots and hurried him back to the car despite his consistent protest and effort trying to convice us that he is absolutely fine, that he is rather sweating than cold!

Wildflowers in January?!

Not only the plants go crazy!

Ježíšek umřel a pak přišel Santa

"Ale ty to nevis?
Jezisek uz davno neexistuje!
Vsechny deti ve skole to rikaly a i Juffrouw! On existoval, ale hroozne davno.
Kdyz lidi jeste bydleli v tech malejch chaloupkach, no v takovejch tech domeckach, nebo v jeskynkach, tak pak existoval.
Jezisek, ten se dokonce narodil v takovej barn, ehmmm... a jo, stodola! Taky tam byla maminka a tata a stali tam ovecka, krava a osel, ty tam stali!
A maminka a tata, ty meli neco zluteho na hlave. A vsichni lidi se sli podivat na Jeziska...

Lidi Jeziska postavili na krizek a pockali az von umrel a pak ho dali pod kameny.
A pak takhle umreli ty páni a pak Jezisek taky umrel a pak prisel Santa.
Nejdriv byl malej a pak si ucil a ucil, az kdyz byl dospelej Santa. Ten ma takovy ty srnky a ty umi litat.
Akorat by me zajimalo, jak se dostane dovnitr. Mozna, ze von jde taky skrz komin..."

Po Mikuláši

Sice uz jsme meli nekolik dychanku na rozloucenou, ale vypada to, ze tu budeme strasit jeste o vanocich. Takze bohuzel. Nic naplat.
Ani nemam chut se o tom dal rozepisovat...

Jeste ze se Mikulas postaral o prijemne rozptyleni. A vubec musime byt vdecni, ze mame takove stastne dite. Vsechno je pro nej fajn, at uz je to v Belgii nebo v Africe. Mikulasovi vysvetlil, jak uz se nemuze dockat, jak ho budou v Africe provazet ze skoly opicky, bude se s nima houpat na stromech, bude jezdit na zebrach, na mori bude chytat zraloky a se Skautikama zachranovat malinke zelvicky na plazi.
Mikulas i Cerni Petri udelali opet velky dojem, i kdyz se Maarten pozastavil nad tim, jak to ze Mikulas na hudebce, ve skole i na podnikove oslave mel pokazde uplne jinou knihu hrichu a jinou berlu! Hmmm...

Dneska rano, kdyz Maarten odesel do skoly, zbyl tady po nem cerstvy obrazek vanocniho stromku.
Je to tak, uz se zase pro zmenu tesime na Jeeežíška.

15 kufru

Maarten, jako vsechny deti v Nizozemi, zije ted hlavne Mikulasem. Ten prijel lodi v sobotu 12. listopadu rovnou ze Spanelska a nadeluje, jen se z nej kouri.

A my uz balime! Na nase nalehani nam konecne navezli krabice, abysme mohli trochu zacit pripravovat. Takze parada! Je tu sileny blazinec, tj. musime vsechno roztridit na
- co se vezme s sebou do kufru
- co se necha stehovat lodi (tj. co muze byt 6-8 mesicu na ceste)
- a co nechame v Belgii ve skladu.

K tomu samozrejme vsechna ta celni omezeni, co se prepravovat smi a co ne a taky a hlavne, abysme se vesli...

Moc "fajn"! Je to celkem organizacne narocne vymyslet vsechno tak akorat na ty 3 roky. Mame cele seznamy, nakoupili jsme extra kufry. Muzeme si jich naplnit celkem 15!!! coz me celou tu zalezitost vubec neulehcilo, vzhledem k tomu, ze jsem doufala, ze pojedu s jednim kufrikem obleceni.
Ale zkuseni cizinci, jiz pobyvajici v Angole, nabadaji teto moznosti plne vyuzit vzhledem k nedostatkum a hlavne astronomickym tamnim cenam.
Takze kufry zrejme dostatecne naplnime, ale jestli jich bude 15 o tom silne pochybuju.

Shrnuto, mam pocit, ze nas presun je opravdu konecne na spadnuti.
Moje a Maartenickovy papiry uz jsou vyrizene a ted jeste cekame na preklady nezbytne pro pracovni viza.
A pak "to" pry snad trva maximalne 3 tydny!

Takze tridime a balime a tridime a balime a tridime...

To non-Czechs

The past couple of months I have been extremely busy trying hard to drum the Portuguese language into my head, not to mention all the preparations for our move to Angola!
That’s why it’s kind of difficult keeping up with my blog lately. Not that I’m going to stop writing but will continue in my native language as that seems to be less time consuming at the moment.
If still interested in our adventures willing to read my ingenious notes, I would kindly ask all non-Czech speaking folks to use the Google Translator (top right corner) plus a lot of imagination.

Thanks!

Eifel 31/10 - 4/11

Doufala jsem, ze se tyto podzimni prazdniny podivam konecne na Sumavu. Bohuzel ale nase vyhlidnute bydleni bylo zavrene pro udrzbu a odjet na tyden do Cech by asi taky nebylo nejchytrejsi, vzhledem k tomu, ze se kazdym dnem muze “neco” dit.
Takze jsme vyhoveli Maartenickovu prani pobyt v jeho oblibenem “punthuisje” (doslova “spicaty domek”) v Nemeckem Eifelu.
Pocasi bylo perfektni, I kdyz teploty kolem 18 stupnu malo odpovidaji tomuto obdobi, ale je fakt, ze bylo prijemne.