HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Merry Christmas to all!!!

We are getting ready to leave for our Christmas Holiday, our home trip begins Monday, 11 December. We leave Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the airport at 10:00 AM and will fly to Lagos which is about a 50 minute flight. We will stay at the Lagos Sheraton for a few hours before our flight on British Airways. We will fly to London and stay a few hours at the airport before going on to Houston. It will take us about 2 days to get home...a 6 hour flight to London then a 10 hour flight to Houston, talk about jet lag. Here in Nigeria we are 7 hours ahead so it will take us a day or so to get used to the time change. We are very excited to see all of our friends and family and of course our greybabies, we miss them so much.

We have our Annual Christmas Eve Party again this year, it is the 9th year for our party and so far we have 36 confirmed guests, it will be a very festive, happy time for all of us.

It will be so nice to go shopping for Christmas and groceries, we have 2 small stores on the camp that have what you need most of the time, but it's nothing like shopping back home. Vegetable shopping is always an adventure, they have booths set up outside in the back of one of the stores here on camp and when the sellers see you coming they start calling you over all at the same time...Madame Madame, please see what I have for you today!!! They also remember you, so if you told them last time you were there that you will buy from them the next time they tell you, Madame you said you would buy from me this time. They all have pretty much the same items although some do have more variety than others. I usually take our cook Glory with me and let her deal with them, she knows who has the best and handles them great. Actually, we only go there when we need things between shopping, Glory and Alice (our Nanny) go on Wednesday's to the "Market" on the outside of the camp where they can purchase vegetables much cheaper. Once we're allowed to go off camp (when the elections are over) I will probably go with them. We also have a lady that comes around who sells Prawns and Fish and let me tell you the size of the Prawns are remarkable, they are so big and so good and the Red Snapper was mouth watering. Glory is an excellent cook and she's been spoiling us with all the great dishes she's been cooking. Last night we had Shrimp Fried Rice that was to die for, we even invited one of our friends over who is alone here (his family went back home) and he couldn't get over how wonderful the food was.

Well, I guess that's it for now, I will write again to let you know how our "Party" went. Until then:

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday.

Dina, Darren, Jade & Lexi

SPLISH SPLASH

We enjoyed our first weekend in our pool. Saturday Jade and Lexi were invited to a Birthday Party but couldn't wait to get back home so we could test out our pool. We were so hot at the party it was really nice to come home and jump into our pool. It's not very deep, Jade can stand up and the water reaches right under her neck. It's amazing what she's learned here already. The kids have swimming lessons on Wednesday during school, it's only about 40 minutes or so and they missed a few lessons due to rain and the pool was closed one day, so I think they've had only two lessons since we've been here. Jade who was always afraid of water in her face can now swim under water, jump in, cannon ball, and do front and back somersaults under the water. I'm amazed every time I watch her in the pool, and she is so excited with herself. Some friends who are moving to Holland have given us some innertubes and gave Lexi a "Floatie" vest which keeps her afloat so she can swim without having to hang on the side of the pool and doesn't worry about going under and drowning so she's having a blast also. She's not as brave a Jade yet, she's learning how to blow bubbles in lessons and I'm sure she'll be swimming under water soon herself.

Yesterday they bugged me to go swimming starting at 8:00 AM, I held them off until 10:00 AM. I wanted the sun to warm up the pool a little bit. When we got out there, Jade jumped right in then Lexi went in. Jade said there was a bug in the pool so I thought it was a normal kind of bug, asked where it was and she said over there on the pool ladder. I went over looking for it and didn't see anything, got in the pool and looked at the ladder and OMG, I jumped out the pool and had them get to the other side, I got Lexi's flip flop and tried to move it, but it had it's claws wrapped really tight on the ladder. I gave it one hard swipe and it let go and started swimming on the bottom of the pool, I screamed to the kids to get out the pool cause the "Monster" was loose and ran to get the pool net. I caught the thing and flung it in the brush behind the trees. I found a couple of pictures of the "Thing" on the internet, Jade told me it was a "Water Scorpion" because one of the kids brought one to school to show everyone.
See pictures of our "CREATURE" below.

"Creature from our Pool"

Here are some pictures to go along with the "Splish Splash" post:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hi to all from Nigeria. I hope everyone had a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. We just got back from a wonderful dinner at one of the American Expat homes and it was just fabulous. It felt like we were with friends back in the States. There was Baked Chicken (no turkeys here) green beans southern style, corn, candied carrots, potatoe salad,cornbread stuffing, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce. She even had Iced Tea (only hot tea served here) we had to explain what Iced Tea was to the non American's at the dinner. By the way...ice is not a big thing here, if you ask for ice with your drink you get one cube. There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie and red velvet cake. Darren ate twice and was stuffed, but not enough to miss dessert. All in all we had a wonderful first Thanksgiving in Nigeria. It really felt like we were back home just not with our families, but with our new families while we're here.

Cheers,

Home Sweet Home

We have finally moved into our new home in Nigeria. 4 Okoloma will be our new address for the next 4 or 5 years. We are settling in and have our staff here taking care of us. We had our first real dinner last night...pork chops, asparagus, corn and peas, it was so good. It was so nice to have normal food for a change and the best part, I didn't have to cook or clean up. I will be very spoiled after this.

We have our back patio being glazed in which means they are installing glass windows instead of netting and it should be complete today. Our pool has been drained, cleaned and is being filled with water. We keep finding small frogs in the pool, hopefully once the chemicals are in and we get a cover made for it that will solve the frog problem. Our garden is coming along great, our gardener Jacob is wonderful, he's here early and works so hard. He's such a pleasant man and always happy and has a smile on his face, he brightens my day each morning. I will take pictures of our house and staff and post them once our freight arrives with all our equipment. Darren did receive an email yesterday stating our freight will be here in two weeks, we'll see if that is true or not.

Here are some pictures I found on one of our Expat websites, they are of some local wildlife and some sites you may see, I hope you enjoy them.

Our "House" is Ready

The house is complete and they are moving the loaner furniture in today. If everything is set up and in working order I think we'll be able to move in tomorrow. It will be so nice to finally "unpack" so to speak and settle down in our own place, the kids will have room to run around and play. I think our windows will be installed in our new patio this weekend so that'll be really nice. I can't wait to be able to post pictures of everything once we get our own things. Once we move in we will probably be out of internet for a while, we'll need to have it set up and we're told that it's a slow process after requesting service for it to actually be set up.

We were told our "sea" freight is in Lagos, we just need our passports so we can get them sent here, they need to confirm that it is our freight before they release it. Although that could take months to get done. We may have to wait and worry about that after we get back from Christmas Holiday, which brings me to our trip home. We will be leaving on December 11th on British Airways and will arrive in Houston via London. I can't wait to get home and see family and friends, it will be so nice to be home for the Holidays. School starts up back here on January 8th and I think we'll be flying out of Houston on January 7th.


Take care and I'll write back as soon as I can.

4 Okoloma

Will be our new address soon, we are told the house will be ready by the end of next week. The kitchen cabinets, sink and counter tops are installed and they are really nice. The back patio has been framed so we will be able to install the glass windows and they only thing left to do really is painting all the ceiling and trimming around the windows, doors and security bars...yes every house has security bars on the windows a second security door that you can close and lock at all the doors.
This camp was built about 40 years ago, and the houses are just renovated every four years or so but the bars stay. We are in a third world country where there is unrest every time an election is near which is what is happening right now. The election is in April so things on the outside of camp are a bit uneasy. We aren't allowed off the camp until further notice, which is OK by me, it's very depressing out there. OK, that's enough of that, more to happier things.

Last night the children on the camp celebrated Halloween. I think this was the first year they actually tood the kids around to houses for treats. Since Halloween is the most popular in the States it was interesting to see how they were going to do it here. Well, it was really cute, they had us all meet at the Activity Center which was decorated really cool, and they had activities for age groups, the 3,4,5 & 6 year olds went into a room and had Halloween pictures to color. The 7, 8, 9 & 10 year olds had a game with donuts hanging from different 4 lengths of string and the kids were put into groups of 5 and one at a time each person from the group had to try and bite as much of their donut without touching it and when the whistle blew that had to go to the end of the line and the next person had to try. It was really cute and the ones with the chocolate covered donuts were covered in chocolate. I don't know what the older kids did since I don't have any in that age group.
Then we were off for some trick or treating.... each group of kids had different houses to go to, since this isn't a really big thing anywhere else, some people volunteered to be the treat houses. I went with Jade's group and Darren went with Lexi's. All the houses weren't on the same streets so we had a bit of walking to do, we had about 30 kids in our group, so imagine 30 kids rushing to one house all at the same time, most got one piece of candy each (not like back home) but they didn't know any better (except for Jade) Then the next house, after the first five kids, they were out of candy (what were they thinking???) The fourth house turned off the porch light which meant they decided not to participate, the next few houses were OK, each kid got a piece or two. All in all it was really fun for the kids and it was nice not to have a bag full of candy to eat.

The adult Halloween Party is tonight, I can't wait to see what they have in store for us. It better be good, it cost N3000 a piece. I'll let you know how it was on the next installment.

Your Welcome

Hi to everyone. Your Welcome is what the Nigerians say when they greet you. They are very friendly and grateful for anything. I make sure to tell everyone I pass on the street or at school or in the Shell Club hello, they are so nice. We have settled in really well and just waiting for our house to be finished. We went by the house this morning and the cabinet people were there, they said they will be delivering our kitchen cabinets either today or tomorrow. We're so excited because that means the end is very near they are telling us two weeks which is a joke here cause no matter what you ask them it's always two weeks which ends up being two months. I really think it will be two weeks though, they don't have much left to do. They still need to frame the back porch so we can install glass windows, we're making it an indoor patio and having rattann furniture made. We met a man who will install the windows for us and also make the furniture along with curtains for the house. It will be so nice once our air and sea freight arrives and we have all of our things in the house.

We've had such a great experience here so far, but others that have arrived around the same time as us have had some problems. Although we were told what to expect and our visit in August helped us alot, we didn't expect to be in our house right away. Some of the new arrivals didn't come on a pre-visit and even though the were told how it was here, they are complaining. We were told that it's very laid back here, nothing is done in a rush and you normally have to wait for things to be done. We have had no problems with getting things done in a timely manner though. Some are refusing the houses they are shown, although I don't know what the expected to have here in Nigeria. The houses aren't like back home, they are made differently due to all the humidity here and they are old, probably like 50 years are so. They renovate them when families leave, like we're getting a brandnew kitchen which means new cabinets and new sink, fresh paint inside and out, new electrical outlets. I'm so glad we came on a pre-visit because we new how it was, these other new arrivals didn't and it is a bit of a shock, but just look outside the gate and you see how the Nigerians really live and we are living in palaces. They must think those who complain are crazy, this is heaven to them.

Well, we're getting ready for two more days off of school and Darren is off of work also as it is a holiday here. We still aren't allowed off the camp due to unrest for the upcoming election in February. I think things will get worse than better out there but we are safe here on the camp.

Until next time.

Hello From Nigeria

Hi All,
We are doing fine here, the girls have settled into their new school (much more advanced here than in the States) and Darren is getting lots of administrative things done from work and I'm meeting all the moms and wives here. Jade's been invited to a few playdates after school and Lexi and I tagged along and I had tea while the kids played. Everyone is really nice here and very helpful. Glorie and Alice our cook and Nanny come by often to check on us They are meeting me here tomorrow so we can go over to the house to see the progress being made. They also suggested that we buy some minerals (which is sodas) to bring to the workers, they seem to work faster for you when you bring them little gifts like that.

Darren has been spending Naira like it's going out of style. He's purchasing pictures and having them framed, table cloths with matching napkins. He's also purchased some fabric that Demmy (the guy selling him all this stuff) will frame for him and we'll probably hang it in the girls room. We also bought Jade and Lexi little African dresses and cute little aprons. Jade already used hers at school, they made bread in her class today and she needed to bring an apron. He's also given the gardener some money so he could buy a wheelbarrel and rake so he can keep up the garden until we move in.

We're going to our first Social Gathering this Saturday called Ballywood, it's an Indian party where you can dress up in Indian Garments (I'm not) anyway it's for adults only and should be fun. Jade has also been invited to two birthday parties Saturday (at the same time) so we'll have to see about that.

They have some beautiful plants and flowers here along with some interesting birds and giant lizzard things. I've been trying to take some pictures when it's not raining but haven't taken to many. I can't wait until we can move into our house with our own things so I can download pictures to show all of you what life is like here.

Aero Contractors Airport

OK, time for the second installment.

This airport (if you can call it that) is a bit scarey, it's one room full of people waiting to check in, luckily our Shell person did all that for us while we made sure all of our luggage got from the bus to the waiting area with us. After getting our hand written seating for the flight we had to move to the line where they check your carry on bags (they actually had a real scanner) there we were told the cats couldn't ride with us but had to be checked in with our luggage. Thank goodness it was only a 50 minute flight, we were a bid worried but what could be do. We are then moved to the flight waiting area which is starting to get crowded. One plane boards and leaves at a time so it's all the people you will be on the plane with. Once we're told to board you go through the door and out to where all the planes are, and you just follow the people in front of you and walk a good ways to where your plane is parked. There you are scanned front and back with a wand thing then you have to walk over to where all the luggage is being hand pushed on these carriers and you need to make sure all your luggage is there and together before you can get on the plane. It sounds like a bit much but at least you know they are making an effort to make sure all of your luggage is there for you. Since we had 12 pieces of luggage plus 2 cats this took a while for us but it was all there and we boarded the plane. We were in coach, but were in the front so it wasn't to bad. It was a small plane and felt kind of funny since we had been on the huge planes before. Jade and Lexi had only been on the two planes before this and we were in Business Class so they start asking, "when are we getting our drinks" in Business as soon as you sit they are offering you drinks and giving you a hot towel to clean your hands. After explaining this was a small plane and a short flight Jade starts asking where our TV was, another explaination of why we each didn't have a TV. Talk about spoiled after two flights.
The flight was fine, no worries, then the Airport in O'Werri, that was worse than the Aero Airport. You have to wait for your luggage to be brought to this room and pick it out so someone can hand it to you. Of course with 12 needing to be found it took us a while and they wouldn't let the Shell person come in to help so we had to use the airport workers. We finally loaded onto the bus and off we went. 3 hours on this pot holed road, with a stop for 30 minutes waiting for our second armed escort to follow behind us. The girls slept most of the way so they didn't get to see much of the really sad things along the way.

We finally made it, were safe, meeting new people, went to our first party, the girls had their first day of school and we're getting into a routine. Our house is being renovated and we're told it will be ready in two weeks, but that's more like two months. There is lots to do, many activities for the girls after school and many things for the moms/wives during school. It's going to be a wonderful experience and after this, we'll be able to do anything and go anywhere with no worries at all.

We Have ARRIVED!!!!

We are now in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It took 3 planes and 1 three hour bus ride, but we're finally here.

We had a very safe and uneventful travel experience, the girls did wonderful for their first plane trip and the cats did great also. The worse thing that happend was on the car ride to the Houston Airport, Coco our older cat pooped and threw up in her pet taxi and we had to stop at a gas station and clean her up. Once at the Airport checking in luggage then going throught the security was a bit much. I had to take the cats out one at a time and carry them through and have they taxi go through the where they scan your carry on/purse etc. Darren got held up cause he had a carry on that had toiletries that weren't of legal size so he had to go back and check that piece of luggage in (12 pieces of luggage all together were checked) So as far as the travel and Airport experience that was the worse. The airport in Lagos was very nice and very organized and efficient. After going through customs our luggage came really quickly and we had lots of help. Someone was waiting for us with our Name on a card like you see in the movies. She helped us with our luggage along with another lady. The cats were approved, had all the correct paperwork for them and the papers were signed and stamped and we were free to go. We didn't even have to go through to have a baggage searched. No stories about Military with guns, no one asked for money, it was very pleasant. We walked to our bus and waited for a little while for other Shell employees which were only two and we were off to the Sheriton Hotel.

The Sheriton Hotel was beautiful and eveyone was very nice, we were checked in quickly and the room was one of the nicest hotel rooms we ever stayed in. We ordered room service (the girls enjoyed that) took baths and crashed. After sleeping for a while, we were wide awake at 2:00 AM, our body clocks were all off. It was only 8:00PM back home, the kids decided they wanted breakfast, so at 3:00 AM we ordered room service again. Our wake up call was for 4:30 AM so we had time to eat and get ready, packed up for our next flight.

I guess that's it for now, I'll continue with the experience at the Aero Contractors Airport on the next installment. Very small airport in Africa, so you can just imagine how that was like. I'll fill you in soon.

The Flight Has Been Booked

Well, today we received our Visa's and Darren has booked our flight for Tuesday, October 3rd. We will be flying out on Lufthansa Airlines and arrive in Germany with a two hour layover prior to going to Lagos. We will have to spend the night in Lagos before heading to Port Harcourt via O'Warri Airport. The Port Harcourt Airport is still closed for repairs so flying to O'Warri will put us a few hours from Port Harcourt but with traffic I'm sure it will take us much longer to get to our final destination at the Residential Area. This will be a very interesting trip regardless, as we will have our two young daughters and two cats. We're a little weary of the Lagos Airport since it's much larger and more traveled than the Port Harcourt Airport and with the airport closed for repairs the Lagos and O'Warri Airports will be much more crowded. The Nigerians love children and they let families traveling with young children go to the front of the lines and the airports etc so I'm sure we won't have to much of a bad time. I've tried to explain to our children about the guards with the large guns to prepare them for what they will see, not sure it's sinking in though. Trying to explain that there are No Wal-Marts, Targets or McDonalds is proving to be a task also. I explained to them not to say anything out loud for fear they may offend someone, so I've told them if they have questions or comments to whisper them in my ear like it's a secret, I hope this works because I'm sure they will have lots of questions/remarks on what they will see and witness.

I'm not sure when I'll get to update the Blog, our PC's are in our Air Frieght and there is and Embargo on all Air Frieght to Nigeria right now due to so many coming in. We may get out Sea Freight before our Air Frieght which really doesn't happen.

Still in Holding Pattern

Well, it's Tuesday, September 19th and we still don't have our Visa's and we're not sure when we'll depart for Nigeria. The way it's going our Freight will be there before us. Darren calls our Expat Coordinator every day to check on our Visa status and no news yet. As I said before, the Nigerians don't rush for anything.

On a happy note, we went to see our Greybabies this weekend since we had some extra time and we needed some love from them, we miss them so much. They are doing greyt!!! Blacky and Chopin have lost weight and gained muscles and look fantastic. They are happy and full of life and were very happy to see us and gave us lots of kisses. Reigni and Spur are also doing wonderful, and enjoyed having us there. I'm so glad we were able to see them one more time before we left, I was really missing them. It was really nice to see how happy they are and doing so well. I think with all the exercise they are getting and the weight Blacky and Chopin lost they will be with us for many many more years to come.

I'll post again when I know our departure date. Once there I'll be taking some picuters with our new cameral we got, Cannon Rebel and it's awesome, the pictures it takes are out of this world.

Air & Sea Freight Day

Well guys, we started packing up our household items yesterday with the moving people and they are loading the boxes etc as I'm typing this. We have been delayed departure by one week though (our Visa's haven't arrived yet) told you, Nigerians move at a very slow pace. At least our Freight will be on it's way so maybe we won't have to wait so long for it to arrive. The movers said they aren't as busy right now with overseas moving since school has started. That maybe a good thing also, not so many air and sea freight for our stuff to get delayed with.

The Dina Saga Continues

OK, everyone knows that at the end of July I fell at the casino in Lake Charles, LA and hurt my ankle really bad right. Well you may already know that I've been suffering with a sinus infection (my first one ever) since the begining of December 2005. I was finally referred to a ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor a few weeks back and he ordered a Cat Scan.....the rusults came back and I was told by the nurse that I have Extensive Sinus Inflamation and needed to see the Dr. to discuss my treatment option. Well I went today and I have to have surgery on my sinus's....can you believe that????? One sinus infection has caused damage. The front right side is bad and the back left side is bad. Since we're moving to Nigeria next week this won't be able to be done until December when we come back for a visit.So I'll be on antibiotics fro two more months. I had to get another Cat Scan today at the hospital which was more indepth and I had to wear this funny little helmut thing that went into my ears and a part rested on the bridge of my nose. It was weird but it didn't take as long as the other Cat Scan and I only had to lay on my back for this one. They actually send the helmut thing to the OR for when I have my surgery and he'll use the images as a reference guide during the surgery.

Now on the Africa Front:

To make things worse, we haven't gotten our Visa's back yet nor the letter they are to send us which after we receive the letter it takes 5 more days to get the Visa's so instead of leaving on Wed. September 13th we may be leaving a few days later. The Nigerians do everything at a slow pace, they don't rush for anything so no telling how long it will really take them to get everything completed.

Knitting Adventures

I read an article in a magazine saying that knitting was coming back in fashion and that it was becoming very popular and I decided it was time a took up a hobby. My mom always crocheted and one of my sisters learned but I never got into it. So this article prompted me to order a knitting book online "Stitch and Bitch" which I highly recommend. I also ordered a knitting starter kit and my journey began. One of my friends' mom is from Belgium and learned to knit at the age of 7 or 8 so I asked her to give me some pointers which was great to "see" someone knitting in person. I also went to our local Hobby Lobby to pick up some yarn so I could practice and found a knitting CD ROM that was very helpful. So December 2005 is when I officially started knitting and I LOVE it, I find it very relaxing and a great stress release.

Here are some of my completed projects, to see them larger just click on the pictures:
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I've knitted many more items but just haven't taken pictures of all of them yet. I'm working on Christmas Presents at the moment so I can't post those pictures yet.

The Greys have Departed

Today is a very hard day for me, Darren just left with the Greyhounds to bring them to our friends kennel while we're in Africa. I tried to be strong but I started crying this morning and now that we've loaded them in the van I can't seem to stop. I love those puppers just like they were my children and it just breaks my heart that we have to leave them behind. Reigni and Spur have been there for about 2 weeks and they are doing fine and enjoying being with other greys and whippets and running around in the large runs they have for them. In fact we're told Reigni never wants to come in they have to go and get her out of the field everyday. Spur is also enjoying it and bosses Reigni around. I know they will be well taken care of and have lots of fun and they will probably become very fit & more healthy while there which in the long run will ensure they will live long happy lives with us when we return. It's just so hard to say good-bye to them as I've been with them everyday for the last 2 years.

On a happy note, I'd like to share with you some pictures of 2 whippet puppies that were visiting with us for the last two weeks. They are Charlie Brown (white w/brown) and Linus and they are the sweetest, cutest, funniest little things ever.

CHARLIE BROWN





LINUS

Departure Date Approaching Fast

Well everyone, looks like our departure date will be September 13th. We've been very very busy these last few weeks purchasing furniture and household items for our new home. I never thought I'd ever say this but I'm actually getting tired of Shopping. We only have a few things left to get though and the Freight Company is coming by Friday to give us some boxes and figure out what size freight we need. It's really happening and it's almost here, we're getting pretty excited and anxious.
We fly out on Wednesday September 13th at 3:30 PM on Air France and arrive in France where we will only have a two hour layover instead of a nine hour layover like we had on our visit, so that helps out a great deal since we'll have the kids and cats.
We found out that the airport in Port Harcourt has closed for repairs so we will be flying into Lagos and spending the night then flying out of Lagos to Owarri which is about a two hour drive from Port Harcourt. We're told that the two hour drive can take up to 5 - 6 hours depending on the rain and traffic so we're trying to prepare ourselves for that journey with two kids and two cats.

Pictures

Pictures of Garden at one of the homes we visited at the Residential Area.


All of the homes have the most beautiful gardens you'll ever see.



Take a look at this Front Patio, stunning.















Here is a picture of where your staff lives behind your home.

Count Down to Departure

Well, looks like Darren's first day of work in Nigeria will be September 18th, so everything will start moving really fast now.

We just found out today that we will be able to get the house we looked at while on our trip to Nigeria. We're so excited, it already has a pool and an open Hut kind of thing (I took a picture of one of these from another house so I'll post it) and a really nice size yard. It also has a really large back patio that we will probably close in with windows all around so we'll have an extra room, a large front patio and the gardens all around the house are just beautiful. I wish we would have taken pictures of it, but it was already dark when we went to see it the first time and raining pretty hard the next morning when we went to take another look.

Here is the picture of the Hut thing I was talking about.




Picture at the School.

We're Back!!!

Well, we made it back from our trip to Nigeria. It's going to be very difficult trying to explain how Nigeria really is. The drive from the Airport to the Residential Area was very rough for me to see. Let me put it this way, think of everything you've heard about Nigeria and Africa as a whole with all the poverty etc. and it's 100 times worse than what you can imagine. But the Nigerians are smiling all of the time and are on the move. They walk everywhere rain or shine and they always look busy. I didn't take pictures of the villages because I wasn't sure if that was okay to do, I know you can't take pictures of the police so I didn't want to take pictures without asking permission, I'll try to take pictures next time. On the drive all I could think of was how I was going to explain what we were seeing to Jade and Lexi when they are with us. You know kids say whatever comes to mind.

The DRIVING....OMG it's an art only the Nigerians can manage. They have people everywhere, cars coming from all directions, horns blowing, motorcycles everywhere with three sometimes four people on them and it's nerve racking. Traffic jams cause all cars want to go at the same time inching the way until someone just pushes through, it's WILD!!!

Garbage everywhere, just thrown in the street, people cooking on open fires right next to the road, burned out automobiles left everywhere and we're told occasionally you will see a dead body on the side of the road which is left until someone from Shell removes it. The custom is whoever picks up the body is responsible for the burial and nobody has the money for that so they are just left until someone from Shell takes care of it which is usually two days. Prior to Shell taking care of this they would stay for months so two days is really good.

Shell's Residential Area (RA) is very nice, we checked into the Guest House which was two rooms and a bathroom and we were assigned a staff driver (Solomon) who was available to us from 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM, if we didn't need him he just stayed in the car outside our room until we needed him. We met wonderful Expats who showed us around and gave us information on living there, everyone was very friendly and helpful. We were taken to see the school, club, golf course, tennis courts, pool and playground and also saw some houses. There is usually a wait for moving into a house and you have to stay in the guest house while waiting for one to come available which will be hard with two kids and a kitten. We did meet one guy in Darren's group who will be leaving around the time we are moving there so we went to see his house and talk to the Housing Department and we're hoping we can get his house but don't know if that's possible since some others have either been waiting. The only thing is that we have children and they usually try to get families taken care of.
Well, that's enough for now I'll post a few pictures later of the RA and some of the beautiful plants and trees.

Departing for Africa Look/See Trip

Well, the day is approaching for Darren and I to set off for our Familliarization Trip to Port Harcourt. We will be leaving next Saturday at 10:00 PM and will be flying into Paris then from there we will arrive in Africa at 4:30 AM Monday morning. Pretty long flight with all the time changes.

This trip will be a bit nerve racking for me as I will have to take care of my ankle. For those of you who don't know, I went to Lake Charles, Louisiana last weekend with my sister Erin for some Casino fun and while there on the second night I fell down some stairs and sprained my left ankle really bad. I felt like such a big Loser and ruined the rest of our weekend by having to be brought to our room in a wheelchair. Erin drove me home the next morning and took me straight to the ER in Tomball. I had no broken bones thank goodness, but was on crutches and had to go to Houston the next morning to apply for my passport and get my shots for the trip. On Tuesday my dad took me to an orthodepic doctor and he gave me excersises to do and when I informed him of my trip to Africa he told me I had to start taking one aspirin a day to thin my blood and to make sure I walked the length of the plane every 30 minutes so I wouldn't get a blood clot since this could kill me instantly. Due to all the bruising in my ankle and foot I'm at much greater risk for getting a blood clot. Only me guys, only me.

I ordered some bamboo circular knitting needles so I can work on my knitting while flying and I just hope they don't get confiscated. I read all the information on knitting items allowed on the plane and bamboo is the way to go, I just hope they don't get picky about it. Not sure how the African airport will be though. I may have to do some more research.

On a side note....Darren took our new kitty Indy to the vet yesterday for a check up and found out that she is a HE. Evidently I'm not good at checking this on kittens cause I swore Indy was a girl. Oh well, we just have to remember to call HIM instead of HER.

More when we get back from our trip and I'll be sure to post some pictures of our new home to be.

The Look/See Trip

Well, Darren and I found out today that we are leaving for our Look/See Trip to Africa on Saturday, July 29th. We will depart from Houston and arrive in Paris then off to Africa. We will arrive in Africa Monday morning. We will be meeting Darren's new manager Mark and some of the Expats that are living there, tour the facility and camp and have a few days to check out the area. We will take photos of the area so you can get a first hand look of what living in Africa will be like.

The girls and are I are taking Passport Pictures tomorrow then on Monday we are heading to Houston to apply for our Passports and expidite the process. Then Monday afternoon we're going to the Medical Building at Darren's office and I'm getting my first round of vaccines. We also have to decide which Malaria pills we want to take, some you take daily and some weekly, I think we're leaning on the daily ones since they have the least amount of side effects.

More to come later.

The Anderson Fur Babies

Here are our fur babies in the order they joined our family. Coco, Blacky, Chopin, Reigni Marie, Spurzie Girl and Indy












Here are our Fur Babies:

Hey kids,

This should be fun, please do not let the head hunters get a hold of this. Ha ha Did you send Sally a thing to join? mopheads@windyglen.net

Happy Fourth of July

Well, today is July 4th and Darren has received his "handshake" emai offering him the Contract Engineering job in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has sent back his acceptence and the process has begun. Things should start moving pretty fast now. We will be getting an Expat Coordinator to help and guide us through the process. I guess the next step for me and the girls is to get our passports. Darren and I will be taking a trip to Port Harcourt to check everything out and find out what we need to do to register Jade for 1st Grade and Lexi for Pre-School.

On a side note: Last night around 9:00 PM Darren when outside to get something out of the van and heard a tiny kitten crying. Being an animal lover as I am I went outside to investigate and found this sweet little bitty kitten in the tire well of our neighbors SUV. It took about 5 minutes before I could catch her, she was so afraid and dirty and a big dog tried to eat her right before I caught her. To make a long story short, she was brought inside and cleaned up a bit, I fed her some food and she ate like she hadn't seen food in days it was so sad. We held her for while, let the greys and Coco smell her (everyone was fine except Reigni wanted to play and Coco was a bit snobbish. I put her in a pet taxi with a towel and stuffed animal and she slept all night without crying. Poor little thing was exhausted and happy to feel safe while she slept. She did her business in the litter box this morning. Now I have to figure out what we are going to do with it. I don't know how I'm going to pry it away from the kids, they already started calling it Africa, although I think Indy would be cute since we found her for the 4th of July. Coco can't come to Nigeria with us, she's just to old to make the long trip, she hates riding in the pet taxi to go to the vet, you'd think we were killing her with those screams. But we could take Indy, she's young enough to travel and the kids would be happy to bring a pet they knew with them. The greys are staying with our friends who own a kennel and we'll pick them up when we come home for our long visits. This is breaking my heart, I love Blacky, Chopin, Spurzie Girl and Reigni Marie more than words can say, and I cry everyday thinking I have to leave them, but they'll be together and they'll have many friends (greys, whippets and afghans) and lots of love from the owners who live on site. Many areas for them to run free (fenced in of course) it will be like a doggie country club.
Well, that's it for now, I'll keep you posted on the next stage of our Adventure.

Preparing For Our Adventure

Darren has taken a job in Africa and our family will be moving between August and October 2006. We will be there for four years and would like to share our experiences with family and friends through this blog.

We will be preparing for our journey in the next couple of months as we will be needing vaccinations, passports etc. We will be taking many of our own things to Africa so we can make our new house feel like our home. Packing will be a challenge since we've never had to pack freight before and we'll be needing to purchase adapters for our appliances and electronics.

We are going to travel to Europe while we're there, never thought in a million years I'd ever be able to travel to Europe so it will be very exciting to say the least. We are thrilled that the girls will have this opportunity and see the world. This experience will be invaluable for them as well as for Darren and I.