Holiday in Ghana

Hi all,

During our Spring Break Holiday we went to Accra, Ghana which is a small African Country which takes about a 50 minute flight from Lagos. Ghana is a small country that has it's stuff together, it's very clean and safe and the locals are just lovely. We were only there a few days and mainly stayed at our hotel but we had a great time.

Here are some pictures of the kids at the hotel pool:

Why is Everything Broken Here??

I know, I know, it's been a while since I last posted, but lots has been going on.

First, let me say HAPPY EASTER!!

We've moved into our new home here, and it's not in Niger Towers like we were originally going to move to. Thank goodness I talked Darren out of that place, electricity is always out and the generators don't kick on, the water always goes off as does the AC and you know how hot it gets in Africa.

We are now residents of Shell Two on Second Avenue which is the "BEST" family residents here. We have the most kids living here and Jade and Lexi have friends from school and Port Harcourt living here so they have friends and so do I!!!!! We are on the bottom floor which is great for when the electricity goes out we won't have to walk up 5 flights. We have a nice pool and kiddie pool, and a covered area where you can have BBQ's and parties, two little playgrounds, a tennis court (lessons for the kids on Friday after school) a squash court and a gym. OK enough of that, now to the title of this post.

"Why is Everything Broken Here?" that's what Lexi asked us on the way from the airport when we arrived here. Lagos, like other cities in Nigeria at one time was a beautiful thriving city and after the war in the 60's it just got destroyed and never recovered. They have building that are falling down, trash everywhere (although some areas do try to keep it clean) and people and cars everywhere. Lagos never sleeps, there are always people, cars and Okada's (motor cycle taxi's) on the go always. Darren even has a building near his office that has partly collapsed and people are still working there.

Here is a few pictures of the traffic and Okada's you see on a normal drive to the grocery or to the kids school:

Okada's have 4 people on them sometimes and you should see what some of the passengers carry. I've seen one with the longest ladder raised above his head going through bumper to bumper traffic. I never seem to have my camera with me on those days.

More later when I can take more pictures and we are on Spring Break now and we're going to Ghana (two countries away) for three days so I'll have more pictures from our trip.

Cheers

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Centre of Excellence

This is the first post since we've arrived in Lagos, Nigeria on 29 Dec 2007. As of today we are still living in the Eko Hotel and waiting for our flat at Niger Towers on Ikoyi to be available for move in. We were told that Monday, 4 Feb 2008 would be the day the flat would be ready for move in, but this is Nigeria and nothing is ever ready the day they say it will be. So we're back to waiting. We took a drive by Niger Towers on Sunday and low and behold they have actually done some work. We now have electricity, shelves in the pantry, exhaust for the dryer and the water should be turned on soon. Progress in two days, it's a miracle.

Living in the Eko Hotel does have it's advantages though. We don't have to pay for meals (unless we decide to eat outside of the hotel) they have about 6 resteraunts on the site, Steakhouse, Poolside Cafe, Sports Bar Buffet Resteraunt, Oceanview Pearl Chinese and Coral Cafe, Skye Resteraunt (not open all the time and we haven't been to that one yet) and a Coffee shop with the best breads, pasteries and all kinds of flavored ice cream. The staff is wonderful, helpful and totally love the girls, they just fall all over them when they walk in. There is a large pool, tennis courts, workout facilities, sauna and a small bookstore that I've purchased many books of Nigerian authors that have been just fabulous reading. The hotel is very close to the girls new school, American International School of Lagos.


The school is fabulous and the girls love it. They have teachers that they love and wonderful classmates from all over the world. Jade is even learning a little Hebrew so she can communicate with a new girl in her class that doesn't speak English much and she is learning English. They both have French class Jade had is twice a week and Lexi only once, but they seem to enjoy it. They are behind since they started in the middle of the school year, but they are doing fine.


Our driver Emeka from Port Harcourt is here with us now, and is learning the area and as soon as our flat is ready Alice our Nanny and Glory our Cook and our beloved cats Coco and Indy will also be joining us here. We are so happy our Port Harcourt staff asked to move with us here, the kids love them and they love the kids and that will make such a big difference with living here.

I guess that's it for now, it will take some time to talk about Lagos, the poeple, the driving and the area. I already have the name for the next post, it was something Lexi our 5 year old asked when we were driving from the Airport to the Eko hotel and it pretty much sums up Lagos, here is the title of the next post.......

"Daddy, why is everything broken here?"

Lagos Departure Almost Here

Well, we have our flights booked, the girls are registered at their new school in Lagos and we are ready to go. We depart from Houston on 28 December, 2007 and won't return for a visit until Christmas 2008.


This has been a long time coming as the girls and I have been back in Texas without Darren for a year next month and it's getting pretty old. We are ready to join Darren in Nigeria and have a family life again. It's been hard on all of us, but I think the girls in particular. They really miss being with their dad.


Life will be much different for us since the last time we were in Nigeria, no more house, we will be in an apartment building called Niger Towers. I'm sure this will take some getting used to, not having a yard etc. We will have our same staff (they are coming with us) so this will make the transition much easier for us.


The girls will have to get used to the big new American International School of Lagos (AISL) http://www.aislagos.org/ though it looks like it has much to offer and the curriculum is pretty much the same as to what the girls have now. They will have a much easier time coming back to school in Texas when we return for good.


The girls are anxious to see Coco and Indy (our kitties) that have been in Nigeria with Darren. I'm already preparing myself to mourn our puppers (my beloved greyhounds) my greybabies are my life (besides my kids) and I will miss them dearly. We lost one of our babies (Spur) this month and we now have Spirit so we still have four greys. They will be staying with our friends in Oklahoma again and will get lots of love and attention just not from me. I missed my puppers most when we were gone last time I hope I can handle it again.


Here is a picture of our new grey......... Spirit


































IN LOVING MEMORY OF KANSAS SPUR Aka.SPURZIE GIRL

Lagos Bound

Well, I know it's been a while since I've written, but there was really nothing new to report....until now.

Since Port Harcourt is in such a mess the company has been replacing expats with Nigerian employees and Darren is one being replaced along with many others. He was also offered a new position in Lagos, which is also in Nigeria, but not on high security alert like Port Harcourt. So, he will be in his new job sometime in October and will be waiting for a flat to move into. We are planning on joining him in January after the Christmas break. Life in Lagos will be quite different than Port Harcourt as we will all be in highrise flats not houses with our own yards and pools etc. I assume life won't be as laid back as Port Harcourt but we'll see. The girls will be going to an American School instead of a British School. The school is also a great deal larger than the one in Port Harcourt, more like the size of elementary schools we have here. They will also have uniforms to wear, oh they will also have to ride a bus to get to school as it is not near the housing area. That I'm not to happy about, my girls don't catch the bus here in Texas to go to school (I bring them) but they'll have to catch a bus in Nigeria......

I'll write back when our plans have been made for our move.

Cheers

We Won't....This Year

Well, the word is in. We were going to be allowed to return to Port Harcourt in August for the new school year starting in September but the day the announcement was to happen there were some incidents that changed the decision. The school will not open for the new school year so we will stay here in Texas while Darren works in Port Harcourt. We pray things settle down there so we can return next year. We were very dissappointed, but if it's not safe then we don't want to go back with the kids anyway. It will be hard being away from Darren but hopefully we'll get to meet up with him in Europe and take some really great vacations.

I'll write again if we have any more information.

Cheers

New Pictures

Here are some pictures Darren took of our home in Nigeria now that "our" freight has arrived. I even got a chance to see the Indoor Patio Furniture I had made before we left.

Here are pics of our Study, Master Bedroom, Dining Room, Living Room and Indoor Patio. Darren just purchased the Bar and Stools from someone who is leaving Nigeria for his next post.

Click on the images to see them larger.

Will We or Won't We

Well, I know it's been a very long time since I've updated the blog, but the girls and I have been in Texas since the middle of December 2006 and it just didn't seem right to make an entry that didn't involve us living in Nigeria.

The time has come for the powers that be to decide if the dependents will return with their spouses in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. We should find out the first week in June and if all is approved we should be returning sometime in August to begin the new school year in September. I've already offered my services as a swimming instructor for the school kids and will also be offering a beginner Knitting Class for the students interested as an after school activity. Many of the "old" expats that have done their time in Nigeria for the last four or so years are moving on and they need us newbies to take the reigns. I'm sure I'll be involved in many more projects and activities in the years to come.

Well, that's it for now, the next installment will be the answer to this Entry Title.

Cheers

Our Home and Staff in Nigeria

Now that we've downloaded pictures from Nigeria I thought I'd post some pictures of our home and our staff.
Click on the pics for larger view.

Emeka our Driver
Front of the House
Back of the House
Our Pool
Jade and Alice our Nanny, Lexi and Glory our Cook

NIGERIA INTERRUPTED

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but lots have been going on with a few disturbing incidents.

First of all let me begin by saying we had a very wonderful Holiday visiting with family and friends. We missed Nigeria though, can you believe that??

A week to the day after we left Nigeria, we received a very disturbing email stating "Possible Bomb" at Shell Club. Well, we were in shock to say the least. More emails followed and we found out that indeed a Car Bomb went off at the Shell Club which is right outside of our Residential Area. Thank Goodness no one was hurt, there were about 9 cars that were damaged. They said the blast was so big that the car with bomb flew so high in the air that it flipped a few times and then landed on other cars. At the same exact time another car bomb went off at another Residential Area not to far away from our Shell Camp. They were both detonated by cell phones. This was the first time that Expat Residential Areas have ever been targeted and it took everyone by surprise.

The powers that be decided to start evacuating all the spouses and dependents from the camp a few days later, in a few days they were able to evacuate 250 people without incident. It has been decided that the spouses and dependents won't return to Nigeria until at least August 2007. They feel since the election is coming up in April this should be enough time for things to settle down and the children will be able to start the new school term in Nigeria. This has made it very difficult with school, we've had to register Jade back in her old school (same class) and Lexi will start a new Pre-K as soon as she gets over her cold.

Darren will be returning to Nigeria alone, his flight is Saturday, January 13th. Due to this seperation from family, Shell has added two more company paid trips home and then when we are able to return Darren will be allowed to come home to help us move back.

The one good thing that has come out of this is that we have been able to bring home two of our greybabies to live with us while we're home. We left two at the Kennel as they are the shy ones and we didn't want to upset the routine they've been used to. So we have Blacky and Reigni home with us and they are very happy and act as if they never left. Blacky had his birthday the day after he returned and is now 9 years young and looks better than he has in years. He's slimmed down and gained muscel back and looks like he's back to racing weight. This is really great since extra weight in the older years is really bad for them.

Well, I guess that's it for now, I'll try to update as often as I can with news from Nigeria and Darren.

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.