lice and luanda

Helllllo from Luanda!  I'm here in the capital city of Angola for a week of training, and so far so good.  It's a very interesting city. We always talk (complain) about how Houston has no zoning, well Luanda is on another level. I'm staying at a beautiful hotel which is right next to the office in a really nice area, right off a main road across from the water. And then two blocks away there is a dirt road lined with abandoned buildings/shacks.  Apparently, the government is trying to take over this area and make it for officials and international companies only. They are in the middle of construction of an amazing building to house parliament, and there is a massive monument, Mausoleum of Agostinho Neto, that houses the shes of Angola's first president.  Most of the people of the city aren't to happy about how the government is choosing to spend their money....and I'm going to have to agree.  You'd think they would focus on cleaning up some of the trash around town...

Quick tutorial of the area...

Mausoleum of Agostinho Neto

View from the hotel...that's trash, not seaweed

It looks muuuch nicer at nighttime

Anyhoo, I can't believe I'm already writing another blog, the week has flown by.  We headed to the Futila school on Tuesday.  Typically when I go to the school, I just work on my futbol skills with the kids while they guys go into the computer lab and handle the lessons.  It was extra hot on Tuesday, and I got super sweaty (typical) so I had to take a break from the game and be a spectator. We had some cheerleaders on the sidelines - at least I think they were cheering us on, they very well could have been just yelling "you suck" or " try harder" but they sound fed more positive than negative. Anyways, one of the girls came offer and started playing with my ponytail. After a few minutes, I took my hair down and next thing I knew there were 5 or 6 girls around my head playing with my hair and just chatting among each other.  I could tell they were confused because they kept looking at my scalp trying to figure out where my weave was coming from?! I didn't mind though because it felt so good, I just let them play all they wanted...I was almost falling asleep when Jose rounded up the troops and said it was time for us to go.  When we got in the car he casually said "Miss Alli,when we get back to camp you may want to go wash your hair. Some women have a problem with little bugs that grow in their scalps...big problem." Ummmm WHAT?!?? Naturally, I freaked out on him and asked why he didn't care to mention that before I let the little ones play with my hair for 30 minutes. Everyone in the van really got a kick out of my minor panic attack.  I immediately went to my room to shower and OF COURSE the water to my building was turned off during lunch. It's been 5 days and I'm still convincing myself that my head doesn't itch...anybody know the incubation time for lice??

my personal stylists

On a positive note, the guys have been doing such an awesome job giving the teachers lessons that's the school principal gave us a thank you note and invited us to their end of the year party in December. So I guess I'll keep volunteering my time, just not my hair...

Other than anxiety that I'll wake up with bugs in my head, it's been a pretty quiet week. My sweet grandma (Nana) turned 82 on Thursday!  I got to talk to her for a while, which was extra special because she just got out of the hospital about two weeks ago. Her nurse (Papa) has gotten her back to feeling almost 100% in no time! And thank the good Lord...she had us all worried there for a little while!

More to come on my stay in Luanda next week...12 days down, 16 to go! xoxo...