5 months have past since our last visit home.

We are counting down the days until going home to South Africa for our long awaited holiday. It's been five months since our last visit home and we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends. Our tickets are booked for the end of September, but at this stage, we aren't sure if they will be one-way or return. Either way, we don't have long left on Principe.

After Principe, we aren't sure what our next move is and are in quite a time of uncertainty, but are trusting God to open the right door for us, wherever that may be.

Being grateful.

Yesterday marked both the date of our arrival on Principe 18 months previously and the minimum portion of time we had agreed upon spending here. To celebrate reaching our goal, we went out to a local bar to toast with Sagres beers. We have not quite decided what's next and are still unclear how many more months we will be here, but my challenge to myself is to look back on these last 18 months on Principe and count the blessings we've experienced here.

One of the big things I've appreciated is the safety of this small island community, which is so different from the situation back home. I can sit out on my patio in the evening, unconcerned, and enjoy the night air in safety. I'm also grateful for the simple, quiet way of living, unrushed and far from over commited. I feel that it's a way of life closer to how it is meant to be and only being away from the urban rush, do I really see how foreign that kind of life seems now. Financially, this move for Mark's job, has made sense and has set us right on track for the future and lastly, this friendly, small community, made up of expats and local people, has been a great and unexpected blessing for this former city dweller.

This big adventure our family has taken, has opened our eyes to more of what is on offer in this big world of ours and has strengthened us through multiple challenges. I'm grateful for the blessings we have here and I have to admit, the lessons God has brought our way have been important too.

"But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising Him to everyone." Psalm 109 v 30 NLV.

Beached supply boat.

Over the weekend one of the two supply boats to the island broke free of its ropes and drifted onto the beach near the city. It was carrying the usual supplies such as beer, canned drinks, probably bottled water and most importantly, diesel. Diesel keeps the island's generator going and consequently provides electricity to our home. Without electricity our water pump stops and and our packed freezers defrost, potentially ruining our meat supply so I'm somewhat concerned, although I'm told that the other boat will come with more supplies. The island ran out of diesel some months ago and it wasn't fun.

The story goes that those manning the boat at night went out, perhaps to get a beer or so and when it was noticed that the ropes on the one side of the boat, mooring it to the dock, had snapped, it was too late and water was coming on board. A submercible pump was borrowed the next morning and the water pumped off the boat. Now the boat has beached itself on the harbour's beach, it's rudder deep in the sand and no bigger boat near the island to pull it out.

The crew were hauling crates of beer on their heads, through the waves and up onto the road overlooking the beach. Apparently a tractor may be the solution to getting the diesel containers off of the boat. The shenanigans drew an amused crowd to the harbour facing road yesterday, including us, and these are our pictures...

Raining cats and dogs.

The thunder of rain on our sheet metal roof this grey morning is making Zachary's hour of television viewing, or should I say hearing, challenging. I've turned the volume up seven digits, but with the varying pressure of the rain showers on our roof, the television sound is thoroughly unintelligible as only the high pitches, of the puppet characters' singing, break through. He's ended up standing right next to the set.

Milla, the lady who helps clean our house, has just chickened out of retrieving the bucket for washing the floor, which is sitting on the step right outside the back door. I tried stepping outside too, but the bucket is not worth it.

 

 

The main road today

As a result of the torrential rain, I'm writing this blog entry in WordPad and will upload it later when the internet comes back on. There is also no cell phone signal. This rain on Principe is something else and the volume would probably be more accurate to describe as raining goats and pigs, than cats and dogs...and it can continue through the night and day. Milla has just come to show me that our bedroom and bathroom are under water, with the sealing around the aircon and windows giving way to streams of water which are now running down the walls. We've found that our container home doesn't do so well in this hot, humid and rainy climate and we find ourselves putting towels down and re-sealing, often. Anyway, my potty-training toddler has just created a flood of a different kind down the side of his potty, which I need to attend to...

I'm back. Right, for those of you who like a few statistics, I've been told that on Principe it rains between 2,000 and 7,000 mm per year, the heavier and more constant rain sticking to the unreachable, mountainous, south side of the island. Mark tells me that we've had about 250 mm of rain per month since March this year - and it looks like May is working its way towards 300 mm. Apparently, we had over 360 mm of rain at the airport during October last year...

Portugal...a place to return to.

I thoroughly enjoyed our week on the Lisbon coast and can't wait to get back to explore more of Portugal one day. We will definitely go back to see more of Lisbon, and perhaps the North and South of the country, as well as to sip espresso and eat pasteis de nata, which are like little custard cup pastries. As people said, the public transport system is great, and we travelled around quite a bit on buses and trains, three children included.

Unlike our experience in Italy, some years ago, we were welcomed as tourists in Portugal and didn't have one bad experience getting help from local people. I tried out my rough Portuguese and think I learnt a lot about the language, through the intense exposure and necessity!  All in all we loved Cascais and Sintra, enjoyed our time with the old friends we met up with and took some great pictures.

Cascais beach

Our accommodation in Janes

Sintra Palace in the background

Sintra central

Praia das Macas

Time away in Portugal

Two sleeps - as I say to Zachary - until we leave for our holiday away from our Principe home. I'm fast approaching my 'island sanity limit' and can't wait for the time away and some first world lights and action, including...English movies, restaurants, clothes stores, toy shops, cars - not white bakkies, choice, variety... and so the list goes on. Zachary, however, is most excited about the possibility of finding a playground with a slide!

We're meeting up with friends and their two children in Praia das Macas and all staying together in a villa in Cascais, with lovely grounds for the kiddies to play in. Being from South Africa, a novelty for us will be travelling using the public transport system, which we are told by Portuguese colleagues, is efficient and safe. It's been a long time since I've been on a train.

Beautiful Belo Monte

Zachary, Mark and I attended the opening of the Roca Belo Monte Plantation Hotel today. I've blogged before about beautiful Belo Monte, which will give any new readers a bit of background about this plantation estate, but with the estate's renovation, it has new life. Sipping a glass of chilled white wine on the terrace this afternoon, overlooking the spectacular sea view, everything suddenly felt very civilized on our rural little island.

Our family adventure to Principe has its ups and downs, but with the renovation of Belo Monte, I am excited about having somewhere else to go for leisure! It will certainly add to the 'ups'. Weekends at the beach are great, as is Bom Bom Resort, but a little choice when it comes to weekend plans will be excellent. A chocolate milkshake - strangely, an impossibility for us on this island thus far - will be something for Zachary, and his parents to look forward to, one of these weekends to come...