Guess Who Came to Dinner?

I have proof that Angola is the world's next hot vacation spot. In the past couple months, we had visits from two of the most well-known personalities in the world today. The city of Luanda was in a shut-down mode for 3 days in March and a crowd of a million people gathered when Pope Benedict XVI (affectionately known in Portuguese as Papa) visited. The residence where he stayed was located directly behind Allan's office building, creating a bit of a detour for regular traffic. The wonderful part about his visit was the preparation that went into cleaning up the city and planting trees along the route he would take. I wish he would come once a month. The second celebrity visited last month without press, publicity, or performance. Carrie Underwood came as part of the "Idol Gives Back" spot and traveled out of the city to pass out mosquito nets to needy families. Few people knew she was there, but when I got to announce her visit to the local high school students I work with, they politely smiled and admitted they had no idea who I was talking about. Fame is fleeting.

Not Down Yet

Lest some of you think that Allan's birthday cake killed me (since I haven't blogged since then), I figured I'd better write after such a long haitus. One of my friends chided me because she missed reading up on us. That's more than I can say for family :) I sometimes think I have been blogging because my ideas are constantly rolling around in my head--what could be called a brainstorm. But the reality is that I just haven't taken the time to put them down on paper. So I will do my best to reconstruct the last couple months to bring you up to date--if you care to read on, that is.