At my age, you would think I would know better.  My husband and I moved to London in 2011 for our first taste of expat life.  I knew he would be working much of the time in Luanda, Angola and I knew that his company eventually wanted us to move here.  “I will NEVER move to Angola”, I foolishly declared – virtually daring the Big Man Upstairs to teach me a lesson.  Here we are, three and a half years later, and I am eating my words – with a side of piri-piri sauce.  Lesson learned.

London was a whirlwind of weekend trips to places like Paris, Amsterdam and Salzburg.  My life was easy, cosmopolitan, and completely civilized.  Afternoon tea was my favorite activity.  To say things here in Luanda are different is a laughable understatement.  I have changed hemispheres, and with it my life is now the polar opposite of what it was before – and I love it!

I would have never guessed, as a young girl growing up in Houston, that I would even travel to Africa – much less live here!  Now, changing money on the street and buying vegetables from a woman with a baby tied to her back is part of my daily life. Pretty darn cool.

There will be challenges, some big and some merely irritating.  ‘Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts’ is the way some people describe living and working here.  Since I only arrived two weeks ago, I am determined to approach this from a glass-half-full perspective.  Stay tuned to see how well I do at that!

© 2014 Cheryl – All Rights Reserved