Concert at school

Year 1 and 2 students were presenting songs in a concert on Wednesday and Thursday night.

Polio

While loading groceries into my car I hear a tiny voice behind me. There is a teenage beggar girl sitting on the ground asking for alms. I take pity on her and hand her a couple of banknotes. But at the same time I have to think about “my” children at the orphanage. They probably need it more than she does. She says her “obrigada”. Then she lifts herself up on her arms and crawls away. “That’s polio”, says Bernardo and I feel really bad.

A day at the orphanage

The drive to the orphanage is bumpy, dusty and long. I ask Bernardo to follow the neighbor’s car. He is from Benguela and usually doesn’t know the directions outside the city. Even now it was difficult for him to follow. He is obviously not used to the heavy and chaotic traffic in Luanda. Once at the orphanage we get immediately surrounded by many curious children of all ages, boys and girls.

A lady is doing laundry outside in a little courtyard. There are clotheslines out there with kid’s clothes drying in the hot sun. The children seem happy to see my bags with oranges and apples. I softly address them and they cautiously approach me full of curiosity and gently touch my arms. When they see my smile a girl grabs my hand and tells me her name is Nela. I tell her mine and she gives me a tight hug.

Together with my neighbor Lisa, who’s been here before, we proceed to the “emergency room”. Only an examination bed, table and small cupboard fit in this tiny room. There is not much space left as there are many children trying to get inside right now. Some are obviously in pain. Outside is a little boy sitting on the ground. He looks quite sick. It’s Joaquim who came here recently. As his behavior reflects, in his 4 years of age he has already been through the most traumatic experience that one can't even imagine. Right now he is fighting with some older girls who are trying to bring him into the emergency room. He probably has malaria but it’s not up to me to diagnose him. I’d prefer if a doctor would examine him. Also a dentist is highly needed at this orphanage. Crater big cavities, tears in their eyes, the children suffer quietly. Tiny Tete says she can’t sleep during the night because of the pain. Lisa gives her painkiller and I feel bad we can’t help her properly. I understand a doctor and a dentist visit the orphanage but I doubt they come here on a regular basis. One boy has scabies so I put some lotions on his skin which should relieve the itching. But same here. He should be treated by a doctor. Besides I can’t pull his T-shirt up to apply the salve. It’s impossible to get his head through the neck opening. He obviously never takes his T-shirt off and now his clothes got tight as he grew bigger. Many children have infected wounds that need to be cleaned. We do our best to help them but I think their personal hygiene in general should be improved. I need to cut a pill in half so Mia takes me to the kitchen.

There are women sitting on the floor cleaning fish. When I ask for a knife one of the ladies hands me hers covered with fish scales. It needs to be cleaned so they wet a piece of clothe in a huge green barrel. Later we need drinking water for a sick child. The kitchen lady grabs a cup from a pile of dirty dishes and rinses it in the green barrel. I ask for drinking water and again it’s from the same source. It seems the children are also quite thirsty. I hope they get enough water! The climate here is so warm, they are all sweating so they can easily become dehydrated. .

I break my head to think how to help those children in a natural way by using herbs instead of painkillers. I hope to cure the inflammation with garlic and decrease the infection and relieve the tooth ache with cloves. Unfortunately the only herb I can find in the kitchen is aloe vera. The lady cook asks me to follow her to the garden and asks me how to cure her skin allergies to meat and fish. I have no idea and promise to look it up for herI wish I had the skills and knowledge to help them all! Later that day the children are showing us around while playing with our cameras and taking pictures of each other. Mia and Nela would hug me and held on to me as we walked everywhere together. I ask them if they are hungry but they say no. They seem to be happy but they are obviously in need for someone to hold them, put their arm around them and give them the needed attention. And there is Susie, a little girl just 3 years old, she would follow us everywhere smiling all the time similar way like the Elmo’s face on her T-shirt. When I pick her up she snuggles right into my neck and repeats everything I say. So cute!

When it’s time for us to leave there are still children chasing our car, waving goodbye. It’s hard. Back at home my stomach hurts and I feel like I need to throw up. Must be the bumpy road…

School Fair

This Saturday there was the School Fair at the international school. Every classroom was responsible for several boots. It was a great event (for the kis, wink) and Maarten had a lot of fun playing all kind of games, like fishing for ducks, spat the rat, throwing wet sponges, playing Limbo or chunk the chicken or jumping in the bounce house. And what do you think Maarten did like the best? His hot dog!

Driving through the musseque

It’s always very crowded in the narrow, dusty streets of the slums. How come that there are no old people here? Is this because of the war? “Yes, but also they don’t come often out of their barakas. Besides, there are not really old people here as they usually don’t reach the age of 50. The living conditions in the slum are extremely bad. It's too crowded and utterly unhygienic with mounds of rotten garbage and no clean water.” The average life expectancy in Angola is not more than 39 years! There are many young people, school-aged children playing in the streets and a lot of baby’s crawling in the dust. “Many adolescent girls become pregnant even before the age of 15." It seems to me that every second woman here is pregnant.” The total fertility rate is nearly 6 children per women. Bernardo laughs, “Yes, Angolans never sleep!" And what about using condoms? “Wel, they are too expensive. 1 $! (?) Even though, the condoms should be handed out free of charge the pharmacies would still sell them and pocket the money.” (cia.gov)

A lizard is your friend

Every morning there is a fresh dropping right in front of the door. I thought it’s from the big lizards living in our yard and didn't really pay that much attention to it at all until yesterday. Our neighbor said she suspected rats!

Quite distracting, considering that Maarten is playing there all the time. I did some research and found that there's probably no need to worry. Rodent’s droppings when dry remain solid compared to those here that crumble very easily into a dark dust. There is a little white blob on one end of the lizard poop which is their nitrogenous waste, their equivalent of urine. Rats poo is several at time and we mostly find only one.

Also one thing, I learned that lizards eat mosquitoes and other insects and compared to rats their poop is not toxic.

English class

I finally picked up enough courage to visit one of the orphanages and I’m glad I did. Even though it is school holidays this week many kids, actually only teenage girls, showed up for the English class given by volunteers. One of the ladies led the lesson for the first 30 minutes after which each volunteer worked with a small group of kids to help them practice what they have just learned. It was a lot of fun! PS: On our way home Bernardo took a wrong exit and slightly panicked when we entered a street dead-ending in the middle of a slum. I didn’t mind.

Gone forever

They always come in teams those maintenance guys hanging all over the place doing all type of jobs around the house we’ve never even asked for. Last week after they replaced the blinds and cleaned the air conditioning my small purse with vintage jewelries got missing. Our shipment should arrive to Luanda in the end of May and our house is still very empty so it was easy to go quickly through all our stuff. I searched for it again and again still hoping I will find it somewhere. Then I spoke to someone who told me that I should be careful with those maintenance check- ups as it happens quite often that things go missing after their visit. I couldn’t believe it! It took me couple of days to admit that it's gone forever. The value of those jewelries is entirely emotional but I’m so upset and even more disappointed. They completely lost my trust and I’m not letting anyone entering the house anymore.

Jog-A-Thon at LIS

This Saturday the Luanda international school (LIS) organized her first annual charity Jog-A-Thon. All proceeds went to Irma Dominguez's orphanage in nearby Viana to help the orphanage purchase land and expand their existing facility. The children that live at the orphanage were also participating. Seeing them together with the LIS students brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. I couldn’t help thinking how different their lives must be.

Trip to the Ilha do Cabo

Today I went to the Ilha for the first time. This 8 km long peninsula surrounds the Bay of Luanda. With its wide beaches this is the main recreational area of the city and also the place to be for Luanda’s nicest nightclubs and restaurants. I didn’t come here for lunch but for my first board meeting of the international club which was held at one of the member’s home. Miraculously, this morning there was not the usual bad traffic and I had some spare time to drive to the very point of the peninsula. I took a little stroll along the beaches. On the heaps of reeking garbage and human waste you could see there was often a lot going on. Mateus, our second driver, told me he also goes there to party during the weekend. He also told me that is pretty safe to walk there, however, my guide book says otherwise. PS: Those pictures are mostly taken from the car window. Out of respect for the locals, I'm still not quite comfortable with taking candid pictures of people on the street.

Trip to the gas station

According to our driver Bernardo there was no gasoline available in Luanda for the past two days due to some problems at the refinery. Therefore we stopped at the nearest gas station to get a full tank. The car's gas light was already on. It was really busy, cars waiting in several lines and zooming tiny mopeds all over the place trying to sneak by and get to the pump first. Busy! Ooh, it’s not busy at all. It can get really busy here in Luanda! I wanted to believe Bernardo but it took us at least 45 minutes to get to the bomba de gasolina. Why are all those armed soldiers here? Bernardo started to laugh, explaining that many people kept their weapons after the war and now they are used for public needs. But why are at least 8 armed man here at the gas station? Well, Bernardo laughed again. To him it was obviously a funny question that needed no answer. Finally back on the road we came across another group of heavily-armed police holding their rifles. Bernardo slowed down and opened both front windows. Here we go again!! Ooh, that’s a car stop. They are looking for stolen cars, explained Bernardo. The police need guns to maintain order. Otherwise people would have no respect for them.

Trip to the beach

At first we were a little bit hesitating to visit the beach. Well, we didn’t really know how to get there. Also our driver had to ask first where to find the company boat that should bring us to the beach across the bay to Ilha do Mussulo, a 35km long peninsula running parallel to the coast of Luanda. When we arrived at the Embarcadouro we got surrounded by the boat owners offering their boats.

Luckily, we didn’t have to choose among those as some of them didn’t look very seaworthy.

The boat trip was very pleasant and Maarten was screaming with excitement. The boat went really fast and I was a little frightened, to be honest.

As we approached the coastline of Mussulo I was surprised by its beauty. Amazing white sandy beaches fringed with lush green mangroves and coconut palms. Such a stunning place, however, strange enough, there was no one at the beach just us, the beach staff and occasional vendors!

I prefer a quiet beach but it was obvious that Maarten could use more action around. The sea was seemingly calm only while swimming I noticed the undertow and strong current. It took a huge effort to move forward.

There was a deep water warning sign on the beach stating 5 meter just few steps from the shore. The swimming area was marked off by ropes and buoys but there was no lifeguard.

I was terrified when I realized that Maarten wasn’t actually able to swim back to the shore without pulling himself along the rope.

Luanda from the roof of the Maianga building

I was on my way home from the grocery store, stuck in a traffic jam. Rob called me to come to his office as soon as possible to bring Maarten’s and my passport. As our ordinary visa is about to expire soon we need to arrange residency visa. Considering the time of the year this is quite inconvenient. The school year ends June 8th and then most moms and children will leave for their home country.

Now our application is submitted our passports are therefore unavailable until the visa process is completed. I can’t imagine to be forced to stay here with Maarten and no other kids the whole summer only because of the visa procedure! Anyway, Rob’s office is down town Luanda and because I haven't been to the city since our arrival I was quite happy to go. It’s always quite an adventure to get there even outside the rush hours. Well, down town the traffic never really stops, the cars keep crawling through the small streets all day round. You just need to relax and forget that you are in a hurry. I find watching the street life real fun and interesting: the colorful dressed elegant ladies carrying goods for sale on their heads and babies strapped on their backs, the street vendors selling almost anything you can think of dangerously walking among the moving cars.

I still haven't found the courage to take pictures from the car window. However, today I brought my camera with me and asked Rob to photograph Luanda from the roof of his office where he usually has his lunch. So here are the pics.

Kijk, daar is een poes in de boom!

Maarten during the dinner: Look, there is a cat in the tree!

Well, it wasn't a cat! Our neighbors were right.

More pets

There are many lizards outside but also inside the house. Those inside are tiny and I don’t mind as long I don’t step on them as they often rest on the floor in the bathroom. Outside you can spot quite big ones some 30 cm long and I won’t be happy at all to find them in the house.

There are centipedes in the house, different kinds of beetles and of course thousands of ants. According to our neighbors there are also monkeys coming into our compound but, luckily, we haven’t seen them yet. Maarten obviously adores his new surrounding, well, except the house then. He is obsessed not only by all those little animals but also by the enormous exotic plants and especially their seeds. As always I’m concerned about his fearless approach to everything what’s alive. He wants to touch, hold and pet everything what’s moving and that’s definitely not safe.

Today he brought home big dry pods full of hard brown seeds and that’s probably how this little snake (?) got inside our house. I found him on the floor while cooking dinner. We picked him to release into our backyard but Maarten was furious. He wanted to keep him in his room shouting to us why he is never allowed to have a pet.

PS: This toad lives in the shed in our back yard together with other toad mummies. By the way, did you know that toad if you pick him up will try to scare you away by peeing on you? It was really grose!

First days

My first days here in the compound were no sorrows, neither fun rather boring. I had a car and a driver but where should I go. I’m more interested in the local life than in the expats-proof locations but should I risk going out on my own already? If only I could get on line! But internet can be very challenging here in Angola! Sad to say, but without the internet I’m pretty much lost. One day at the pool we met a very nice couple who are coincidentally moving back to the States. They were so kind to give us their internet device (don’t ask me how this white little box is officially called). We only had to buy a monthly card and for 80 $ we are on line again! At last I could do some research and contact local charities as I’m in desperate need of doing something outside the house. That’s how I got in touch with certain Shannon who invited me to a meeting of local expats. I initially thought, ooh no, this is nothing for me. I’m usually not into those expats coffee mornings. But this meeting was all about charities. There were many vendors representing local orphanages selling goods made by the children and as I was looking at the colorful stands I found myself meeting more and more nice ladies from all over the world. At last I came home with a bunch of phone numbers and (email) addresses and also with a whole list of charities and their needs.