Jog-a-thon & O Sapo e o Canto do Melro

Things have been pretty turbulent lately. We have been experiencing constant power fluctuations since last week and also the internet connection is bad or none at times. On Thursday week ago Maarten injured his leg. Nothing extraordinary. The day after it became a bit swollen but it seemed to be nothing alarming.

On Saturday morning M’s school was holding the 2nd annual charity Jog-a-ton to support the Viana orphanage.

Because Maarten has collected some money he insisted to walk symbolically at least one lap. It was necessary for the sake of the poor kid’s food, as he stated. Walk not jog! But once at the start line he forgot about his pain and was running with the others. He ran for second lap but could hardly reach the finish line. His wound actually burst open.

Maarten was very proud when Sister Dominga herself comforted him and thanked him for his effort but I felt bad. We had to hurry to the clinic. Luckily the bones were fine but his leg was badly infected. Since then we've been playing nurse and patient twice a day and it hasn’t been without tears and screaming.

Also this week we went to visit the poor community that I’ve already mentioned before. I volunteered to support the kid’s literacy, to help them with reading and writing. I know that this might sound crazy surely because my knowledge of Portuguese is very basic. But there is no public school in the neighborhood and the children are very thankful for any attention. According to the community chief there are some 980+ children of all ages in this tiny village! So, honestly, I didn’t really know where to start. I went to the school library and found some children’s book.

I even found one of Maarten’s favorites, from the Dutch “Kikker” series! And of course I had to do my homework first. I had no idea if the kids can read at all! I was surprised! Some of them were excellent readers but some couldn’t read even in their teen years. Not only children but also adults joined us and it was a lot of fun!

Trip to Kissama

This was our first trip beyond "the boundaries"! And it went easier than expected. On Friday afternoon our family was just put on a security list with our friends and that’s it! At least that’s how it was communicated to me. On Sunday morning we drove South without any major problems. I only wish our driver would have improved his drive style finally! I heard and read already many stories and saw lot of pictures of the Kissama National Park! Of course I wished I could experience it myself. After about an hour we finally reached the Kwanza River Bridge.

Maarten’s friend was riding in our car and pointed to the wreck of an abandoned tank. A Russian tank, said Bernardo, remnant of the civil war. After the bridge we turned into the Kissama Park itself.

The guard didn’t want to let us through without giving him a bribe but unfortunately for him, after a phone call with the Kawa Camp, the park’s main camp where we intended to go on a guided tour, he just had to let us go.

This park is immense with its 12,000 ha! We traveled another 40 kms on sand tracks before we reached the main camp.

We had to go through another gate to enter the area protected with the two-meter electrified fences.

Here we had to pay the entrance fee. It seemed we drove for ages, the boys were getting impatient. I had to think about this place's recent history. Almost all the wild animals here were killed during the war by landmines or poachers. I can understand that the hunger forced the local people to do so but many animals were hunted down and slaughtered by the military just for fun.

Luckily a programme, known as Operation Noah's Ark, was started to repopulate the park. We were warned it’s not easy to see many animals in Kissama and many people complain about that, but we came mainly for the nature and wilderness just to escape the urban chaos and it delivered.

Already arriving at the Kawa Camp was so relaxing. There were many monkeys playing and fighting.

The view over the Kwanza river from the deck.

We got onto the old (war?) truck ready for the guided tour.

Remaining seated and avoiding swipes from the thorny branches hitting us in the face was almost impossible.

But that was part of the adventure. Unfortunately, at one certain bouncy moment I hit my shoulder very badly and at the same moment I noticed Maarten is crying hiding his face.

When I hurt my shoulder Maarten hit his face on the bench in front of him and had bitten his upper lip. I was trying to clean the blood and he whispered that he hates all safaris.

The terrain and vegetation in the park varies from highlands with dense thicket to tree savanna

and large open grasslands close to the river where you can sometimes spot the elephants. We weren't that lucky today.

His lip got pretty swollen but he forgot this painful experience very quickly. Our friends suggested having lunch "at the Golf". I had no idea what was it about but was nicely surprised, or rather overwhelmed by the beauty of this place.

We had a lovely afternoon in an amazing setting, nice food, children playing at the pool but still... I couldn’t help but think about the immense contrasts between the lives of a rich and poor Angolans.

I would never expect something like this here.

International Day at LIS

Community Outreach

Today I joined a group of volunteers on a visit to a small community living in a hilltop shantytown close to our home. Their story is very sad as some 8 years ago their homes were demolished to make way for a new neighborhood. They were just kicked out of their houses and were forced to build new homes from sheets of rusted corrugated metal and scraps of wood. No electricity and no consistent water. They were promised alternative housing but that never happened.

Already from the main road you see the tiny crowded shack-homes contrast with new luxurious houses in the background.

During our visit we met the chief and his family. The most adults were off looking for work and we were permanently surrounded by lots of curious children. Let’s see if we can find a way to help them.

Boys Scouts - Camping Trip to Turtle Beach: Nov 11-12

Last weekend was very busy. We spent Saturday packing and preparing for the Boys Scouts trip to the Turtle Beach. I was cooking, baking and marinating the whole day, it seemed they were going to be gone for months. I always prefer to travel light but we’ve got a whole list what they should bring so we tried to follow that. We were lucky that we could borrow a tent from a friend. We definitely have to buy some camping equipment during our next trip out of Angola as all of our stuff remained in the storage in Belgium. We were advised not to bring stuff like that here as we’d never use it and now we’ve got a problem.

Anyway, I was glad I was “allowed” to join the boys on their trip down to the beach at least for the day. Boys Scouts should be boys only, right, and I didn’t want to interfere with it.

We drove down all together.

The last part we had to drive on the dirt/sand road which was quite adventurous after all the rain we had lately. But according to the people that have been here before it could be even "more fun" driving through the deep dry sand.

The road went through a little palm nursery with beautiful blooming acacias.

Happily arriving at the palm oasis that offered sufficient shade from the hot sun.

No one hasn't seen this tent pitched up so we were quite relieved that no poles or ropes were missing.

It was time to take a picture of all the boys.

But sorry boys, this herd of goats was also interesting.

The boys and two girls.

I hope to get a little more of a story from Rob as I didn’t stay for the night and returned home right after the lunch just when the whole gang was off to the rough sea. It was not easy to leave this place behind and return to the busy city. And coming home into an empty house with no power and no water for was definitelly no fun. At least the boys had a blast!

Digging a fire pit for the kids.

Done!

Very scenic beach - but wild waves and strong currents!

Therefore a life jacket was a must have!

"Turtle zombie" as Maarten called it. Sad but also evidence that they live here.

Dads cooking dinner.

Night trip to track the nesting turtles and finding only hundreds of crabs.

Dinner time.

Roasting marshmallows and staying up very late!

...and being very tired in the early morning.

So cosy!

Beach fun.

PS: This is how the sky usually looks like in the evenings since the start of the rainy season. Miraculously the campers stayed dry but some of the tents were blown away during the night storm. At home we were less lucky.

Sunday evening all of a sudden it started pouring heavy rain and the water rushed into our bedroom within seconds. As our house isn’t equipped with gutters the water fell straight all over our balcony and pooled quickly. There is no threshold and the drains are not big enough to take on the capacity of all this rain water so it came easily into the house.

We managed to get the water mopped up but next to our house the flood water was running like a wild river down the hill to the valley where the poor live in their sheds.