A little update before we go...

The school ended last Thursday and also Maarten admitted that he was sad saying good bye to his beloved teachers and friends. Many of them he will probably never see again as they are about to move to a new country or returning back home. That's what the expat life is all about - moving, making new friends and saying good bye again and again.

Despite the initial improvement after less than two days there were new traces and we had to repeat the treatment.  It seems now that this second attempt was successful and we finally killed the beast!

After 4th visit at the São Tomé e Príncipe embassy, which was quite nerve-racking, we finally got our visa!!

Maarten and I are about to leave for Europe and even though I was looking forward to that many times I have mixed feelings about leaving Luanda. I often feel kind of caged here but on the other hand the last polio campaign was so much fun!

The day I stopped drying clothes outside

You can imagine that discussing worms was quite a hot topic among our expat community.

Some people were suggesting considering also the mango worm. I had no idea what it was.

Then someone told a story about a boy who let his sweaty bike helmet outside to dry. Then he put it on again and soon got infected by the larvae of the Tumbu fly, also known as the Putzi or Mango fly!
The local doctor extracted dozens of maggots from his scalp.

The female fly likes to lay its eggs on damp clothing. Therefore while in the tropics it's important not to wear clothes that were drying outside, or they must be ironed so that the heat kills the eggs.

Another story about a wet towel on the beach followed.
Can I say that it was quite disgusting?

But I was very thankful to learn about it and take some precautions.
I'm a very green person but from now on I'm using the dryer again!