Just a short note

Please, understand it takes a lot of effort to write something during the summer (or winter here in Angola).
We are finally back home trying to adjust to our "African" way of life. For me a little tough this time...
Our stay in Europe during June and July was delightful but confronting at every step . How different those two worlds are!
Maarten's  school has started and I'm busy putting together a brief report from our adventure in São Tomé & Príncipe.

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!

Be warned!

"To je jako Great Wall of China na ruce!"

The day after working at the orphanage I noticed that Maarten's hands were covered in bites. I found it strange for a mosquito as the bites were also between his fingers.
Because of the recent outbreak of Dengue fever I was horrified by the idea that Maarten was possibly bitten during his visit at the orphanage and maybe infected with Malaria or Dengue.
The school physician said that those bites were either from mosquitoes or flies.
Many sleepless nights followed and after an extensive research on the internet I calmed a little hoping that those are "just" flea bites.
But those bites were also very itchy and didn't go away.
Almost one month later I noticed an elevated track leading from one of those scratched open bumps (see picture).
Now I was sure there is something more going on.
"Luckily" my friend was suspicious knowing about other similar case and wanted to see Maarten before we went to the clinic. Together with other moms familiar with the case they diagnosed him with the same kind of worm!
To shorten my story down... They were correct and even though it took me some effort to convince the physician at the clinic who only saw many mosquito bites, Maarten was diagnosed with larva migrans cutanea, a parasitic worm infection. The larvae usually plague cats and dogs. Humans can get infected by walking barefoot, or like in Maarten's case, playing in sand or soil that have been contaminated with animal feces.
We were very lucky catching the creeping eruption in an early stage.
Be warned as cutaneous larva migrans can occur also in the temperate zones during the warmer months of the year!

Workers' Day at Boys Orphanage

I signed up for a "fun work day" at the boys orphanage in Palanca, the same place we went in December for the Christmas party organized by the Boys Scouts.
I knew the boys were also expected to participate.  But I wasn't sure I want to bring Maarten in such a populated place, especially now, during the malaria peak season and also because of the recent outbreak of the dengue fever with so many cases here in Luanda.

Well, to sum up we decided to go all the three of us, fully dressed and covered in Deet. I was surprised how "naked" the most volunteers arrived. Also the kids wore only shorts, T-shirts and slippers.
Anyway, it gave me some comfort to take precautions.
Luckily, our children were painting the interior of the office, which had an air conditioning.  At least for a while. Then the power went down as usual.

Our team was sent to paint the kitchen but the cook ladies were busy with preparing the lunch so we helped a little with painting the cafeteria. The residents were very enthusiastic to do the job themselves so after some discussions we were allowed to help also in the dormitory. Why allowed? Well, it wasn't considered to be safe for women to work in the small dark rooms together with all the teenage boys.

I thought nothing can surprise me anymore but when the boys began with clearing their dorms of all furnishings, I couldn't believe my eyes and... my nose! It's always hot in Luanda but here inside the rooms the air was thick with the smell of sweat, urine and feces.
I've never seen so many roaches, mosquitoes, flies, spiders together!
There were bundles of dirty clothes hanging on ropes attached to the ceiling. When the boys  started to throw the clothes down swarms of disturbed mosquitoes quick filled the shady room. There were so many bugs creeping around the floor, on the walls and over the ceiling.
In the dark corner I saw at least three rats crawling in and out of a small cardboard box. They were their pet rats.
A fly or a mosquito or some other insect flew into my eye causing my vision blurry for at least an hour.
Honestly, this place was horrific.

It was quite a relief to get outside again and help with serving the lunch.

The sponsoring companies donated mosquito nets and new mattrasses and the freshly painted rooms turned out beautifully.

 Helping with this project was probably a good chance for our kids to see how they can make a difference here in Angola, however, I was glad that they were not allowed to enter the dorm rooms.

Painting the cafeteria with the kitchen behind the bars.

Safety first!

Clearing up the dorms.

A moment for yourself.

Being silly.

Chilling.

Lunch break.

To Market

This morning the year 3 classes organized a Market as part of their Unit of Inquiry involving economics and counting money.
The students were selling small items and organizing games to play in order to raise money for charity.

Pet Rocks Booth van Ole and Maarten: they've collected $ 64!

1 pet rock for 1 US $ or 100 Kwanza

 

Yummy cupcakes

 

Maarten chose those 3 for me: Crazy Bird, Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh
 

One morning in the slum

The kids were a bit wild in the beginning which made it challenging but it is not of harm to us.
But I think they slowly start to understand when they obey rules and order and use good manners that they might be rewarded for that.

For the children it is always a big challenge to made the playground out of the cardboard then find a spot, sit down and remind calm. Especially on days like this when so many show up! It seems that we get more and more kids every time. And we also get a lot of attention from the passengers. Last time a group of zungueiras (women street vendors) asked us to visit their village too. I'm sure that our "vagabond school" would enjoy success in every Angolan district.

The people are usually very friendly and I never felt threatened. Only today there was a completely stoned guy who was very touchy and was interfering and disturbing our group. Luckily the villagers helped us to keep him away. And then he returned bringing us his two little boys who looked rather anxious.

We played bingo, the kids did a lot of coloring and they even tried to read some books.
The kids seem to like doing their art work and enjoying all the activities. Some are reading very well others can't read at all.  You see obvious differences only while looking at their clothes, as long as they wear some!
Many of them are orphans or are born from prostitution. Their extended family or neighbors are taking care of them. But there are so many orphaned children that the community simply can't manage to help them all.

It's very nice to see the reaction of the people and kids over there and see that they appreciate what we do for them.
You can tell that they really warmed up to us and that they have a good time the same way as we do.
During reading the books we picked up randomly some of the toddlers and babies to make sure they can see the pictures as well. They started to cuddle. I was touched.

I remember when we started to visit them they would even cry when we said hello to them. They were very frightened by us naturally.
So it was so nice to realize that they trust us enough to hold them now.

When we were about to leave some ladies surrounded me asking me something I couldn't understand. They wanted me to hold the tiny baby girl who was only a few month old.



Helping unload cardboard from car.

Some of the ladies were helping us disciplining the kids. This one was a little too agitated yelling at them hitting them with a stick and even throwing pebbles on their bold shaved heads!

Taking turns reading aloud.

The little ones want to read too!

This baby boy has his mommy, not sure about the one behind.

So proud of their work.

Brothers.

So much fun!

They all want to be in the picture!

 

Posing.

  

Dengue Fever

The rainy season in Angola brings with it the floods, landslides and even worse the threat of outbreak of infectious diseases.
Here in Luanda there are so many people living outside and they keep their water in buckets.  The buckets, puddles and all the garbage cans or tires around holds water for some time. That are an excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
More mosquitoes means more diseases!  And not only malaria!
Yesterday we heard about the outbreak of dengue fever here in Luanda.
After the year spent in Angola I've became quite comfortable with living in a high risk malaria country. At least when I think back at my fears during the first months here I came to terms with it.
We are still very cautious and compared to some other expats sometimes I even think we are maybe too cautious. But how much prevention in this case is too much?

Anyway,  there are already more than 20 people infected with the dengue virus in Angola!

Unlike the malaria mosquito the dengue mosquito prefers to bite people during the day time, so beware!

It's interesting to know that dengue mosquitoes only live and breed in urban environments, in man-made areas. They only need a little bit of water to lay their eggs. They also don't like to fly far only some 50-200 meters. 

Well, I'm off to check our backyard for any pooled water!

Reuse, Recycle - Angolan Way

It is the truth that the streets of Luanda are usually covered with garbage.
But I am also impressed by sadly forced creativity of the poor to reuse old stuff.

Here in Angola shoes are a luxury item among the poor people.
I found those kids slippers made from old and abandoned tires on the market.

This is Marco from the slum we visit each Friday with his juice box toy car.
This picture is taken during the polio vaccination and he as many of the small kids were quite afraid even it was only about a few oral drops.

Despite their living conditions the kids from the poor neighborhoods are very creative when it comes to playing.

Did you know that refrigerators float? Those boys had a blast!

After the rain

We had some stormy weather this Saturday afternoon. The heavy rainfall lasted for more than 4 hours causing bad flooding, destroying infrastructure and homes and leaving people homeless.. 9 people, including children, found their dead in collapsing houses. At least 4 people are still missing. According to the head of the Instituto Nacional de Meteorogia e Geofísica the reason for the immense flooding is lack of drainage ditches. (dnoticias.pt) From our upstairs window we could see the swollen river down our compound. Sunday seemed to be calm and sunny like nothing ever happened. Rob and I went for a stroll to check the river. You could see how the river made its way through the farmlands. The banks were broaden by some 20 meters in both directions with heaps of garbage everywhere. A vehicle covered with trash was washed down the river.


Anyway, the kids were happy as always enjoying the ride in the unusually strong current.