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.