April 2014 Luanda

I discovered that when a supermarket runs out of small change for customers they give the equivalent in sweets or matches.

4 April, Public holiday in Angola marking 12 years of peace following the end of the civil war.

7 April, Look who's comfy? Mali has come to stay with us while her owners have gone to Thailand for 2 weeks. We met up with Bev. (expat Kiwi) and her two dogs on the walkway this morning. Just like home :-)

Jeroen and Mali

7 April, HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear Jeroen. Time for cake....I spent a while in the supermarket today with my dictionary making sure I got the proper ingredients for a carrot cake.



Jeroen is 47

10 April - an evening with the Angola Field Group who presented “Musseques, from Survival Strategies to Sustainable Development”, with Willy Piassa, a Community Development Specialist with Development Workshop, a local NGO that has worked in Angola since 1981.

Musseques in Luanda

Musseques, or informal settlements of slums house almost 80% of people in Luanda. Musseques are different to slums by the fact that even the rising middle class Luandans live in them.

Less than half the families living in musseques have on-site sanitation and less than 30% have access to running water.

Water is very expensive and the average amount available to each family daily is 7 litres. Many families spend 25% of their income on water. It can be difficult to witness someone thirsty drinking from a cesspool and across the road tons of litres of clean water daily water the grass/garden verges in 'important' areas of Luanda. I regularly see the gardeners holding the water hose for a passer-by to drink from on the Marginal.

A very interesting evening and a humbling experience.

12 April, a great day with the women from church for a retreat. Photo to come. Great to be with an international group, mostly African in all colours, head-gear and dress.

13/14 April heavy rain and thunder/lightening..one little black dog who needed a bath! And plants growing well on the balcony.

Crazy, wet dog running everywhere to get dry

Everything lush - I carted this big tree from Herniettes place in my sewing machine trolley. Madness, thought my friends BUT IT WORKED

15 April BIG CHUVA...rain is so heavy Rua Rainha Ginga (our street) is awash. Thunder, lightening and power on/off and people screaming/washing themselves and driving through the huge swimming pools. There will be mud everywhere tomorrow. It's not called the rainy season for nothing.

Rua Rainha Ginga pools
 

18 April, Good Friday and off to church and a small walk with Mali. Some impressions from today, back to sunny and hot: men loving their pink clothes and umbrella's to shield from the sun, countless albino people, countless people with missing or deformed limbs, a man sitting on the side of the road, draped in a colourful towel, laughing up to the sky while receiving a shave.




Skin contact - photo courtesy internet

20 April, out for a couple of meals. Jeroen took this shot of his dessert called 'soup of the day with fruit tartare infused with spices and something else'. Yum!

We met up with kiwi friends, Bev and Martin for a meal at Coconuts restaurant on the waterfront. A very nice afternoon and we discovered they had also lived in Oakura for 6 months. Small world.

Out for lunch with Bev and Martin Somers

21 April, Easter Sunday and a packed church with not enough newsletters or seats. The children sang for us 'Lord, I lift your name on High' - great singing although you can't see them doing much in the pic.



Brother Sita doing his thing!



Sounded great.

We are always curious about this tree across the road from us - are its roots on the ground or the first floor?

Thriving tree

28 April and hostage to the toilet for a week as I come through probable Giardiasis. Finally on x2 antibiotics and starting to feel better. No photo to come. :-)