Interlude: Living in Angola

As minhas mãos colocaram pedras

nos alicerces do mundo

mereço o meu pedaço de pão.

-- Confiança, Agostinho Neto

If you're a young Angolan in the diaspora you cannot have failed to notice the talk surrounding "the return home". These days, its the hot topic of conversation everywhere you go. Unfortunately, a very large number of the young diasporians don't really know much about their country, other than what they read in the papers and hear on the news. This sort of information won't help you make one of the most important decisions of your life. So, in typical hacker fashion, I decided to fill in the gap, providing here the details I would have wanted to read when researching the topic. Most of the information is hear-say, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Politics: War and Peace

The first and foremost reason for the wave of optimism surrounding the country is peace. War started before many of us diasporians were born and continued on and off until very recently. Whilst the last five years have been very positive, one cannot help but remember that Angola has been the graveyard of many believers who misread their cards. So the million dollar question is "how do we know if peace is here to stay this time?". Its a tough one.

I'm going to try to steer clear from too many political judgements and discussions here, as we all know how important politics are for all Angolans and how attached people are to their parties. However, I think there is a broad consensus with regards to how peace was obtained: the deciding factor was the death of Jonas Savimbi. The die was cast then. Savimbi represented the aspirations of a large segment of the Angolan population, but he was also the iconic image of the Freedom Fighter of old, the bush fighter, the personification of a Guevarian "Liberdad o Muerte". Like many of his ilk, he would never compromise. Truth is, while MPLA deserves a lot of credit for the peace, its tally is probably less than what is claimed. UNITA's military undoing was in the making for a while now, starved as it was of support from its key allies and sources of revenue. The world around us changed dramatically, but UNITA failed to change with it. We are now living in a brave new world, a place were the rivalries are fought in the commercial arena rather than by guerrilla war, and where nations are a lot less inclined to support rebels on the grounds of their political inclinations. (In turn we now have religion to worry about, but that's another story).

For good or bad, UNITA is now a shadow of itself since the demise of its leader; whilst extremely competent, the remaining members of the party are not of the same mold as Savimbi. These people are much more inclined to try to win via the ballot box rather than going back to the bush. In other words, war as we knew it is very unlikely to return.

For pretty much the same reasons, FNLA or any other Cabindan independence parties are not likely to cause problems. Small skirmishes in territory are bound to continue for a while, but its clear that Cabinda will not obtain its independence, not while the oil revenues are so significant for the development of the country as a whole. The new statutes of autonomy will probably be enough to please the Cabindan people, if not their leaders - but the reality is they will never develop any significant military power capable of destabilising the country. So much for parties other than MPLA.

The key factor in determining Angola's political stability is MPLA itself. The party has been headed by Jose Eduardo dos Santos since Agostinho Neto's untimely death, several decades ago. Many things can be said about dos Santos years in power, but very few can fault his executive for their macro-economic performance over the last four or five years. Inflation has been finally tamed and successive challenging targets have been met; the Kwanza has been stable; some progress has been made with regards to transparency and management of the oil revenues. Don't take me wrong: huge, massive amounts still remain to be done at the macro-economic level and in terms of economic reform - and these are the areas the government has focused on, so you can imagine every other level. But the general direction taken is extremely encouraging. This is not an opinion, its a fact validated by the huge influx of FDI. The fundamentals are more or less in place.

But, like everything else in life, there's always a snag. Elections are coming soon to Angola. There is very little doubt MPLA will win, the opposition being in total disarray; and there is little doubt MPLA will ensure the elections are free and fair, so confident they are of winning and so much importance they place in being accepted by the political world at large. The question is, who will be at the helm of the party? And even if it is Zedu, as Dos Santos is affectionately known by all Angolans, how long can he stay in power? After all, he is getting old. Who will succeed him? Will he or she be able to hold the party - and thus the nation - together? Those are fundamental questions. Many say the M (MPLA) is a very strong institution, one capable of raising above internal disputes. After all, this was how Zedu was found that many years ago, a virtually unknown character in the party taking over at a crucial juncture. Yet others point to the ANC post Mbeki and to the instability the succession is creating. This is by far the most important political challenge the country is going to face over the next few years.

I'm inclined to believe the party will provide a suitable candidate post Zedu, but that's the optimist in me.

The Economy: Realistic Expectations

As I mentioned earlier, the economy - or should I say the macro-economy - is doing fairly well. FDI is booming, one of the largest in the world. Inflation and currency are under control. The biggest problem is the excessive dependency on oil, but unlike the IMF I think its probably best to ignore this caveat. Lets face the facts: there is no Angola without oil. It is and has been by far the largest source of revenue in the country, something like 90% of GDP. And the second largest source of revenue is probably equally bad, the dreaded diamonds. Even a mildly competent economist can tell you that depending on commodities is a recipe for disaster, this being more common sense than anything else - basket and eggs come to mind. Schoolbooks tell us that diversification is the key. However, one has to face reality. The way I see it, if your country has one really strong competitive advantage, might as well make use of it. Depending on oil is a given. It will take decades to loosen up this dependency, and there's very little one can do in the short term. More importantly, one has to focus on how the oil money is being used.

In this regard, whilst there is the usual large amount of wastage, what surprised me the most is how much is actually being done. The government's program of reconstruction is very large and it encompasses almost every area of the country. The plan seems to focus first on infrastructure. These are areas such as roads linking the provinces, dams to produce electricity and water and key industries. There is also a very large focus on education, with many schools being built over the last few years.

Look, don't take me wrong: Angola could be miles ahead if every cent of the oil money was used properly. We would be South Korea in ten years. This is not the way to look at reality. One has to benchmark oneself by looking at one's peers, and Angola's peers are Nigeria, Liberia, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea and other such commodity dependent developing countries. In that regard, I think we have to judge Angola's performance as above the average. The crux is not that every single cent of oil money has been used properly; it is that some of this money actually found its way to the people, and this amount is increasing with every budget.

Another criticism that is being made is that Angola is focusing too much on large public works such as the Kapanda dam and forgetting about the little things that can improve the people's lives. This is, again, a text book criticism clearly inspired by an utopian view of the world. In theory, theory is always right, in practise it seldom is. Show me a single country that was made competitive by ignoring large public infrastructure works and focusing exclusively on the people. Was this what the Marshall plan favoured when Europe was in total chaos? Lets be honest, this just cannot be done. For starters, its much easier to ensure these large works are completed successfully than it is to measure the success of social targets. Misquoting Sitglitz, its all about sequencing and pacing and you can't run before you've learned how to crawl. If you haven't got a competent workforce to deliver public services, what's the point of putting them in your budget? As an example, the government itself admitted in the very state controlled public television TPA that one of the problems they found with education was they were building schools too fast to staff them, so they had to resort to less qualified teachers to fill in the gap. They are now focusing on teacher training to help alleviate this problem.

Enough ranting. Angola is currently focusing almost all of its capital on developing infrastructure, very much along the lines of the Shanghaise school of thought. There are large amounts of waste due to corruption and mismanagement, but this is to be expected, and is in line with its peers. Some of these public works have been completed successfully, many are still on the pipeline.

Jobs

The job market has to be broken into two segments: qualified personnel and non-qualified personnel. On the qualified personnel front, the booming economy is creating a very large number of positions, many of which cannot be filled. One of the reasons is the Angolanisation process. Similar to BEE in South Africa, Angolanisation is a form of positive discrimination that gives priority to Angolan citizens in job applications. Multinational companies working on Angolan soil have to fill in a minimum quota of Angolan personnel. There is also a second incentive for hiring Angolans: they are much cheaper than expats. Angola was already lacking qualified people before the economic boom, but now the situation is dramatic. If you search the web you'll quickly notice that many companies are now bringing job fairs to Europe, trying desperately to entice the diaspora to come back. The main reasons is that most diasporians have university degrees and these are in great demand. Any degree will open doors, really, but I noticed a particularly large demand for Engineering, Information Technology, Accounting and Business Administration. The Angolan universities are churning out large amounts of law graduates, so I suspect these are in less demand. However, if you have good working experience in any field, my guess is you wouldn't struggle to find a job. For instance, there is huge demand for tradesman like plumbers and air conditioning technicians. Many of these people are getting in with high-school or 9th grade. One thing that employers particularly like from the diasporians is the work ethic: most people tend to turn up on time and leave late everyday, take few breaks during the day and rarely miss days due to sickness or otherwise. This is highly valued in Angola because the work culture there is much more relaxed. Work absenteeism is a big problem.

But before you jump on the next plane, bear the following in mind:

• Do not come to Angola without a job lined up, from a reputable company. You can easily change jobs when you come here, but the first one will be the hardest.
• Make sure you get a good wage (1500 USD month is the absolute bare minimum). Life is very expensive. When discussing your package, make sure you cover: health insurance, car, housing (probably not going to get it, but should always try), holidays. Renting and cost of living in Luanda are very high so make sure your wage covers it. Its sensible to budget around 1000 USD month for accommodation.
• Make sure your company will help you out with accommodation. If they are not willing to pay for it, ask them to at least find it for you. Ensure they will provide some kind of temporary accommodation until you manage to move out, since it will take you a long time to find a place to live.
• For the diaspora, make sure you have your papers in order. If you haven't got Angolan papers anymore, try finding out if your birth certificate is still there. Most companies will only hire you if you have a valid Angolan ID card and passport, so you'll probably have to get these before you start applying for jobs.
• Make all possible efforts to find a job in the provinces. Its extremely unlikely you'll find one, but if you do you're sorted. However, the reality is you will most likely have to work in Luanda. Its probably a good idea to go there for a week or so on holidays to get a feel for the place. This will be an expensive exercise.
• If you are not Angolan, don't despair. There are plenty of job opportunities for foreigners too, in particular if you are a fluent Portuguese speaker. There are many Brazilians and Portuguese working in Luanda, as well as foreigners from other countries such as USA, England, South-Africa, France and many other countries. You may even be able to find a job without speaking Portuguese, but I guess there are not that many of these. As a foreigner you must make sure you have all of your papers in order at all times, including visa and work permits. The government is very strict, and you may be asked for papers at any time. Also, when discussing the job package make sure the cost of the work permit is fully covered by the company employing you.
• If you have any friends or family in the country contact them. You will need a lot of help.
• Be prepared to wait. Things will take a very long time to happen, both at the corporate level and especially at the government level.
• Don't expect a relaxed life at work. You will have to do the same hours as you would in Europe or USA, and working late is pretty common. Pressure will be perhaps a bit less intense, but this will vary a lot from company to company.

There are also positive aspects to take into account:

• The wages are higher than what many diasporians can aspire to in Europe and USA, particularly if you just graduated from university.
• Most companies will throw you in at the deep end. Managerial positions that would take you years to obtain in Europe or America are routinely given to very young people.
• Most people I have met truly believe that they are helping their country by creating economic growth. This feeling of achievement is hard to come by in developed countries, where one tends to feel just like another cog in a big machine. In Angola you truly feel like you are making a difference. Of course, it still remains to be seen whether this growth is really going to create the development the country needs, but for the moment most people are optimistic.

With regards to the non-qualified personnel, the situation is very different. Like very much all of southern Africa, Angola is struggling to provide employment for most of its citizens. Numbers are hard to come by, and they cannot be fully trusted since there has not been any proper data collection for a while, but many sources believe unemployment is higher than 50%. Now, the thing is, 50% is not just a number - not just ten times more than a normal western country; at this sorts of thresholds, the average western country would be facing social and economic meltdown. Of course, this being Africa, there is a kind of normality in these abnormal conditions. The war created a very large exodus from the country side to the capital. In the past, Huambo was the most densely populated province; this role was taken over by Luanda, on a grand scale. Again, figures are sketchy - we won't know for sure until the electoral registration process is completed - but some sources believe that there are more than 8 million people living in Luanda. Most of these live in shanty towns (mussueques) and do not have official jobs. Instead, they make a living in the parallel economy, most likely in commerce.

Its very difficult to find official non-qualified work, and when you do its probably not going to be paid that well. A security guard makes around 100 to 150 USD a month, a sum that seems handsome for any third world country but in Luanda is next to nothing. Just getting to work will cost you 2 USD a day or more, and you'll be stuck in traffic for hours on end. With the economic boom, there has been significant job creation at the lower ends of the market - construction in particular. However, this has only made a small dent on the overall employment because Luanda is so overpopulated. The government is keen on creating incentives for people to move out of the capital, and indeed the quality of living outside Luanda is much better for the poorer people. The problem is, many of the mussueque inhabitants have been in Luanda for ten or twenty years, and are not very easily persuaded to go elsewhere. Some - the young crowd in particular - are urbanites and will not be able to adapt to rural life. For these people, finding a job is very hard. Many people work as taxi drivers, cleaning ladies, security guards or salesman of one sort or other. Many are just bayaye, people that find one job today, none tomorrow.

Corruption

Like every other third world country, Angola suffers from corruption at all levels. The root cause for corruption in the civil service are the low wages. In general, things will work much slower unless you provide some additional stimulus, the gasosa. The government is trying to address this issue by trimming down the public sector and increasing wages, but this is a very hard thing to achieve and should be seen as a long term objective. After all, corruption is rife in countries like China and India and they are still able to grow at a very fast pace.

Health

Overall, one has to say that health in Angola is pretty good. The biggest downside is its cost, which makes it unavailable to a large percentage of the population. However, the "middle-class" can choose between a large number of private clinics. These are rather expensive in Luanda, and one outing to the doctor can cost you as much as 200 USD if you're not careful. Outside of Luanda, in the provinces, the costs are much lower and in general the service seems to be much better too. The good thing about these private clinics is that they will see you almost instantly.

With regards to medicine, chemists seem to have all the drugs one can find in Europe, many of which at the same prices or slightly lower. In general though, these are expensive.

With regards to the public health service, this is in its infancy but the government has spent quite a lot of money in creating new hospitals and clinics and in refurbishing the existing ones. We went past quite a few in Luanda (such as Josina Marchel) but we didn't actually go inside so we cannot comment on the quality of service. Be prepared to wait for a while to be seen though.

Crime

This is one of the most surprising things about Angola: in general, its actually a pretty quiet sort of country. Luanda is definitely the epicentre of all crime and violence in Angola, but unlike other big African cities - Jo'burg comes to mind - it doesn't make you feel like you're about to be mugged every time you leave the house. Don't take me wrong, Luanda is, by European standards, a very dangerous place. But if you are not carrying any valuables or wearing nice clothes, and if you are walking in the parts of town which are known to be safe its unlikely you'll get mugged. Night time is obviously more dangerous than daytime.

You should avoid going on Candongueiros (combi taxis), in particular the ones that go across town, although we personally made extensive use of them and had no problems at all. Also, while Angola is a pretty integrated country its important to remember that colour is an obvious tag; non-black people stand out a lot more in poorer places (mulattoes included), so make sure you know the area and the locals well. For instance, very few non-blacks use candongueiros so you will be an obvious target.

On the negative side, you will need to be careful when driving a car, particularly nice looking ones, and when going to or leaving your flat and job. You will probably want to have a security guard in your house, or one for the building if you live in a flat. We've heard quite a few stories of people getting mugged inside their own buildings. Its also a good idea to go out in large groups at night.

But overall, I must say though that Luanda is not in the same league as South Africa when it comes to crime. The main difference seems to be that most crime is not violent; that is, people are happy to mug you and run - or beat you up if your mobile phone is not one of the latest generation - but they are unlikely to shoot you or stab you. It happens occasionally, of course, but not frequently. In South Africa, the situation is very different. A lot of robbers kill and rape, its seen as part of the course. I think the main reason for it is the heavy presence of police in Angola. We saw policemen in every town we went to, many of them on the beat. In South Africa you seldom see a police officer.

Outside of Luanda its a different matter altogether. If one excludes problematic areas such as Cabinda and parts of the Lundas, all provinces are extremely safe. In Namibe and Benguela, for example, you can actually walk round with your valuables, day or night. Be sure to ask the locals, of course.

Housing

As we said previously, housing is a big problem in Angola, especially in Luanda. There just aren't enough houses available to go round so the house prices are, if you'll pardon the pun, up the roof. The private sector was quick to detect the opportunity, and Luanda is now one big building site. Unfortunately, most of these new constructions are expensive buildings and private condominiums, completely secluded from the rest of the city. These normally sell out well before completion and are horrendously expensive. For instance, we heard that a new set of flats going up near the Marginal has units at over 1M USD and is completely sold out. We also saw a nice new condominium being built by Soares da Costa where some houses cost over 500K USD. You can find some houses for 200K but you'll have to look really hard.

The other problem is that many of the existing houses and flats are actually not that nice, although they are really expensive. Some old houses are being sold for an absolute fortune. If you decide to rent, the situation is also difficult. For instance, its common for landlords to make "agreements" with tenants which are not particularly beneficial for the tenants. For instance, many landlords require you to renovate the house. In return they will give you a slightly lower rent (not that low, really) for a specified period of time (say one or two years). After that period elapses, the rent goes up. If you can't afford it, you'll have to move out and renovate somewhere else. Some of the renovation work is pretty extensive, including painting the whole flat, putting new flooring or new plumbing, buying furniture, etc. Because the shortage of houses is so severe, tenants have no option but to put up with these requirements.

Thing is, if there is one thing Angola has lots of, it is space. Luanda is surrounded by huge expanses of empty land. The government noticed this too and decided to create a whole brand new Luanda in Luanda Sul. Many of these projects are private, such as Belas Shopping. Some are government led and focus on affordability, such as Lar do Patriota. These are normally housing cooperatives, and work as follows: you join the cooperative by paying a fee and a monthly instalment (normally a small amount); the cooperative starts building houses, and handing them out on a first-come first-served basis. The money you have payed till then is taken out of the overall cost of the house, and you then start paying a regular mortgage. These projects started off at very reasonable prices such as 60K USD but have since gone up quite significantly - although still much less than the private condominiums. Some people complained of corruption and inferior quality materials in these projects, but the houses we saw looked rather nice, if somewhat small. The only problem is that the infrastructure surrounding these projects is not moving as fast as the building so in some cases people have moved in before the tarmac has reached their neighbourhood. In addition, Luanda Sul is mainly a residential area at the moment, so you have to commute to central Luanda for work. This is easier said than done, with the massive traffic jams Luanda experiences every day. And when the rains begin, its even worse.

Another peculiarity about housing in Luanda is electricity and water - or lack of, should I say. This problem is a lot less prevailing in Luanda Sul, but quite common everywhere else. Basically, you never know when electricity and water are going to be available. Sometimes it can be up to a week or more without it. Well-off people have generators for the electricity and tanks for the water, but the diaspora moving in has no access to these facilities.

Finally, one last note about construction. It is cheap enough to buy land and build a house (well, cheap in Luandan terms). A plot of land in Luanda Sul can cost you as little as 10K-20K USD. However, building a house in Angola is not for the faint of heart. Everyone I spoke to said its an incredibly difficult undertaking, costing large sums of money - nothing goes according to plan - and huge amounts of time - the paperwork is difficult and managing staff is impossible.

Banking

At this point in time, you cannot use VISA cards in Angola to access your international accounts. The Multicaixa network (the network of ATMs) is looking into it and expects to solve this major problem in the first or second quarter of 2007. This is a major bummer and means you won't be able to get any money out, so you'll have to have lots of hard cash on you. Some places (very few) accept credit cards, but there aren't that many, really. Whilst we all wait for Multicaixa, there are two alternatives to get money out: a) you can either transfer your money to a person you trust with a bank account in Angola, which will cost you less than 5% in charges; or b) use Western Union. This is slightly more expensive, but its very efficient; money is made available within the hour. The only downside is queueing. The only offices available in Luanda appear to be in Mutamba (Millennium Bank), and they are always very crowded.

In terms of opening a bank account, the banks in Angola seem pretty efficient. You'll find quite a few Portuguese banks there (BESA, Totta, Millennium, etc.). Unfortunately, you cannot access Portuguese accounts from the Angolan counterparts, you need to actually open up a new account on Angolan soil. As far as I could ascertain, you need an Angolan passport or a valid work visa to open an account, and the process seems very easy and quick. With the account, you'll most likely get a Multicaixa card and there are plenty of ATMs around to withdraw money from. Most of them have security guards, but one should always be careful when getting money out. Note that you cannot use your Multicaixa card outside of Angola.

Cost of Living

The cost of living in Angola is pretty high, and in Luanda is extremely high. We've already seen how housing is expensive. Groceries and other household goods are also very expensive; in many cases, are as expensive as they would be in Europe, in countries where wages are much higher. Some goods are actually more expensive in Angola than elsewhere. For instance a carton of juice costs around 3 USD. Bread is quite good and cheap, but cheese, ham and other items are very expensive.

Eating out is extremely expensive. A meal out in an average restaurant will cost you no less than 15 USD. Some more upmarket places charge as much as 40 USD for some dishes. Two people would normally spend between 50 to 100 USD when going to a restaurant.

Clubs and bars are also expensive. For instance, we were charged 20 USD to get in to Bar In in Ilha. This includes drinks (around 8 whiskies worth). You can haggle in some of these places and get the doorman to reduce the bill.

Travelling

Owning a car in Angola is a must. This should preferably be a 4x4, as there are many roads you can't actually negotiate without one. This is particularly important if you intend to drive to the provinces. Although there is a network of public transport, it doesn't cover a significant area and the service it provides is rather haphazard. This is changing somewhat with recent investments, but it will take a while. Most locals use candongueiros (Toyota Hiaces) or taxis to get everywhere, and in the provinces kupapatas (motorbike taxis).

If you do own a car and live in Luanda, you are bound to spend the vast majority of your driving time stuck in a traffic jam. This is partially due to the inadequate state of the roads but also to do with the sheer number of cars on the roads. Driving in the capital is not for the faint of heart.

In terms of travelling to the provinces, the best method is by plane. There are several companies that fly to the provinces, and prices normally start around 100 USD for a single. If you go with one of the more reputable companies such as SonAir and Air Gemini you shouldn't have many problems with cancellations and other mishaps. TAAG is not recommended for internal flights (but its fine for international flights). If you are more adventurous you can try going by bus using SGO Interprovincial. This is not advisable, in particular from Luanda. Most roads in Angola are in pretty bad condition. One trip that is very safe to do by bus is from Lubango to Namibe though, where the roads are absolutely excellent. Lastly, you can also travel by candongueiro or other informal drivers to the different provinces. This is not at all recommended.

Internet, TV

Access to the web is fairly common, and there are several cyber cafe's available, in particular in Luanda. However, the quality of the links these cafes use is very low. As a result, access is slow and haphazard, with frequent downtimes. It can stop functioning for 10 minutes or so during the hour you've paid for, and the cyber will not take any responsibility for it. In addition, web access is not cheap. An hour costs 250 Kwanzas (a bit less than 3 USD).

Internet to the house is not very common, but it does exist. It can be as expensive as 70 USD a month, and its not particularly fast. However, cable is now becoming available, and with it the promise of broadband. In addition, the government intends to link all provinces via fibre optic by 2009 and some of this work has already started.

In terms of TV, the most common provider is DSTV, a South African satellite company. This gives you access to a lot of Portuguese speaking channels such as Brazilian and Portuguese TV, as well as the usual international channels. There is also state TV but most people (including the poorest) have satellite TV.

Going Out

Other than being expensive, night-life in Luanda is actually pretty good. There are many bars to choose from, and the crowds in those bars are pretty posh. Many of these bars look rather impressive, and have really good music. Electronic music is now the most common, and whilst there is some cheesy dance music there is also a lot of good House and Techno. Its harder to find bars with African music (Kizomba in particular) but they do exist. There are still quite a few clubs with Kizomba though, plenty to choose from.

There is a large choice of restaurants in Luanda, all expensive. Whilst the food is not bad, the service normally is. Perhaps its because Angolan waiters don't get paid on tips, but whatever the reason is, most waiters are rather rude. Even the most expensive places seem to have problems with their staff, including Hotel Tropico and Cais De Quatro. You just get this feeling people don't want to be there.

In terms of the provinces, there are less places to choose from, and the staff normally is slightly less rude.

Quality of Living

In general, and even taking into account problems such as no electricity or water for extended periods of time, it has to be said that most of the young qualified people have a good standard of living. In fact, this is one of the biggest pluses of living in Angola, and stems from the fact that wages for qualified staff are high, allowing people to enjoy themselves on their time off. Provinces such as Benguela and Namibe are particularly remarkable in this regard, but Luanda has a lot to offer too.

Other than tropical rain, weather is pretty good almost all year round in most provinces. For Luandans, weekends are normally spent at the beach, either the closer ones such as Ilha or Mussulo or slightly further out (Cabo Ledo, Porto Amboim). A lot of the well-off people have beach houses, boats and jet-ski's and use them on weekends. Those who haven't got these items normally know someone who knows someone who has them.

Many people are now travelling to the provinces and exploring the countryside. There are many extremely beautiful places, and people are now making the effort to see them. The tourism industry is still in its infancy, but the well-off segment of the population is pushing it up.

This, of course, has to be contrasted with the vast majority of Angolans, who enjoy a very low standard of living. The contrast is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the whole experience, and it will probably take quite a while to adapt to living in a place with such huge disparities between rich and poor.

Metablog

Sorry about the sketchy updates, in particular in the photos department, but the net in Angola was just dire. Shahin must have tried uploading pictures several hundred times, with no success. We're in South-Africa now and the net here just flies :-) so expect a flood of text and pictures :-)

Notebook of a Return to My Native Land - part 12

Luanda, Again

Our return from Benguela to Luanda was planned to be fairly painless, even potentially pleasant: we decided to fly back. There had been just too many travelling adventures to recount and we needed just a little bit of easiness, just that little bit of quietness for a change. However, this being Angola, flying was not entirely straightforward. We had spoken to Teresa, who convinced us not to buy a ticket beforehand. Recalling some of her experiences, she told us that at one time she had bought three plane tickets for a single flight - no refunds given, of course. Best to go to the airport without a ticket and buy one there and then, she suggested. This we did. Although candongueiro routes didn't seem to service the airport, it was easy enough to get there via taxi. When we arrived, we were immediately asked whether we had a ticket or not. We didn't. From that point onwards, the attendant started behaving in a shady sort of way, looking both ways before talking and speaking really low. Actually, everyone in the small airport suddenly seemed to act in a fishy way, like they were all in a secret we didn't know. The chap told us not to buy a ticket, and to stay in the empty waiting room till further notice. After a while he showed up again, said there was a potential flight, possibly via Lubango. Were we interested? If yes, he had to part with 230 USD. Unfortunately we didn't have any change, something he quickly picked up on, and somehow he managed to convince us he deserved the extra 20 bucks for the effort of sorting it all out. Within seconds the attendant was gone and, with him, our 250 bucks. Yet another of those cartoon moments - you know, like when Bugs Bunny cons Elmer Fudd into doing something really, really silly, and a couple of donkey ears appear on his head before he realises the mistake. Those kind of moments. There you are, no attendant, no ticket and no money. It was hard to explain just exactly at which point did it seem like a good idea to give a total stranger a wad of cash and trust his goodwill. Oh well, now there was nothing else to do other than wait, so we waited and prayed for his safe return. Meanwhile a small plane landed. Eventually, our contact returned. He had spoken to the pilots, and there was now a direct flight to Luanda and we were on it; all we had to do is wait for the DEFA registration, and then board the plane. A little while longer, another half-an-hour or so, the DEFA person called us to fill in the paperwork. Whenever you do an internal flight in Angola you need to fill in some information like your passport details, where you're staying, and so on. Perhaps some remnants of the old, control-freak communist system. Once this was done, we waited some more. Some additional people got into the waiting room. Soon the pilots came round and called us for boarding. We all boarded a really small plane, seventeen seats in total, ten or twelve of them filled. And that was it, we were on our way to Luanda. As we were flying, some aspects of the process became clear. No tickets were ever issued. Our presence totally evaded the airline's ticketing system, and the money got paid directly to our attendant and the pilots. Thank God the plane didn't crash or otherwise no one would have ever known our whereabouts. On the positive side, the flight was excellent. We had never flown on a small aeroplane before but it was a great experience. You can see everything, and feel a lot closer to the sky as if you're skydiving or something. The sights were stunning.

When we got closer to Luanda, we started to see the effects of the rains. Estadio dos Coqueiros was completely flooded, and looked like a giant swimming pool. Most musseques were flooded too. There was water everywhere. We had missed the first real rains in Luanda, the rains that Elsa dreaded so much.

DEFA

One thing we haven't mentioned much is the VISA renewal process. Don't be fooled into thinking that it hasn't kept us busy - quite the contrary. On hindsight, almost ever since we got into the country we have been doing something related to the VISA; when we weren't actually physically going to places, we had to at least ring people or pray for things to get done soon. But lets go back in time, to last December. We first went in to DEFA to figure out the exact requirements and buy the forms. We were then told by a contact that we needed a letter signed by notary stating that someone was taking responsibility for us, and the photocopy of this person's ID card. Our cousin Rosa kindly sorted this out for us, but the entire process of getting the forms, filling them in, writing the letter, getting the notary to sign it and photocopying the ID card took over three weeks. There was even a point when we almost despaired, we only noticed the letter had the wrong date on it after the notary had already authenticated the signature, but since we didn't have enough time to get a new one, we had to go with it as it was. Just before we boarded the plane to Benguela, a mere three days before our VISAs expired, we managed to hand in the forms and our passports. In return we received a receipt, and were told that it had the same legal value of our passports whilst we were on Angolan soil - best not lose it if we wanted to avoid prison. There wasn't a date for the completion of the process and it wasn't unheard of it taking months. We asked around, and people thought we should be able to go on internal flights with the receipt, but no one was entirely sure. This helped us on our decision of going by bus to Benguela. In fact, we only found out for sure when we boarded the plane back from Benguela; the receipt does work fine. When we returned two weeks later, we were told the passports were not ready yet. We wanted to go to Namibe as quickly as possible, but we also wanted to have the passports with us, so we decided to wait around a bit more. Turns out this was a very inspired decision. We were told by a contact to go to DEFA a few days later. After some haphazard queueing and loitering round, more than six hours in total, we finally managed to get our passports back. It had taken more than six weeks since we first asked about it till we got our passports back, and it was one of the fastest VISA renewals on record. We were extremely happy to see our passports safe and sound, but, in the happiness of the moment, I had forgotten to check DEFA's work. Shahin however, being the usual stickler for perfection, did check it and she was not at all happy about it. The dates on the VISA were wrong, by precisely one day. They had given us thirty days from the date we requested the renewal, not the date of the last VISA. This would make perfect sense if there was an organised department to tell you the exact rules for the renewal process and to discuss things with you, things like whether the date of your flight out was compatible with the VISA expiration date or not. This being Angola, there is obviously no such thing - you're expected to know it all. If you didn't, well, that's your problem. We contemplated going back to DEFA and complaining, but after all the trouble we had renewing the VISA - and after being told a few times that we were extremely lucky for the fast speed at which things were happening - well, it just seemed obvious we had to avoid these people at all costs. The only other alternative was to change the outgoing flights, a much more feasible alternative.

It was at this point when we finally understood why everyone hates the rains so much.

When we went to TAAG (the Angolan Airlines) we were told that the computer systems were down, so there wasn't anything they could do. What they failed to tell us, and we found out later on, was that the systems had been down for the best part of a week, with no relief in sight. We spent the entire day waiting, but the system never returned. Unfortunately, the following day was a bank holiday, Luanda's 431st birthday, so everything was closed. Friday became the D-Day.

The day started with an early trip to TAAG, but the systems were still down. Still praying that this was some kind of a temporary blip, something that would get fixed during the day, we decided to walk down the road to Western Union to get some money out. Unfortunately, their systems were down too. Whilst we waited at a local cafe, re-hydrating ourselves, Shahin managed to somehow swallow a fly. A dirty, Luandan fly. The whole scene was out of a sitcom, except it really happened. Fortunately, she didn't even puke. We laughed so much that we were stared at by all who were in the cafe as we had streams of tears rolling down our faces.

We returned to Western Union, but the systems were still down, so we decided to go back to TAAG. The systems were not working there either, and time was fast running out but there just wasn't anything we could do so we went for lunch at Nando's. On our return to Western Union, the queue had doubled in size since we last came, but the good news was that the system was back up. Whilst in the queue I met Joao Solha, a mate from high-school I hadn't seen in years. After the usual hugs and reminisces, Joao told us that Western Union had been down for more than a week, and he was fast running out of money. Today things were pretty desperate. While we were chatting, news filtered out that the system was back up, for the great relief of the massive crowds sitting outside the bank. However, it was almost three o'clock - the usual closing time - and there were tonnes of people waiting to be seen. The system could go down at any time, Joao guaranteed us, like it had happened earlier on in the week. It was up for an hour or two, but it went down and hadn't returned since then. As we queued up and chatted, we noticed that the queue wasn't actually moving. Shahin went on a scouting mission and found out that the ordered queue we had joined in an hour ago had now evolved to the dreaded Angolan queue. Angolan queues are the worst type of queues. They basically grow from the sides. For the more technically oriented, its a mix between a LIFO (Last In First Out) and a Priority Queue - the priority algorithm being how well you know the security guard at the door or the people in front of you. We all got a bit upset with all this, Shahin in particular, and decided to take action and join the front via the sides too. Everybody else was doing it too, so when in Rome... This went on for a while, with lots of pushing and shoving and shouting, until the security guard decided he had had enough:

- "Either you start forming a real queue, or no one gets in!!".

We had been in many Angolan queues before and heard the same thing before too, so we knew nothing - not a thing - would change, regardless of the best intentions of the security chap. And so it was this time too. All the people closer to the wall started shouting that there was a real queue indeed, there had been one all along and they were in it - which was true for the most part, but not entirely. The new joiners in the middle of the sidewalk also started shouting, claiming they were the real queue and always had been, and that there was no need for further organisation. The shouting match went on for a bit, with some people starting to get really agitated - including Shahin - up to a point where the security guard had enough. You have to put things in perspective. This was a Friday, after a week long without any access to money. Everyone was really desperate. To this environment, a keg of powder waiting to ignite, the security guard decides to shout:

- "OK, I've had enough! You're not willing to organise this mess?! I don't care! You can all get in!"

There was a second or two of silence, the quiet before the storm. What followed was one of the worse stampedes I've seen in my life, much worse than the previous one in the same location a few weeks ago. The really narrow door got attacked simultaneously by all sides with untamed force. I don't know how the metal frame and the glass survived it. Shahin was well in the thick of it, pushing, shouting, waving. Apparently - I wasn't close enough to the front to see this - there was a skinny lady that managed to get stuck to the door, and everyone was going past her. Shahin had to push her into the branch, probably saving her life. It was like a gold rush, except the money we were getting was actually ours to start off with. Once the confusion settled and everyone made their way in, we were told by the bank staff that there was no reason to fear: everyone inside the branch was going to get their turn - and here's the key part - provided the system was up. We put the forms into the in-tray and prayed. The Gods must have pitied us since about two hours later it was our turn, and we managed to get our money. We heard later that Joao also managed to finally access his cash, although he ended up taking a five hour lunch break to get it. Once we had the cash in our hands, we ran back from Mutamba to TAAG, all the while hoping that their system was working too and didn't crash in the mean time. TAAG was in full effect when we got there, a pretty agitated place, a rave party of a travel agency. Somehow, I don't know how really, we managed to get a ticket that was fairly close to the front of the queue. Half-an-hour later we were seen by the attendant. After the usual moaning and feet-dragging, the I'm-not-really-supposed-to-be-doing-this part, she actually managed to change the ticket to one day before our VISA expiration.

This was one of the most tiring days we've ever experienced. When we got back home we were simultaneously high, from the success, but also really low from the tiredness. We had woken up at 7 o'clock to get to TAAG and got back home more than twelve hours later, exhausted.

The road to Namibe - or should I say Lubango

All the exhaustion and stress had some really negative consequences. Shahin suddenly got a fever, very similar to the one I had experienced before. We did the usual tests at the usual doctors who, as usual, tried to help themselves of our hard earned cash - but this time they even suggested having a 50 USD X-ray when Shahin said she had a bit of a cough. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Even I, the least money conscious person in the whole world, had just about enough of their daylight robbery. We decided to do a bit of mix-and-match with the exams, play doctors if you'd like, and choose for ourselves which exams she really needed to do. This had the desired effect, because the doctor didn't shout at us went we went back in to the room. We even had to ask him about three or for times how to read the results, jumping on him in the hospital corridors, and he must have felt sorry for us since he did explain it, somewhat. In the end, it seemed like Shahin also had malaria, although not as severe as mine. We bought the medication and followed the treatment. However, we were now desperate to leave Luanda again and this meant no rest for the wicked.

We made our way to the airport on the day of the next available flight - as usual not reserving the tickets beforehand. Shahin was pretty exhausted and ill-looking, a very worrying situation. Our contact at the airport was going to sort it all out. We got there early enough, ten o'clock in the morning, but Luanda's domestic airport proved to be a lot more confusing than the international one. Our contact told us that there shouldn't be any problems, all we had to do is wait around to buy the ticket and then for check-in. So we waited. An hour went by. Shahin progressively got worse, getting warmer. Another half-hour went by. At this point, I heard through the speaker's system - yes, they do seem to have one - something along the lines of "Namibe's flight has been cancelled!". I couldn't hear properly, and the warning wasn't issued that many times so we couldn't tell for sure. If the flight had indeed been cancelled we would have to get a cab back home and try again in a couple of days. That meant two days less of holidays outside of Luanda, and two more days of pain in the middle of the capital's confusion. The only other alternative was to get a flight - any flight - to another province and make our way to Namibe overland. This is less of a crazy idea than it sounds, and people actually do it quite frequently due to the unpredictable nature of Angolan flights. I mentioned this to our contact, who I had to keep chasing for information, and he said he could get us to Lubango - provided we were ready NOW. As in, right now, run to the check-in desk. This with Shahin dying by my side, feverish. I did as much of the running as I could, but it was unavoidable, she had to do some running around too. Somehow we managed to buy the tickets (this time we had real tickets), check-in, find the right waiting lounge, get on the bus and board the plane. It was really exhausting. Shahin was holding on just about, so much so that the flight attendant asked me if she was alright, a worried look on her face. The flight wasn't particularly long, and we soon got to Lubango. There, we were told by Rosa that, by some huge, not yet explained coincidence, a cousin of ours was also getting to Lubango within the next few minutes and would be driving to Namibe soon after. Another cartoon moment. After some waiting, during which Shahin's state improved dramatically, we finally met cousin Chico. He told us he'd be making his way in an hour or two, but in the mean time we had to find our own way into town centre and wait there for him. Fortunately for us, the people near the airport were extremely nice. Not only did they make sure we got in the right taxi, but they also kept their cafe open for Shahin while I was busy hunting Chico down at the airport. We finally got into a taxi, but this was a fixed route cab which didn't actually go all the way to town. The young taxi driver took a liking to our English, having studied in Namibia himself, and after chatting to us for a little while he decided to take us to our destination for free. Not only that, he even gave us a mini-tour of town, showing us the cheap hostels and everything. We ended up giving him some 800 kwanzas, money he reluctantly accepted. He dropped us off at the Grand Hotel, in one of Lubango's main arteries.

Lubango is the capital of the Huila province. It seems like a really nice town, and we really would have wanted to stay for a few days there, but since Rosa had already arranged for our transfer and since Shahin wasn't feeling that great still, we thought best to go to Namibe and return when possible. Lubango was once an important agricultural centre, and also had a few key factories such as Coca-Cola and Cuca, one of the Angolan beers. It still is a fairly important place, Angola's city with the highest number of Portuguese people. These two factories are alive and well, as is the cattle industry. The national university has a couple of campuses there. Its a big city as far as these things go, about the same size of Benguela, if not bigger, and seems like a pretty lively place. Because its further into the interior, Lubango is very green and lush. To our great regret, we never did manage to return there.

Our stay in Lubango was cut short by Chico's arrival at the hotel in his massive jeep. He then drove us to Namibe, down Serra da Leba. These mountains are well known to all Angolans, even to those in the diaspora that never set foot in the country, because all parents mention it whenever they reminisce about the land. When you're there you can easily understand why. The mountains are huge, magnificent. The drive is extremely impressive, and it even has waterfalls in the background. On the way up, leaving town, one can see the whole of Lubango from high above. Then, for a few kilometres one traverses a plateau, with quite a few farms. After that, the descend of Serra da Leba begins. It really is an amazing trip, a must do. As one descends and reaches flatland again, the scenery becomes less and less green, until one reaches the desert proper. The scenery then looks like Namibia. Its a huge change, but its done really gradually over hundreds of kilometres. In less than three hours we were in Namibe, standing at my cousin's Milucha doorstep.

One honourable mention goes to the roads that link Lubango to Namibe. These are the best roads we saw in the whole of Angola, so good its impossible to describe in words. There were very few holes in it, a veritable velvet of a surface.

Paludismo Strikes Back, Hard

As we got to Namibe, Shahin's health improved dramatically. Perhaps some of it has to do with the much less humid climate in Lubango and Namibe, or with the needed rest we finally got. However, just as we were celebrating her recovery, I started having a mild fever. It began on our first outing in Namibe, in which Milucha took us to see town and then to the nearby city of Tombwa. Late on that day I had a very high fever. We couldn't manage to get the fever down, even after taking medicine and having cold water showers. I ended up staying outdoors in the yard with no t-shirt on, trying to cool down. This worked for a bit, but eventually the fever came back. It was still pretty high for most of the next morning so we decided to go to the doctor. There, very swiftly, the Russian doctor determined I had paludismo - malaria - again. He also took the time to explain which exams we needed to figure out if we have malaria - Gota Espessa and Hemograma - and explained that these exams are not affected by profilaxia at all. He expressed the same extreme dislike for profilaxia as every other doctor has in Angola. All and all, not only was the service a lot better in Namibe, but the prices were more reasonable. We spent around 50 bucks in total, and this includes the doctor's time, all the medicine he prescribed and the nurse's time too. Why would you need a nurse? Well, since my fever didn't want to came down, the doctor determined I needed diperona injections. Diperona is normally taken like paracetamol, in pill form, and very much like it its used to bring the fever down. It is also available in liquid form, for the more severe cases, but this requires injecting it into the patient. To be more precise, into the patient's bum. Not only did I have to be subjected to this humiliation, but it also hurt like taking back teeth out without anaesthetics. To make matters worse, diperona was mixed with something else, some kind of anti-allergenic drug, and the end result was it knocked me out, hard. After an injection, all I could muster was to get home groggy, find my bed and sleep. The doctor wanted me to take these injections for 3 days, twice a day, but we were keen on getting off of it as soon as possible. In the end, I had three injections, by which time my body temperature was normal. My bum, however, never quite recovered from it, and I still walk funny. Around four days later I felt a lot better and was well enough to start leaving the house - that is, for reasons other than going to the clinic for injections. And so it was that our one week stay in Namibe was taken mostly by paludismo.

Namibe

Namibe is actually quite a nice town, and it is a fairly emotional place for me since most of my family comes from here. It is situated at the edge of the desert, and once upon a time it was Angola's fishing district. It was also responsible for producing most of Angola's olives. Nowadays, most employment in the province is still fishing related, and many fisheries still function, but they are a bit crippled. The government is trying to reform the industry, but its a slow process.

Unfortunately, unlike Benguela, the candongueiro network is not particularly efficient in Namibe. For instance, you can't go to the nearby beaches without personal transportation. We were lucky that Milucha was actually on holidays, and was willing to spend her time showing us round. Even though we didn't have as much time as we would have liked, we still got to see most of the city, including places like my mom's primary and high-school, and my grandad's old house. It was an incredible experience. We even had time to meet up with Lau and Leonor, up from Luanda for the long weekend, also visiting relatives.

It was great to see the level of recent development in the province. Most roads have been tarmacked recently, and there a few new hospitals and schools, including a campus of the state university. Clinics work really well, as we found out. There is also some social housing. As the locals reminded us, there is still lots of work to be done - for instance, electricity and water are still haphazard - but, for such a small district, it sure seems to have managed to get their act together.

After a week in Namibe, we returned to Luanda.

Goodbye Angola

Our last few days in Angola went by pretty quickly. We just had enough time to say goodbye to people and rest a bit. We had a goodbye dinner at Chicala's Chinese restaurant, by now our favourite for both the quality of the food and the price. We were hoping to get a nice crowd, including Ica and the wife and Rui Murthala and his woman. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to be tied up. The old faithfuls Rosa as well as Lau and Leonor did not let us down. It was a great dinner. Lau offered to take us early in the morning to the airport, which was great since Macon taxi's were found to be a bit unreliable on early pickups. We were still a bit concerned, worried that somehow TAAG would mess-up the tickets and make us stay for an extra day, getting into VISA problems. Nothing of the kind happened in the end. Things went really smoothly and we even got to try the new Boeings TAAG has bought, with multimedia players on each individual desk. A few hours later we were back in Joburg.

Notebook of a Return to My Native Land - part 11

Benguela

Benguela is one of the oldest Portuguese settlements, a small coastal town of great strategic importance in days gone by. Nowadays it has only four or five paved roads, but the many other non-paved ones serve as a testament to its past grandeur. The city is the capital of the province with the same name, a position that has forever been disputed by Lobito, its upstart rival. The province's total population is around 1.4 million souls, more or less evenly split between these two cities, with the important caveat that census haven't been conducted for the best part of fifteen years. Much like the remainder of Angola outside of Luanda, the province is very sparsely populated.

Benguela was designed in the South African or American style, with great many parallel roads and avenues, one big square of a place. The two or three avenues are large, very wide. Due to this design, it is really easy to learn your way around town. In less than a couple of days we were fairly proficient, and moved confidently when out and about. You can move with total freedom at all hours, even at night, and carry valuables with you without having to worry about it. We didn't experience a single problem during our stay, even though we walked the town extensively at all times of the day, and we frequently carried our camera. This was a greatly appreciated freedom, the ability to leave the house and roam, not depending on anyone other than ourselves - something we dearly missed in Luanda. There are a few places to eat, but not many. Although the prices are still a bit high, they are much more reasonable than in the capital. Most of our meals ended up costing between 2000 to 2500 kwanzas for the both of us (25 to 30 USD). A place we recommend is Tan-Tan, a Brazilian restaurant that specialises in buffet food by the kilo (a popular concept in Brazil).

The architecture of Benguela is almost exclusively colonial. Government buildings are solid, large, grand old things, built in that ostentatious style of one or two hundred years ago. A large number of these buildings have been well preserved, and a few key ones were completely renovated. There are important exceptions such as the immense Post Office building, a majestic structure that has been robbed by time of a lot of its splendour. The old anthropology museum, just around the corner from the beach, is an even worse example of conservation, a skeleton of its old self, only ruins really. Overall, though, there seems to be a concerted effort from government to keep their property more or less in order, so one hopes that the much that remains to be done will one day have its turn. The biggest problem in Benguela, and I suspect in most of Angola outside Luanda, are private homes. The vast majority of houses and flats were erected in colonial times, up till independence in 1974. Whilst Luanda has seen a massive construction boom in recent years, little has been built since the seventies outside the capital. In Benguela's case, almost all properties we've seen date back to the seventies and less than half of those were in good condition. There are some new houses being built in the city, but we didn't get a chance to see them since they're slightly out of town. We did see many refurbished houses, all quite impressive indeed, with lush greenery popping out behind high fences, but the worry is that many properties will never get the attention they deserve. Flats in particular have suffered the most neglect, but, fortunately for Benguela, there aren't that many large towers like there are in Luanda and Lobito - the fourteen, twenty stories high giants. Most of them are less than five stories.

Still on the subject of architecture, A place one must visit in Benguela is the open air cinema Kalunga. It was recently refurbished, and sports a lovely esplanada (or beer garden) at the top. Its worth going there almost at all times, during the day for the shade and nice cool beer, at night for either the beer or the cinema. You can also eat some snacks and fast food meals such as fried octopus with chips, which we highly rate. Unfortunately, the cinema is not making that much money at the moment, and capacity is far above demand for such a little town, so its economic viability is in doubt. One hopes dearly that they manage to make it work. The bar, however, is doing fairly well, and we got to chat to the manager a few times, Cid, a most likable character.

Funnily enough, the biggest annoyance we found with Benguela is the rain, but for very different reasons than the ones we complain about in England. The rainy season is extremely hot, but it rains almost every other day at dusk or at night - just when you want to watch a movie at Kalunga. The rains can go on for a bit, torrential downpours that leave everything flooded in their wake. The paved roads are not greatly affected, they dry out as soon as the sun shines and you can hardly tell it rained. The sandy roads, however, somehow manage to convert themselves into thick mud, alternating with huge, swimming pool sized-puddles, and remain in this state for days on end. These can be extremely difficult to negotiate by foot or even by car. We were housed in one such road, which made getting in and out of the house somewhat challenging after the rains. To make matters worse, these roads aren't pleasant even in the best of times - when rain isn't around for a few days - since the fine sand they're made of produces vast amounts of dust when bikes and cars travel across them.

But the negative side of Benguela was more than compensated by its many positive aspects, including its delicious ice creams and fresh bread, the niceness of the people, the many means of transportation available and the beauty of the nearby beaches. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our two-week stay.

Praia Morena

Praia Morena is the city's beach, nowadays no longer an "in" beach for the well-off people. Instead, its mainly used by the less wealthy, who congregate there in large numbers, seven days of the week. For us, the best thing about it was the short distance from our house: less than half-an-hour walk. Its not a great beach, but, for a city beach, its also not that bad, all things considered. The water, whilst clean, is fuzzy-sandy, making it impossible to see the many fish that swim around you. The sand has some rubbish lying around here and there, but perhaps not as much as Ilha, especially if you bear in mind that there are no concessioned areas with expensive bars in Praia Morena. In fact, in the vicinity of the beach there are only two bars, probably more accurately described as cafes, and these only busy themselves a bit at midday, when a few office workers stroll in for their two-hour lunch breaks. A fino (draught beer) costs between 50 to 100 kwanzas, a far cry from the 400 or so kwanzas one would pay in Ilha.

A large road follows the beach for part of its length, but the partnership soon ends and the road shoots inwards, towards town. The dividing line between road and beach is a decaying sidewalk shaded by tall green trees, underneath which lie benches and a long, knee-high bench-like wall. These are perfect for kipping when the afternoon sun proves to be too hot, the shade being really cool and breezy, and many a time we felt obliged to accompany the locals in their afternoon siestas. On the benches, and on the wall, kitandeiras sit to rest awhile from their never ending journey, always taking the opportunity to promote their wares to passers by. They sell all sorts of things, from exercise books to mangoes, to doughnut-like fried delicacies stored in great big plastic boxes. Ten kwanzas will buy you a doughnut. Below, in the parking lot by the sidewalk, large numbers of kupapatas - the bike taxis - await their clients in convivial conversation, a typically animated affair. Eventually, slowly, one drags himself from the group to do an errand, sometimes involving carrying a passenger with a bag or two, or a large load, or a kid, or all of these at the same time, all in one small 50 cc bike. Somehow, both driver and passenger seem to have a deep understanding of the laws of physics required to make such an improbably loaded vehicle balance, dynamically, a feat made all the more impressive when one takes into account the state of the roads. Away they go, slowly moving towards their destination.

Walking the entire length of the beach, we found it actually extends for quite a distance. We went all the way to the end, from the promenade to the point where the ocean meets the local river, over an hour walk. On the horizon, the never ending green-and-blue sea is interrupted by fishing boats and some flying fish, all framed on a background of clear blue skies. There is the occasional cloud. The coast is populated by a musseque-like fishing village, one or two stationed boats alternating with one or two houses and vast expanses of empty space, small groups of village people roaming up and down the hot sands. An impromptu fish market near a tiny agglomeration of boats; fishermen and their women selling the catch of the day. As the river nears, the land becomes greener. All the while, at a distance, one can see many palm trees and green vegetation. Then, the intersection between river and sea arrives. The waters become tumultuous, brown, dangerous. There are little islets of land in the river. Time to return. The experience is repeated, but this turn in reverse.

Baia Azul

Elsa's auntie Teresa put us in touch with a couple of her contacts that lived in Benguela: Ricardo and Pedro. The guys gave us some basic tips with regards to the town and its surroundings, where to eat, key places to visit and such. One of the spots that got mentioned was Baia Azul. We had heard of it before, probably in conversation with Lau and Leonor, and talking to the boys made us even keener on seeing the place. The name translates literally to Blue Bay, and, says who's been there, its a most fitting description. The boys pointed us on the right direction with regards to means of transportation but, owning cars, they didn't know the ins and outs of getting there by candongueiro. However, they did know somebody who knew someone who had an inkling on how things worked. Following their tip, we decided to wake up early and wait on a busy roundabout for a candongueiro heading towards Baia Azul. Plenty went by, many shouting "Baia". We stopped a few, but as soon as we asked "Baia Azul?", the cobrador would reply negatively: "Baia Farta!" and quickly move on. This went on for some time, so much so that we started to feel that either there weren't that many candongueiros to Baia Azul or we were waiting on the wrong place altogether. But, never fear. To our rescue comes a candongueiro whose cobrador had a big desire to fill the last remaining seats, even if it required talking to customers for more than ten seconds. Instead of replying to the usual question with the usual answer, he was kind enough to point out that no candongueiro actually headed to Baia Azul. Instead, best thing to do was to go with him towards Baia Farta and stop at the Baia Azul intersection. There, we could either hitchhike or walk up - not a huge distance, he says, convincingly. We jumped in, hoping that this cobrador was not just trying to milk us of our precious 80 kwanzas. Somehow space appeared in the crowded minibus - "Are you sure there are two seats available? Where??" - and off we went. Much to Shahin's displeasure, she was stacked next to a fisherman who must have just finished taking his fish to the market. Eventually, after quite some time riding, the cobrador signalled the driver to stop, in a place that seemed like pretty much every other place along the way: dry, hot, sandy, a few rocks. Upon closer inspection, it did vaguely look like an intersection; a sandy road shot into the distance, but appeared to lead deep into the mountains. There wasn't much time to think in the rush of the exit, but once we were out and the candongueiro had left, the precariousness of the situation became immediately clear. In front of us laid a long, really long sandy road, heading somewhere far in the distance - nothing that looked walkable, most certainly not in this heat. Other than the two of us, there wasn't a single living soul visible in this huge desert. We waited by the detour for a bit, deciding on the course of action. What if the guy was wrong, just trying to fool the foreigners? We had no way of knowing. We could be on a path to nowhere, walking for hours. We had to be sure. So we waited for someone, a car, a person whom we could ask. Eventually a car came, coming from what hopefully was the way to Baia Azul. Not ideal, not a potential lift - but still, someone. I tried to attract their attention, to stop them, but they just drove on. As I was about to return, Shahin shouts. I look back. They had changed their mind. We chatted. Turns out we were really on the right intersection, and the distance was actually walkable, hard as it was to believe from here. So we walked. The road had a turn, a bit further down the line. Twenty-or-so minutes later we found some houses, and following that we found the bay.

Baia Azul was practically empty, with the exception of one or two local kids. The scenery was stunning. The sea in front of us looked blue like the sky above it and the water was almost still, a whisper of a wave coming towards the sand. On the left, a huge, towering wall made of rock sat behind the sandy beach and continued further on, stretching into the sea. Its sheltering presence gives the bay a strange cosiness, making it look smaller and safe, but also a bit eerie with all the silence around you. To the right, the white sandy beach continues for many kilometres, almost the full half-circumference of the bay, interrupted only close to the very end by a rocky formation. The water was so calm it gave the feeling you could swim for miles, forever forward, all the way to the vast expanses of the Atlantic ocean.

We stayed at the beach for a good while, enjoying the swim and the sun. Fortunately we had brought some food with us, as the only restaurant available was shut. It seemed to only function on weekends. When the sea is calm, the water is perfectly clear, perfect for snorkeling. Unfortunately, there aren't that many fish around, making the experience less rewarding. In terms of rubbish, the beach is acceptably clean, but, in typical Angolan fashion, nowhere near spotless.

Around four o'clock we decided to make our way back into town. This was a very fortuitous decision. When we got into the intersection, all the candongueiros that went past were so full they weren't even taking any more passengers. You could see backs and heads coming out of windows, that sort of full. We waited for a while, more than an hour, but no luck. Eventually a candongueiro going towards Baia Farta stopped. We were a bit puzzled, but it had actually crossed our mind to go all the way to Baia Farta and then return towards Benguela. The driver must have read our minds because this is exactly what he proposed (the cobrador was just a little kid, his son). The driver was an extremely pleasant character, extremely apologetic for anything and everything that wasn't as he expected. When we got to Baia Farta we had to wait around for god knows how long, looking for people first and then loading fish and all sorts of other merchandise - he continuously apologised for every single delay. Very nice chap. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Baia Farta. The name looks like a bad pun with farts and the town smells the part: its a huge fishing town, with never ending rows of makeshift huts where fish is dried and sold. The smell is overpowering. To make matters worse, there's rubbish everywhere. At one end of town there is a large beach - the bay that gives it its name - but, although the natural scenery is nice, it is totally spoiled by the smell and rubbish. None of the damage appears to be permanent, mind you, and if the government decides to invest in some proper housing, Baia Farta may one day actually look quite nice. This is most certainly not the case at the moment. Many passengers later, we headed down towards Benguela.

We returned to Baia Azul a second time, but things were very different and mainly for the worse. We got a lift with Ricardo on a Sunday. Like him, most people seem to make the bay their destination of choice on weekends so there were a lot of people around. It wasn't hugely crowded, there still was lots of space on the sand and all, but it was very different from our last experience, having the whole bay just to ourselves. On top of that, the day started with a bit of rain, and although the weather had settled by the time we got to the beach - the sun was out and it was really hot - the sea was really rough. There were half-a-meter high waves. This made swimming a lot more fun, but it was impossible to snorkel since the water was full of sand. It was enjoyable, but not quite like our first outing. We had some food in the restaurant, nothing much due to its makeshift nature.

Caotinha

If getting to Baia Azul was adventurous, Caotinha can be considered a voortrek on its own right. Caotinha was the other must-see beach that everyone kept on mentioning. Unlike Baia Azul, all conversations on the subject were followed by "Shame its so hard to get there", "You need a pretty good jeep to climb that hill" or some other statement of that nature. Unfazed, we decided to take the same approach that brought success in conquering Baia Azul: get the candongueiro to the intersection and walk. Just to make sure the distance was walkable, we asked a few people including Pedro and Cid. Opinions varied. Pedro seem to believe it was going to be a long stretch whilst Cid was convinced it was no more than a twenty-minute stroll. Now, we had asked directions for many, many places before and we found out that, in general, anything beyond one kilometre is considered too far to walk by the vast majority of Angolans; poor people would say take the candongueiro, rich people would say drive - no one, but no one, would say "hey, that's just down the road, just walk there". To give a practical example, we had heard that getting from the intersection to Baia Azul was too far a walk. With all this in mind we decided to give it a go and repeat the battle plan. The trip started pretty much like the previous: we got a candongueiro to Baia Farta easily enough and stopped at the intersection. We even double-checked with some locals waiting at the intersection; this was indeed the right place. So we started walking. As we were on our way, the driver of a car going towards Benguela shouted something like "poor girl, why are you torturing her??" but it wasn't enough to cast doubts on our spirits. We kept on walking. The road was long. A candongueiro went past us but by the time we noticed it, it was too late. We had walked for a good forty minutes when we reached a little depression, a small hole, if you like. Nothing much, perhaps fifty metres across. Behind it, a small mountain, contoured by the sandy road. To its left, the sea. Was this the "hard terrain" that required a jeep? The sea looked so close, just behind the mountain, so much so that it made us believe we were almost there. So we crossed the hole and headed towards the hill. Less than an hour into the journey and we got to the other side of the hill. At this stage we realised our task was perhaps somewhat more difficult than what we had envisaged. There was a large prairie in front of us, and at a distance to our right, another fairly large hill. If the beach was near the town, we were perhaps thirty minutes from it. That was the good hypothesis. The bad hypothesis, however, was that the beach was behind the hill at the far end of town. This hill, a small mountain really, could not be circled round - it would have to be climbed. Hard to even estimate how long it would take to climb that huge obstacle. As we were contemplating our fate, a couple of local ladies walked past, a group of middle aged women. They confirmed our fears. The little village we were heading towards was called Caota. The beach we wanted, Caotinha, was indeed behind the mountain and there was no other way to get there other than climbing it. Around one hour and thirty minutes into the journey we got to the bottom of the hill, and readied ourselves for the climb. There was a road of sorts, wide enough for cars, so we thought it was prudent to follow it even though it was quite circuitous. We followed it for a bit, until it lead us to the top of the hill. From there the view is absolutely amazing. You can see the little village below, and further, you could clearly see Baia Azul. The rocks we had previously spotted don't allow walking from Baia Azul to Caota, but from up there one could see the interconnection between the two places. The entire bay is huge. We could also see just below us the Caota shipyards, probably the only reason for the existence of this little town in the middle of nowhere. A couple of wrecks there. As we continued walking, the other side of the hill appeared. A set of stairs led down to a little cove, and it seemed really inviting, except that there were many, many steps, hundreds if not thousands, and by then we were weary and tired and the sun was at its hottest. Instead, we decided to find an easier beach, hoping one did exist. Less than a mile down the road, a few houses appeared: a little restaurant, which much like Baia Azul's seemed to only function on weekends, and a smattering of small and middle sized beach houses. Just behind them, not even five minutes walk, laid the beach. It took us just short of two hours to get to the beach.

All the efforts were repaid in full, though. The small beach, another cove really, was totally empty. It is protected by a set of rocks, that are also used by fish as breeding grounds. Little bits of reef, or reef like things, grow on the rocks. If one was already amazed by the scenery, snorkeling was beyond words. I've never seen so many fish, of so many different kinds and colours, in one single place. Unfortunately, my knowledge of fish is rather limited so I can't even name one. Just when a marine biologist is needed, Shelbourne is not around. Due to the rocks, and the general roughness of the sea, it was not easy to get in and out of the reef so Shahin didn't really get to experience much of it. I, however, spent pretty much every single moment in the water, just coming out to warm up. It was an amazing experience.

Things were much easier on our way back. We climbed the hill, and investigated the shipyards a bit. The local kids seem to have loved us, and Shahin's camera. Eventually we decided to crisscross town, and much to our surprise a candongueiro appeared. This was extremely fortunate since there aren't that many doing the Caota route - three or so, with totally unpredictable timings. And there was even a couple of places left too, on an otherwise packed candongueiro. Our lucky day indeed.

Benguela's Market - or Caotinha part two

Our second outing to Caotinha was equally eventful, but for very different reasons. To make our lives easier, I had gathered some intelligence on the candongueiro routes during our previous trip. A fellow passenger had told me that the starting point of the journey was the market, just by the stand where goat meat was sold. Buses left from six o'clock in the morning onwards, but the only exact time was for the initial departure - all other times were dependent on journey time. After much debating on whether it was feasible to return to Caotinha or not - the two hour hike was etched on our minds - we decided to give it a go, but now taking the correct candongueiro rather than walking. The first step was to find the market and the goat meat stand. It appeared an easy task, as we knew the general direction in which to walk. However, one thing we didn't account for was that the roads were extremely muddy on that day, and that the poorer areas have much worse roads than the ones near the town centre. This was a very costly mistake that made our lives much harder by many orders of magnitude. Taking a single step required deep concentration, and there were many close call situations where one of us almost fell flat on our faces (or backs). Falling would have been disastrous because we were all walking in single file, with people in front of us and behind us, and a slip would have meant taking quite a few people down too. Fortunately it didn't happen, but it came pretty close a few times. The locals were much more practical than us, most of them walking barefoot to get better grip. We, however, feared the general discomfort of stepping on mud - not to mention the fear of cutting our feet - so we kept on walking with our sandals on. To make matters worse, one of my extraordinarily expensive hiking sandals decided to break there and then. Although Karrimor guarantees them for at least a year, mine didn't even last two months. That's when the ridiculousness of this guarantee business becomes apparent. I mean, if your shoes break in the middle of nowhere in a six-month trip, are you expected to carry them for the remainder of the time and walk barefoot all the while? Hardly. For more than half-an-hour we trudged towards the market, feeling, calculating each single step. Eventually we reached the market. However, our troubles were far from over. Instead of a nice, small market like say the Benfica market in Luanda, Benguela's market is HUGE. In all aspects. Its massive in terms of area, in terms of the number of people around, in terms of the types of merchandise for sale. And this market is made by the locals, for the locals - we didn't even spot any mulattoes, let alone white or Asian people. We just didn't know where to begin looking for the goat meat stand. Its one of those things, probably trivial once you know what you're looking for, but absolutely impossible for someone who has never been to a proper African market. We were dazed for a few minutes in the midst of all the confusion, candongueiros going up and down, people shouting everywhere, different kinds of animals everywhere too.

On the plus side, we were at the right place to fix broken shoes, or so we thought, so as soon as our heads cleared and adjusted to the surroundings, we went in search of a shoemaker. We were a bit intimidated by the fact that we stood out like sore thumbs, but there wasn't much we could do about it, so we just got on with the task at hand. Due to the structure of the market, with its very narrow roads overflowing with products, compounded by the mud and the crowds, it was actually very difficult to negotiate our way round. On top of that, we had to ask every five seconds for some more clues, since the directions we got from everyone were pretty sketchy. I'm not entirely sure how we managed to find the shoemaker, but somehow we did it. It took a good deal of asking and searching, of trying to decipher clues, but in the end the chap was there, fixing another customer's shoe. The shoemaker was old, probably in his fifties or sixties, and he worked slowly and patiently but with great dexterity. His tools were all hand-crafted and seemed to fit their purpose very well. He finished the previous customer's job and then turned his attention to me. Without much explanation from my part, he immediately diagnosed the problem and started working in fixing it. With no mercy or regards to brand names, he hole-punched, sowed, and hole-punched some more. The fallen strap was back in its rightful place in no time at all and the sandal felt as solid as before, if not more. The job was done in a fairly seamless manner. I felt somewhat guilty in paying the craftsman the fifty kwanzas he demanded, so I added an extra twenty - not quite enough to make me feel good about it, but at least the gesture was appreciated by the shoemaker.

We then went back to hunting the goats. After much misleading information - we walked up and down, up and down the market - we ended up settling on a stand that had a few goats, although these ones were alive and walking about. It wasn't quite what we expected, but then, what had we expected? There were candongueiros stopped everywhere, going to several destinations. Swarms of people everywhere. Many candongueiros were heading to Lobito, others to Catumbela and other nearby towns. However, we couldn't find a single one going to Caota, nor could we find a person able to confirm the usual departure point of these candongueiros, tried as we might. We asked lots of people, but no one knew anything useful. After standing for a while, it became clear that we were not going to find the right goat stand. So our only other option was to take a candongueiro to Baia Farta as we had done previously and walk the road up yet again. This was not a pleasant option, but the confusion of the market was fast becoming unbearable and we had to do something. We had to go for it.

The candongueiro dropped us at the intersection and we started walking, but this time we decided to try our luck at hitchhiking. To our great surprise, not even ten minutes into the walk and a huge truck stopped. However, we were somewhat confused as there were no empty seats in the cabin, and the cargo compartment at the back was just a huge big box, not really the sort of place one would put people - not unless you're smuggling them across the channel. The driver insistingly pointed to the back, so we went round. When we got there, dozens of eyes stared at us. It wasn't really a closed cargo compartment, it was more like a cattle transport truck - but instead of cattle it transported people. The vehicle was a kind of candongueiro and it was full to the max, or so we thought. That is, until the cobrador started shuffling people around a bit to make "space" for us. I would hardly call "space" to what he came up with, but we had to make do. Shahin kept on mumbling something like "I ain't getting in there man, I rather walk!" but it was too late since I was already in the truck. She somehow managed to jump in. The thirty or so minutes that followed were, up to this point in time, our worse ever trip in any means of transportation we have ever travelled in - and this includes the twelve our bus trip to Benguela. Truly. We were standing up, crammed, surrounded by dozens of people, unable to move even one centimetre in any direction, holding on hard to a metal bar, hoping that it wouldn't somehow break. Shahin held so hard she had bruises afterwards. The truck was moving at incredible speeds, or so it seemed for us at the back. To our great relief, around thirty minutes later we arrived at the entrance of the Caota village, where many of the passengers left. The remainder of the trip was done in great comfort and Shahin even managed to find a seat on top of a pile of corn bags. The people on the truck were awfully nice, and made sure we stopped at the optimal place to start our climb to Caotinha. It was then that Cid's comments made sense; of course, its only a twenty-minute stroll from the bottom of Caota to Caotinha. The problem is getting to Caota. The climb wasn't half as difficult as last time, and we even decided to take some shortcuts.

Whilst Caotinha was still very nice, it was not as nice as the first time. The weather was hot and cloudy and the sea was much rougher, with some real waves hitting the reef. This made it really hard to get in and out of the reef - even downright dangerous, since a wave could force you against the rocks. I still managed to snorkel for quite a while, but nowhere near as much as last time. On our way back, we waited for over two hours in the Caota village for a candongueiro. There really isn't much to do in the village, so we just loitered around the only "bar" we could find, getting stared at by all the locals. Eventually we gave up and started walking. It was getting late, dusk was setting in. Suddenly we spotted a candongueiro going towards the village and we chased after it. It was a good chase, across huts, up and down roads, but eventually we got it. Once we were in it, we found out we were waiting for the candongueiro at the wrong place. This was actually the last one for the day. We got lucky yet again.

Cubal

Another place that had been mentioned in our conversations with Pedro, Ricardo and Teresa was Cubal. It was described as a small city a good hundred kilometres in land in the Benguela province, with fantastic scenery on the way there. Pedro suggested getting there by train, using the CFB. Angola is currently restoring much of its infrastructure, and trains are a vital part of this effort. There are three main train lines: the CFL (Caminhos de Ferro de Luanda), the CFB (Caminhos de Ferro de Benguela) and the CFM (Caminhos de Ferro de Mocamedes, in Namibe). All three are being worked on, but of these, the CFB are the most important link since they will connect Zambia to the port of Lobito. In the past, this was a hugely important economic link, used to export Zambia's copper. Unfortunately, the work is still underway so trains in Benguela are still pretty sketchy. The trip to Cubal takes over 6 hours - the train is pretty slow - and trains only run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Since there isn't much to do in Cubal, going by train was not an option.

As we were speaking to our landlady Dona Judite about this, she mentioned that her husband, Senhor Chico, was going to Cubal in a few days time. Senhor Chico was extremely kind: not only did he agree to take us there, but he also found us some accommodation at no extra cost. He was currently doing a project for the local government in Cubal, a small hotel, and some of the rooms were already finished - we could sleep in one of them. This was a perfect arrangement, so we set on our way. The trip there was over five hours long. The road is mostly non-existent. In fact, as he was apologising for the haphazard driving, Senhor Chico told us a joke that describes driving in Angola perfectly: "In England you drive on the left; in Portugal you drive on the right; in Angola, well, you drive wherever you can." If you have never driven in Angola you won't understand how true and close to the bone this joke is, but for us it summarised our experiences. Senhor Chico could spend ten minutes driving on the left, followed by half-an-hour on the right, all the while jerking and twisting past holes. It must be a funny experience seeing somebody drive from up above; its almost like they're following an invisible road, turning where there doesn't seem to be any apparent turns, stopping in the middle of nowhere, leaving the road on detours that are not signalled at all.

Whilst the drive was not particularly pleasant on the stomach department, the eyes had plenty to feast at. The road to Cubal is full of greenery, increasingly so as you head towards the interior. Its similar to what we had experienced in Kanjala, just lush greenery, but here there are these high mountains in the background, and these huge rocks laying in the green prairies. Like Teresa had said, it is as if these rocks could talk, its an eerie experience. To make it even more eerie, Senhor Chico kept on mentioning how impossible things were during the war.

- "You couldn't drive around here in those days, no sirree. Ambushes all the time. You can still see the remainders of the wrecks, like that one there" - he says, pointing out to a bit of rust at the edge of the road. Greenery everywhere made the valleys look so peaceful. But they still looked like perfect places to ambush.

Half-way through our trip we stopped in a little town. Senhor Chico had some business to conduct there. This was a very little place, ten houses or so, a nice little village in the middle of nowhere. We were soon back on our way. In just over five hours we reached Cubal. The trip took this long because the pick-up truck was extremely loaded and we had to proceed slowly. Just as we were about to get into town and conclude yet another epic journey, a surprise awaited us. The main bridge that leads you into the town is broken, and has been broken for over a year. Senhor Chico pointed this out, in is usually dramatic tone:

- "See that over there? That's the town. We're perhaps five minutes from it, were we to go that way. Unfortunately, we have to go the long way round."

The long way round involved a lot of off road driving and dodging some really big holes, but the scariest bit of the drive was by far crossing the temporary bridge. This was a metal structure with a couple of metal panes covering the fast river moving below you. Standing before the bridge, it certainly didn't seem fit for people or animals - let alone five tonne trucks. It was very narrow, not much wider than a truck, and had absolutely no side protections, so if your steering wasn't absolutely straight you'd get to swim with the fish. That's, assuming the bridge would take your weight, of course, which seemed like very unlikely from where we stood. But, to our great surprise, a huge SGO bus crossed the bridge before us and disappeared in the distance. Then, proceeding slowly, we too crossed it, hearing the loud creaking noises metal makes. A few seconds later we were on the other side. Fifteen minutes later we entered the town.

In the sixties, Cubal was a booming town due to its sisal industry. Sisal is a straw-like material used to make baskets, mats and the like and was extremely popular in the fifties and sixties. Industries here boomed, much like they did in the rest of Angola, mainly due to the extremely cheap labour - free in many instances due to the "contract" system. This allowed Portuguese settlers to accumulate huge profits in very short time, and these profits were channelled to create lovely little colonial towns like this one. Once the war started the industries died, and along with them they took the towns they previously supported. All that is left of Cubal are its decaying colonial houses, the ruins of the sisal factories, an eerie, ghost-like town. Some of it is now being renovated, thanks to government's money, but one can see that Cubal will never be what it was - perhaps because like most of Angola in the sixties, it never "was", really; a fabrication; an invention in someone's mind. A castle in clouds. Nothing that could ever be sustainable.

We spent a whole day in Cubal, but there isn't much to do. After walking the entire town, we found the only existing cafe with its decaying pool table. There I played some pool with the locals, a sport that seems to involve every single person in the bar. Some of the chaps at the bar were part of an NGO demining team called HALO, and were working in nearby areas. In fact, Cubal was the only place in the whole of the Angola we've seen that had a sign "Do not walk: mines here". The HALO people and the locals were very nice and friendly, much like all other Benguelenses. At night we had some food in a "restaurant", but the "restaurant" is really someone's house, someone you can trust and who allows certain people to eat there, for a fee. There are no restaurants as we know it. We were also quite lucky to stay with Senhor Chico since we didn't spot a single hostel, so accommodation would most likely be a problem. All and all, it was well worth visiting Cubal, but its not the sort of place you can spend more than one day in.

The trip back was done on our trustworthy Interprovincial SGO buses, the same that took us from Luanda to Benguela. It was much more pleasant this time round though. Although the roads were equally as bad, it somehow felt much safer to travel on the bus this time round, so much so we even slept for a good part of the journey. It also helped that the trip only took three hours and a bit.

Lobito

One weekend we were invited for lunch at Teresa's, Elsa's auntie - my auntie too, really, in the African paradigm of extended families. Teresa is one of my favourite characters, a most likable person, full of knowledge and experience but never showing off, always making everyone around her feel clever, always making sure everyone is alright. She is at present working for a Portuguese private university, Lusiada, located in downtown Lobito. I know of very few people who are so thoroughly Angolan and so passionate about Angola like Teresa, so when she heard the call to came and help out, she left her very successful law career in Lisbon and headed back home. We were invited for lunch, but like all African lunches it was expected to start late and last well into the evening. We waited around for our lift, but he was running late, so we decided to take our chances with the local transport system which we grew to know and love. Candongueiros leave from Benguela to Lobito at all times, but unfortunately they are almost always full by the time they cross town. Fortunately for us, one of the chaps waiting at the bus stop was extremely friendly, and not only did he explain how to get to Lobito but he also gave us his seat when a candongueiro appeared with a seat or two available. This was an unimaginable act of contrition which we really appreciated since we were all waiting for over an hour.

There's only one word to describe the road from Benguela to Lobito: dangerous. For various reasons. First, the road is narrow, in most places with only a lane in each direction, and in some parts covered in thick dust. A Chinese company is busy doing an extension to convert it into a dual-carriage way, but the work will probably last another couple of years or so. Second, there are huge amounts of kupapatas driving up and down the road, most riding their bikes pretty slowly and orderly but some do it at crazy speeds or perform crazy stunts. This also means one spends most of the time overtaking bikes. Thirdly, a lot of the car drivers on that road are just plain crazy. They drive at unimaginable speeds, particularly at night. Luckily, we never saw or were involved in any accidents on the many times we were on that road - but we were close to being in one, as I'll explain later. The panoramic views are excellent though, on those short seconds when you manage to get your eyes off the road. There are trees all around, and lots of vegetation. This area once housed Angola's sugar industry and one can clearly see why, green jumping at you from all places. At the end of this interconnecting road is a bridge, designed by the French engineer Eiffel. It does look the part, sharing many similarities with the Paris tower and Porto's bridge, such as the massive usage of metal. The bridge is in dire need of some renovating though, looking very old and decrepit. One cannot but hope that some money is channelled for this soon, before the damage is irreversible, but this may not happen since architecture and landmarks are hardly the government's first priority. We drove on for a bit longer, but the cangongueiro route ends at the entrance to the city, well before our destination. There we had to catch another candongueiro, this time to Bairro Vinte e Oito. This candongueiro stops one block away from the University. The University itself is located just behind the Port of Lobito, Angola's most important port.

Teresa lives in the residence halls, in Angola exclusively destined for teachers. This is because a large number of the teaching staff are either foreigners - mainly Portuguese - or Angolan returnees, who have no housing of their own. Housing is thus one of the perks used to attract employees, in particular because decent housing is so expensive to obtain. The apartments are very nice, charming little places, sporting tall, wide rooms - but unfortunately not many of them. They are really made for one or two people at most, and most teachers are youngsters out of university precisely in this situation. Teresa had invited some of her colleagues for dinner: Dr Napoleao and Dr Edgar, in addition to Teresa's Mom. Both doctors were very likable chaps, and Shahin took a particular liking to Dr Edgar since he spoke fluent English. He had lived for a long time in England. The food was excellent and the conversation too, and we debated well into the evening all of our country's problems and strengths, and our role in its future. At one point I was bemoaning the sad state of Information Technology in Africa in general, and Angola in particular; how we were to yet again lose another race, even before it had started. Dr Edgar's response was extremely insightful, although he was kind enough to state it in a very nice way. Truth is, people like me just love to sit and complain, without actually stepping up to do something about it. This is common to most of the diaspora. I am not ready to come and teach IT in Angola even though my contribution is dearly needed. So many of us sit in our lovely little porches in our lovely little houses in Europe, in America, with our nice jobs and our nice lifestyle, and moan from afar. You see this in the web forums, in the parties, in the gatherings. We complain on how things are being done ever so incorrectly, how so much money is being wasted, how so many important factors are not being taken into account. In reality, many of the people that took the plunge and decided to get their hands dirty are doing a sterling job given the constraints; and there are many, many constraints, many of which you only begin to understand when you are there, in situ. What they really need is for more qualified Angolans to come and help out reconstructing their country. Whilst many are coming, the numbers are nowhere near the requirements.

Once the dinner was finished, after we satiated ourselves with the lovely pudding made by Teresa, it was time to get back to Benguela. We got a lift with Dr Napoleao. This time it was really dark, that sort of dark you only see in Africa. As we were driving back, perhaps forty minutes into it, one of the kupapatas riding ahead of us decided to park up on the side. But, as any good Angolan would, he didn't park up to his right, the closest side, nor did he look back to see if there was anyone behind him. Instead, he turned wide to his left, slowly, unexpectedly, and moved towards the other side of the road. This, in the extreme dark, with almost no lights at all on the bike. Incredible. Fortunately for us, Dr Napoleao is a pretty good driver, and managed to somehow avoid the kupapata, but it is remarkable the faith that some of these people put on other drivers.

We returned to Lobito some days later, this time to actually investigate the town. We were lucky to get dropped off by Dr Napoleao and taken back by him too. We spent most of our time at Terminus, a lovely grand hotel in Restinga. Restinga is Lobito's Ilha, identical in shape to Luanda's but much wider. Much to the grin of all lobitangas, I, a kaluanda, had to admit Restinga is much nicer than Ilha. It has lovely colonial houses, wide roads and parks. It's also much cleaner. Terminus has a lovely beach behind it, similar to the concessioned beaches in Ilha. One can eat at the hotel for very modest prices, and we had two omelettes, very nice indeed, setting us back less than 2000 kwanzas for the both of us.

Our third visit to Lobito was rather... interesting. We were invited to the launch party of the Lobito's offices of a new law practice. The partners are Teresa, Dr Napoleao and Dr Jaime, and Teresa insisted on having us there. I did warn that we didn't have any special clothes other than jeans and t-shirts but she said it was going to be a small affair. We got picked up and dropped off by Ricardo. The party was at the posh Navegante hotel. We should have remembered how Angolan's love to underestimate things. I mean, really. Even the television and radio were there. The head of Lobito's port was there. And the three of us, Ricardo, Shahin and me, were the only ones wearing casual clothes. Shahin was dolled up enough, but being a girl kept on complaining all night long. In total, there must have been over one hundred elegantly dressed, fashionable people, a sort of Hello magazine party for Lobito. However, as soon as we started chatting to people we quickly got into the swing of things and it ended up being a really enlightening experience. We got to meet lots of Portuguese and Angolan returnees, some captains of industry and important people, to really get a feel for what is happening in the country. It ended up being a fantastic experience. The party lasted well into the night, dancing involved and all, but we made a move around midnight, since we still had the long drive back.

Our last visit to Lobito was via candongueiro. This time round, we decided to go to the end of Restinga, to one of the non-concessioned beaches. It was very nice, and fairly clean. We swam first on the inner side of the bay, the side facing the town. Shahin loved the water here, incredibly quiet, and I liked the snorkeling too. There were lots of fish in the water. It wasn't anywhere near the variety of Caotinha, but the fish here move around in large schools, very impressive numbers. The scenery is stunning too, with large mountains and the town. We then went to swim on the Contracosta, the ocean facing side of Restinga. Much like in Mussulo's, the sea here is rough, wavy, harder to tame. The snorkeling is great too, but one cannot avoid thinking that a shark is looming around.

All and all, we liked Lobito quite a lot, but not as much as Benguela. This is because the city sprawls a lot more, making it really hard to walk round. Just Restinga itself is huge, requiring a candongueiro to go from one end to the other. Also, whilst there are many nice neighbourhoods in Lobito, there also appear to be many more musseques, particularly at the entrance of town, making it look like a shabbier place. This is not true at all, and one can confirm that by going to Bairro Vinte e Oito and Restinga, and probably many other places we never managed to get to, but still. So as far as we were concerned, Benguela won the battle, but only marginally.