The winter is on its way

Today was cool. Not cold, but nice and cool. Refreshing wind from the sea brushes through my hair and I feel the change in the air. 

As I am learning slowly Portuguese, I am now venturing into the vocabulary of  weather, time and the seasons. I could not help but notice that in Angola there just seems to be the following seasons: hot, hot, hot and hot. But I was wrong! There are in fact two seasons in Angola! And no, they are not "hot and hotter" as one would think, but summer and winter. 

Summer, which is during Christmas is HOT! So hot and humid that I really have had days that have been torture. So hot that when we head to the beach, I pretend to be a wicked surfer with my +40spf surfers top... What can I say, white ass roasts quickly... Here's a photo Kamene took the other day. 

Getting splashed

But soon, anytime soon now, should be here already, will be the winter. I've asked a few Angolans about this and they told me that yes, it will be cold and you must wear a jacket in the evenings! Really? The temperature will drop to a whopping +25˚c from +35˚c... Apparently the nights during the winter can drop to +17˚c. I look forward to sleeping without the air-conditioning! 

But alas, I was finally explained what the actual seasons are here in Angola: dry and wet! 

The wet season is in the summer, which is why the summer is hot and humid. The winter is starting soon, and that will be a dry season. As we are nearing to the end of summer, it feels like the rain is giving it's last bits now before the dry season kicks in.

Wet wet wet

Yesterday we spent the day at the beach in Mussulo and it was a hot lovely day, water was warm, a bit fresher than the times before and throughout the day we kept hearing kabooms in the sky! At around 16 we started heading back. The sea was flat, completely calm, eerie. And roughly 20 seconds after the waves were high and the sky was black and rain was so heavy you could hardly see where you were heading! That was one scary boat ride! 

So this is the wet season in Angola, and let me tell you, it is ridiculous! There is a "light show" in the skies almost every night followed by angry thunder with the water pissing down heavily for hours on end! Hours of heavy rain! The electricity always cuts off, so for the houses with no personal generator... Tough shit! 

The rain does its damage, the city has barely any drainage system so all streets are always flooded or cut off completely, ceilings leak and water level rises to levels that match with the sewers... (Nice aroma) And the after effects are of course that people do not go to work because the public transportation, which are funny little vans, (I'll write about those soon) do not work, the roads are cut off so walking is difficult, but the people that do need to head out, will be sitting hours in the heavier than usual traffic and there will be zero parking spaces in the city! So if you can- stay at home!

Muddy roads cut off

I'm so used to enjoying the rain at home, I always sleep really well during it cause it cools down the air and cleans it. But here, my boyfriend never sleeps during the rains, because he needs to keep checking on the boat and go out there into the dark sea to empty it before it sinks completely and he needs to keep checking the electricity and if the generator is dry or needs diesel. 

I tried snapping photos of the lightning, but we can all appreciate how difficult that is! Last week we were sitting having a drink in the city and the thunder hit so close that the floor shook under our feet and the table trembled and spilled our drinks! No, it didn't hit our car! 

I can see clearly now that the rain has gone.. 

 The wet season! 

Fun Facts

...about Angola and Angolans 

Since I don't really speak the language properly, I can't give any final opinions about Angolans, all I can say for now is that the general theme seems to be pouty, non-interested and "what do you want" looks from people. Actually, it's like Russia 10 years ago (maybe still today, haven't been lately) when the lady sitting behind the glass refuses to sell stamps to you just because she doesn't feel like it today. Main post office of St Petersburg... 

That is to say that the people on the streets do not smile at you, do not respond to your happy "hello" and when you are holding the money at a coffee shop, they act like they are doing YOU a favour... Yeah, we've all been to places like these, mostly what they have in common is the communist history. 

Having said all that, the Angolans I have been introduced to are fun, open and generous. 

Once I learn enough of the language I'll know what people are saying behind my back, so I'll get back to you on this ; )

But here's a couple of new things I have learnt: 

Thumbs up! 

So, the local way of saying "thanks" in traffic, or saying hi on the street or basically any communication with anyone, you end up with "thumbs up", but one must remember to lift up the whole elbow while doing this! 

Domingos, the driver

I like it! So simple! Effective! 

Photos of people

There reason why I haven't posted more photos is simple: people really do not like you take photos of them in Luanda! And I really mean it! If I understood what they screamed at me I would tell you, but best left unknown. So, instead of whipping out my big SLR, I am now trying to figure out how to get my crappy camera on my phone to work. A good reason to invest into an iPhone. Anyone? Anyone? Anyway, I was told people get agitated and want huge amounts of money if you take a photo, lets say, of a building that they happen to be standing in front of, because they know the photo will be on internet soon. But they don't know what internet is. So, again, it comes down to money... 

Electricity

And the lack of it. So, you might be in a restaurant, a shop, someone's house, wherever really when the electricity goes off. Everything goes black, aircon stops and people do not even blink nor change the subject. It's so normal. Electricity comes and goes. If you have your own generator you'll switch it on and everything goes back again. However, if you live in a cheaper accommodation in the city for instance and have no generator, cause they are not cheap, you might be without electricity for days! My boyfriends house has a generator, but I guess I am too new to all this because I actually gasp every single time the power cuts off! Kind of like when you are new to China and still notice things like people hawk-spitting in the street, that after a while you don't even notice.. 

Local landline

So, doesn't matter how prestigious, well-known or international the company is, no one ever picks up the landline number listed publicly. Never. We are talking about ministry numbers, foreign oil companies, diamond companies, ngo's etc. Unless you get a mobile number- forget it! No one will pick up your call! 

(I hope someone with an office in Angola reads this and will do something about this!) 

Moon rings 

I have never in my life seen this before: moon rings! Beautiful phenomenon! Actually, I had never even heard of it before, but there we have it! I have seen moon rings! Only once tough. I wanted to take photos, so I've been hunting for them ever since, but with no luck. I did search info about them, here's a small info package about them: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_ring 

Dust 

Hmmm, after living in Beijing for so long, one would think a little dust is nothing, but this is something else... If you mix together the fine sand from the desert, pollution from the traffic and dust from the building-site called Luanda; you get this dirty air that goes everywhere- including your eyes! Since arrival I have had an eye infection six times already! No joke, always with sun glasses, windows of the car rolled up but none the less it gets everywhere! 

And now to my favourite subject: bugs under the skin! 

Look at the picture!!! That is MY finger with something inside laying eggs! apparently, it is too tiny for me to see, even when I popped it to squeeze it out and disinfect it! Eeeeeeeewww! Nasty! Also scary as an idea: bug laying eggs under your skin, all warm and cosy and when ready it will open up and millions and millions of baby bugs will sprawl about! 

My finger inhabited by new friends

I have no idea where it came from, probably beach somewhere, also I should note here that apparently it is not a big deal, it happens all the time, it's not dangerous and like my boyfriend's mom said when I finally understood it's not a splinter but a living thing (and started freaking out): "Ilona, relax, it's a bug, not a lion!" 

(must add that I managed to refrain myself from crying out that the most deadly animals are viruses that are so small that we can't even see them!) 

So there, I'll try to find out some fun facts like how many people die in Angola by falling coconuts and take photos of the colourful street life and voluminous women.. 

Fish Market

The Saturday morning before last, I did something new! Instead of stumbling home at 5 am, I was up and about and ready to hit the market! Honestly, it was a revelation for me: I had not been up at the crack of dawn in Angola yet, and to experience the clear air, serenity of the ocean, no noise, no heat, no blazing sun! Was amazing!

My boyfriend's dad goes to the fish market once a month to fill the freezers with fish! Excellent! We get our gear ready and head out- by boat!

It was a half an hour ride, we only saw a couple of other boats, and they were heading to the same direction; fishermen with a boat full of fish!

The beach was already quite crowded. And the smell was picking up although the fresh sea-breeze did it's best. We were greeted by a couple of guys, talking in a speed that I obviously could not keep up with, then an arrangement was made with one, and he took our cooling bags and disappeared. We started walking through all the sellers and the variety of fish and sea snakes and cuttlefish and frutti di mare was colourful buffet! We went to only certain sellers, I guess like anywhere one must establish good relationships to know who has the good stuff. So we buy fish! Loads of it! And out of nowhere the guys from the beach kept popping out and taking all our purchases. And finally when we are done, we start moving away from the crowds and there I see the guy: he was cleaning all the fish!

This was quite the pleasant surprise- throughout the buying I kept thinking: "shit, this will take us all day to clean all of this lot!"

And here's a photo of our fish-gutter as he is skinning and cleaning our cuttlefish! You know, I love squid, octopus and cuttlefish but never ever did I actually see one cleaned. I mean to get rid of the inkbags, the "spine" and rubbery skin!

And we were back before the rest of the house was even up! I must admit, Angola at 5 am was a treat. To get something done, one really needs to get up and beat the sun to it!

Daily Economics

You may join me in my surprise as I thought Angola would be an African country where you see lions and giraffes and half naked women draped in colourful canvasses carrying water on their heads while children with potbellies run naked in the sun.

What can I say, the country is divided clearly, like so many others, into capital and the rest of the country. There is Luanda and the rest of Angola. Luanda is a bustling, loud, dirty city; very clearly came into serious money before education. You know what I mean, like any South East Asian larger city; Luanda is being developed and built very quickly. You could almost compare the amount of cranes in the city's horizon into that of Beijing's horizon couple of years before the Big Games.

photo by Kamene M Traça

But unlike any other city that has quickly discovered oil or other coveted natural riches, Luanda's everyday life is no longer for the ordinary people: rent in the city starts from $3000-$9000 for a STUDIO apartment for a MONTH! Yes, we are still in Africa, and the city is Luanda, not London, you wouldn't find these prices in any major capital however posh and "the" place to be they were. And lets not forget that the electricity and water might be cut off any given time.

The expenses are visible in everything, starting from daily commodities like milk, bread- it is just plain wrong that bananas that they grow in Angola are cheaper to buy in Finland than locally...

Here's a couple of links to be gasped at like I am every time I leave the house:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8094873.stm

http://www.gadling.com/2010/07/07/luanda-angola-the-worlds-most-expensive-city-for-expats/ 

And here's a link to an article about a local shop, not too far from where I live, that priced their melon 100$/pc! Funny article: 

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=pt&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fopais.net%2Fpt%2Fopais%2F%3Fdet%3D18451%26id%3D1657%26mid%3D229

"The end of the war in 2002 led to an investment boom by China and some Western nations which has helped turn Angola into one of the world's fastest growing economies. The boom also helped push prices to record highs."

It seems that Angola was completely destroyed by the war and currently has no industry of its own. Angola doesn't really make anything and has hardly any agriculture or cattle. Oil accounts for over 96% of Angola’s total exports, whilst diamonds come a distant second with around 2%. Which basically means that Angola imports everything it needs. And this where China steps in- in the street view one can see many many Chinese companies, machinery and people. The wooden African artefacts sold at markets are made in China, the fabrics with bright colours and African prints are made in China, the carp they sell by the road is all made in China. And let me tell you- the prices are not what I would have paid for in China. Cheeky buggers. Unfortunately I don't know who I am calling cheeky here. Live and let live, right?

photo by Kamene M Traça

But expenses set aside, as soon as you leave Luanda and drive out for a couple of hours, you will see villages where women are dressed in colourful clothes and do carry water on their heads while children play outside and the earth is the colour red you have never seen! And the fruits are cheap and cheerful!

photo by Kamene M Traça

About the lions and giraffes- I'll let you know asap I visit a national park!

New year, new location and a new life!

So here we are, a couple of years later and I am back; Ilona IS in Angola!

After Xmas I took my suitcase and started my voyage towards the southern hemisphere, which I shall refer to from now on as home! I arrived in good time but in not so good shape (after several flights and airport deaths) to celebrate the beginning of the year 2011!

My boyfriend lives and works in Luanda, Angola, where hopefully I will find something groovy to do! So far I have done the following: sweating, spreading an equal amount of sun block and mosquito repellent on my body, sweating, sleeping, sweating, having several showers during the day, sweating, swimming, sweating, eating a bit, and more sweating... It is HOT! And I realise that I exchanged -23˚c into +37˚c, but never did I think it would be this difficult to get my body familiar with this heat. They say it might take a couple of weeks before I get used to it and stop sweating like a sprinkler...

But I am lying a bit, since I have done some cool things already: we went camping on the beach one weekend, to the Surfers' Beach; Cabo Ledo, where the waves are pretty high! And what we did last weekend, was to take out the boat and go to my boyfriend's family summer cottage in a place called Mussulo. Mussulo looks like an island on the coast, but is in fact a peninsula, and apparently quite the trendy place to be during the weekends. Not surprising as the water seems cleaner on that side and the waves calmer. It is perfect!

My goals for now are to learn Portuguese, experience Angola and hopefully Africa, find a great job and have fun! While doing that I will keep on writing this blog and sharing my experiences in this new culture of mine.
(Now I wish I had kept a blog in China, cause lets face it- we had some really crazy shit going on there!)

I'm off to eat cod fish! Ta taa!

Last blog

As we know, all good things must come to an end eventually. Alas, and so has my wonderful trip!

I have spent another two days now stinking up at the airports and planes... Funny how I have always flown with or against time, rather than sitting in a plane for 7 hours in the same time zone. Really, shouldn't long distance travelling be like time travelling?

As I am sitting at the airport in Dubai, it occurs to me that the rest of Beijing is there- all i see is wind-breakers with Beijing 2008 logo on them. In all colours and shapes! And it seems true- as i arrived to Beijing, the city seems quiet and calm. This is where I presume the post-Olympics-depression begins. All the work and time spent to create the great atmosphere and years of preparation and building the city up has truly bore the fruit from the seeds it planted some five years ago. The games were spectacular, although I only watched them at the telly between my swims and BBQs...
So this is my final entry for my little journey diary, as my little journey has ended now. Before I finish, I still must add one thing:

African Albinos! Is that irony taken to the limit? Really? Apparently Albinism is not that unheard of over there. The lack of pigmentation offers no protection against the African sun.. Cruel. I saw three during my time over, where as I have only seen 1 Chinese albino in my 2 and some years in China. I wanted to crab a picture, but the guy saw me whip out my mini camera and gave me the look of death, so I tried to smile sheepishly while stuffing the camera back to my pocket. Although, that would have made a great entry to my blog: I got my arse whipped by a black albino! But you guys are just not worth it.

So there, until my next exotic trip.

I had a wonderful time!

Ciao

TIA

This is Africa. A phrase I first heard from the lips of Leonardo Dicaprio in Blood Diamond. Thought is as a Hollywood catchphrase for the movie, little did I know I would be hearing it over and over again… So this is Africa. A couple of thoughts from someone who has spent a week and some on a holiday:

Electricity
Whether you are in a restaurant or in a shop with the music blasting out loud, followed by silence and darkness, no seems even to blink. The electricity comes and goes, and the lack of it, is so normal that people don’t react one way or the other. Generators do come in handy as it turns, handy and more so a necessity. Needles to say, with it goes running water, aircon, internet…

Roads
Usch… No roads, just dirt and dust and huge holes. Brings a whole new meaning to 4wheel drive and how necessary they are here. Most of the cars I see on the roads are huge 4wheel drives, (with the exceptions of huge H3 Hummers). I asked Kamene before our road trip whether he has a atlas of the roads to where we are going, and the answer was simple: “there is only one road”. Like the rest of Angola, the roads are busy being built as we speak. By Chinese.

Expenses and customer service
Now going back to my second blog and the hell hole of a hotel we stayed in at Malange… A city of nothing has three hotels in it, one that has no running water and they were charging $40!!! You believe that? Another that looked okay charged $160 and the third one would have been in the same lines, but was full so we didn’t see it. I need running water (or so I thought when I saw the first hotel), so we chose the $160 per night hotel. Now, for $160 one would expect to receive a clean hotel with modern commodities. Or even a bathroom door that closes? I tell you, our relationship took a turn… To give you a run down, the water was sandy, the towels did not look clean, the sheets were not crispy and pulled in, the breakfast was really not all that and on top of that no one smiled! Not even the hopeless bitch at the counter who did not know how to calculate our cash back.

Apparently this is Angola. I can see very specific soviet attitude in the service and the way people dress to impress and talk the talk although they go around the corner to catch the local bus. I have been told that crossing over south into Namibia, it is completely different - you get the best service and luxury resorts for that kind of money. Might my next stop..

Chinese
I can see Chinese almost everywhere I go. (Ironically I did leave China for the same reason.) I see Chinese either driving huge trucks to building sites or huge Hummers to shopping malls. Originally Chinese made an agreement with the government: Chinese loaned a heap of money to Angola, in ways such as building the infrastructure, hospitals, government facilities, schools and most importantly the roads. In exchange they get oil. And as a sideline many Chinese have entered in private business and made a bundle.

Women
I’ve heard the expression that “Africa will be built by women”, now I understand. On our trips we’ve seen and met numerous women, who get up early in the morning and start walking, they walk 30km one way to get a tank of water and carry it back on their heads. Or they walk to buy fish, bread or anything else, and walk back to sell it. All I have seen is women with massive parcels on their heads, bobbing a kid on their back, some cases even another one on their bellies (or in).

Elections
The big elections. On 5th September… The second election since independence. Of course the atmosphere is not the greatest due to the first elections: a party denied results and went to war. The elections are seen as a possible starting point for another war, so it will be interesting to see how many people actually vote. There are 14 parties, each representing roughly the same with no major differences. MPLA is a major party that has been in parliament since independence (1975). The campaign is vast and lucrative. (Costs so far are above $40m)

Malaria
The well feared mosquito… I don’t speak Portuguese but the word “Malaria” keeps coming to my attention. The government has implemented a new programme to cut Malaria cases (successfully reduced cases by more than half in 2007) by distributing nets and sprays.
I of course have been eating my little magic pills Malarone and anointing myself with mosquito repellent. No side affects at all, no headaches, no tummy aches and even the little green elf on my shoulder keeps telling me to pop my pills…