Into the City...

We made our way into the city this afternoon. This was my first trip into the city. I wanted to snap a few random shots just along the way, just to give a feel of what we're driving through. It's not very easy to take pictures from a moving vehicle without being very obvious so Joel ended up doing the best he could. Shanan made a good comment on the way in. He said, "No matter how long the drive takes, it's never boring!" He's very right. There is so much to look at when you're driving down the narrow streets of this city. The reason is that unlike in the "west" where basically all business happens inside, behind closed doors, business in Angola happens on the street. Everything happens on the street. People sit and talk, cook, eat, play games, buy, sell, trade- they do everything on the street. And there are just so many people as well, that there is always something to look at.

I didn't think to get the camera out until we were out of the really small streets, so I'll have to do that, because when you're driving down the small streets it really is like there is only the wall of the car separating you from the people outside, it's just that tight, and there are just that many people.

But anyway- here's a couple shots of street life...

Here you can see the people, the littered streets, the small shops, people with their stuff set out to sell on the "sidewalk", etc...

Here's a shot of a market area (sorry for the fuzziness, it's the moving car...)

Here are more people sitting around, eating, selling, talking... as you see, some in "western" dress, others in more African clothing...

Here's a shot up a little alley. You can also see the women carrying their babies on their backs, just tied with a length of fabric.

We reached the city center, and the Freedom monument. This monument is of the man, whose name escapes me, that is considered the liberator of Angola.

A shot that I was desperate for- women carrying stuff on their heads. These bowls are not the biggest I have seen... but alas, the best we could get on this trip.

Here is another monument of some sort.

We stopped in a Lebanese restaurant and had some lunch. I wasn't too hungry, so I had some hummus and flat bread. It was deeeeelish. Joel, Shanan and Danielle all had shwarma. From what I gathered, they all loved it. We bought some flat bread and hummus to take home as well. As we have learned in Angola, when you find something you like and might want more of, you buy it then, because you never know when you can get more. Although I'm guessing the restaurant isn't going to disappear, it's a ways to get there, so we bought several bags of bread to freeze.

After the restaurant we headed down to an area called the Ilha. I guess it's basically a very large sand spit that has become a sort of beach front restaurant/bar area. We passed by beaches that as I have been told are not safe. No one should walk there at night or alone, ever. It was scattered with locals, but there weren't lots of people anywhere.

There were a lot of boats on the beach and in the water. Also, along here in the water we saw LOTS of big container ships. Angolan ports/customs etc are a nightmare. Shanan told us that some of the ships sit out there in that water for 6 months waiting to get into port. Apparently they even send the captains home for months at a time, so they don't have to wait on the ship. A good example of this, is that a container ordered during the 2006/2007 school year has just been delivered to our school. It is sitting in the parking lot ready to be unloaded.

Some, possibly not used, boats lined up on the shore...

That was pretty much it... we went into a restaurant/bar called Miami and had a few beers. It was nice. The food looked good, although we didn't have any.

On the way home, I think we drove a different way which was the highway that follows the water. On the way we saw quite a few housing compounds that looked VERY impressive. The houses were massive, looked like they had pools and gardens and all other kinds of things that are reminiscent of American suburbia.

OK...well... yeah, so there you go. That was our trip into the city today. Danielle said on the way home that even though it can be a pain sometimes, it's a good idea to go into the city now and then for a little reality check. It's easy to forget where you are when you stay inside the walls of our compound. You can see that Luanda used to be a beautiful city- and if you find old pictures, you can see that it was true. But, when you drive through it, you also see what years of civil war will do to a place. From what we saw today, I wouldn't say there is a "nice part of town" which was something I kept thinking would be around the next corner. There are nice buildings here and there, but, pretty much everything we saw today still looks run down, old, dirty, littered, etc. But Shanan and Danielle also said that the way Luanda looks today is almost unrecognizable from what it looked like two years ago when they first arrived...so, change is happening.