2 Weeks in Luanda

View down the street of the compound

Living room

Backyard.  The lady who lived here before was a green thumb.  I have a garden with eggplant, tomatoes, papayas, basil, onions, and some other herbs

I have been in Luanda for 2 weeks and I have only just begun to experience the city.  The main focus of the first two weeks was work and trying to get into a routine at my house.   I have found that even though I thought I made a great packing list prior to my departure, every day I find there is some little thing that is missing.  No big deal in the states, but here I may not be able to get that basic thing I need.  I have been to the two main “Supermercados” and to say the selection of goods is skimpy is an understatement.  I have felt good about the food so far, but time will tell.

I am living in a compound that is made up of all the expats from my company.  (Pictured above.)  As you can see everyone has the same house, same, yard, and same car.  There is a nice activity area with a pool, gym, dining hall, tennis  & basketball courts, soccer field, and a nice little bar/BBQ area to have parties. I feel quite safe in the compound and in general.  One little annoyance is that the power goes out quite often (it went out three times while I was writing this).  It comes right back on as there is a generator that kicks in, but that may get old.

The one place I spend a lot of time is my daily drive. 

In the evening I spend 1-2 hours driving home.  There are not too many good roads and the main thoroughfare is always packed with cars. I have someone that drives me and that is definitely a good thing.  Besides the fact that I can read or watch a movie to pass the time, the situation on the road is crazy.  It does seem like utter chaos, but it is controlled chaos.   There is an underlying politeness in the way that everyone drives.  Everyone stops and lets everyone else in.  They should ship people to Luanda to teach defensive driving.  They would be experts by the time they left.  Honking is a norm, but not the way it is used in the states.  It says “hey I am here, don’t hit me”, because keeping inside the lanes is pretty much a suggestion. 

I spend most of the time staring out the window at the mass of chaos going on throughout the streets.  There are people everywhere you look.  While the level of poverty is staggering the streets are alive with people trying to get work done.    There are three levels of economy on the street.

1.     Actual storefronts which range from nice professional looking stores to shanty houses that have been turned into make shift businesses.

2.     The sidewalks are littered with blankets, tents, and makeshift grills that are put up and brought down every day.

3.     Lastly, what I have coined the “kamikaze salesmen” are guys who are literally dodging traffic trying to sell whatever it was they got their hands on.   These guys can get very aggressive.

Lots of these people take a lot of pride in what they do and you can see the hard work that they put in on a daily basis for what I imagine is not a lot of money.  You can buy anything from all of these.  A couple of things that I have seen irons, lamps, clothes, shoes, chicken kabobs, power convertors, hangers, sodas, beer, corn cobs, sunglasses, spatulas, coffee cups, bowels, dog leashes, popcorn, all fruits and vegetables, cookies, crackers, dog bowels, drills, saws, leatherman, luggage, hats, power strips, cds, cassette tapes, bottles of liquor, gloves, tanning shade, tents, coolers, pliers, hoses, pillows, bras, fishing poles.  These are just a few things that popped into my head, if you can think of it you can buy it on your drive home without getting out of the car.

All in all it has been a great start to my stay here and I look forward to learning a lot more about Angola.  More to come.