Sights and sounds

It’s a computer-free airport. You must arrive early in the morning to ask if and when there is a flight. Benguela? Yes. Noon. $120. Then you wait in a crowded room and enjoy the smell of the nearby water-free toilet. That’s where I’m writing these lines.

After my visit to Kilamba Kiaxi, I thought I had seen a musseque. But then I passed by Boavista, where a cholera epidemics killed hundreds in 2006. I felt a kind of numbness as I contemplated those never-ending shacks, all made of waste, sitting on hills made of waste. Quite literally. It all merged in many shades of grey against the greyish Luanda sky. In our Range Rover, the cheerful Development Workshop girls suddenly became quiet. Or maybe my brain shut down for a while.

We arrive in Sambinzanga, a 600 thousand people slum. I marvel at the sight of all these bits and pieces, people and flies. It’s somehow like Versailles. A cathedral. An intricate piece of jewellery. I take out my microphone, start speaking my white Portuguese and become the entertainment of the day.

People don’t say much about the elections. Some don’t really understand what it’s about, Many think it’s dangerous. Very few dare say they will vote for the opposition. An exuberant twenty something girl spoke of Angola’s future with a smile and proudly said the supported UNITA. An old man (was he really that old?) sewing sandals at his vintage Singer said he was satisfied with his life.

The MPLA meeting on Saturday was an intense experience as well. The kuduro show started and everybody ran to the stage, raising a huge cloud of dust. Thousands of electrified people. My heart races as I interview Bento Bento (a MPLA hotshot) in the VIP tent. Dressed in red, twice my size. I look up and am sure he can smash the opposition with his little finger, like a crumb.

A couple of EU observers came to the meeting as well. They’re staying in my hotel.

The girl is really something. She goes jogging in Luanda. Women here don’t run and white women don’t go out alone. Elections are definitely transforming Angola.