Great Unicef Video on Angola

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/angola_54038.html

The ladies, andulo

Photos, at last

Enjoy the photos which can be found at:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AauWzNozaN2Le

Made it to New York

Long haul from Luanda. Had to sprint through Johannesburg airport and only just made the connection. Disappointed not to have been able to shop in South Africa's duty free. Flight was fine, we stopped in Dakar to refuel and then did another 8 hours to Kennedy. Arrived on a beautiful sunny NY morning. I made it in one piece, my bag did not. It's still in Jburg. Oh well, no huge deal - it will arrive tomorrow. Currently at laguardia waiting for shuttle eating an ice cream, so nice to be back in the land of edible food!

Kwanzas

Forgot to mention - apparently you are not allowed take Kwanzas (local currency) out of the country. You know how much I enjoy a challenge.... I would like to understand their process for ensuring this is the case, how they measure effectiveness of their program and statistics for the last decade, maybe a scorecard? Should be fun at the airport.

Saturday morning, end of the mission

I am so looking forward to my hot shower at home, my own bed, a cold gin and tonic with ice and no smells or noises. Of course I feel bad that this is my sentiment but it is clear that Luanda is a tough place to be or to live.

I admire the Unicef staff who live here. That is the big difference between people on the periphery of humanitarian efforts like myself and people who are on the ground making that difference each day. They do so at great personal expense and live in conditions most of us would refuse to live in. Graham, head of education (married to girl from Kerry) told me his predecessor, a lady, arrived here sat through the UN security briefing and left the country two days later. We had the same briefing on Monday ourselves and now that the week is over (and I cannot worry you Mom) it scared the be-jaysus out of me. It basically said this is the most violent underprivileged city in the world, you should expect to be held up at gunpoint, mugged or car jacked and under no circumstances should you resist, just hand over what you have, your life is much more valuable. It would not give you the warm and fuzzies. We were in Unicef trucks all week and yesterday had police with us in the slums so I did not feel threatened, but it is just an unsettling feeling that everyone out there wants what you have, your camera, phone etc. They only want it because they have no other means of making money and they can see the injustice that visitors seem to be wealthy and they live in the dirty streets of Luanda.

Anyway, off to airport at 10am flying back to South Africa and from there 17.5 hours to New York. Looking forward to getting home. Lots more to share on this trip so continue to watch the blog and the photos are really amazing, so should be able to get them up by Sunday.

Last breakfast awaits - I stick to coffee and pastries as they are fully cooked, but the range on offer includes meatballs, eggs, fish, cold meats and fruits of unknown variety and other such lovelies.

More anon and thanks to all who tuned in this week, this kept me connected when other devices did not and I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. ciao

Resolve to evolve

Today was a tough day - we spent it in the slums of Luanda and while we saw pockets of hope and progress the overwhelming takeaway was huge over capacity in the city and slums which are enormous, leaving me feeling a little depressed. People with so little and so disadvantaged living in conditions which are entirely unbearable. The smells, the waste, dirty babies everywhere, the manky dogs eating trash. It was a lot to take in.

We went about an hour out to the edge of the city and first stop was a fish market of sorts. When I tell you this place stank it is the understatement of the century. There were literally millions of fish lying in the dirt, being salted, being sold. The smell was so overpowering and I honestly thought I might pass out. The boats were right on the beach with the fish and women everywhere selling them. I lasted about 10 minutes and had to get back into the car. We did meet a US NGO there called PSI selling water sanitation products for less than a dollar. These seem to be catching on and one drop can make a gallon of water safe to drink. The PSI lady, from Seattle. seemed oblivious to the smell. I was dumbfounded as to how she could stand there talking normally. I got pictures to share, as I always have.

After that we went with the vice mayor and opened five water pumps in the slums. These were funded 70% by unicef and 30% by the government. They did the ribbon cutting, and at two openings had champagne bottles they opened and threw around, which I found to be very insensitive to the surrounds. Clean water pumps for communities living in squalor - it did seem hopeful and lots of smiling and clapping all around.

We stopped at a clinic in the slums called Paradise clinic - some bad joke that is. After the tour by the director we were told they have not had any vaccinations for 3 months, hence no patients. Unicef have provided them with a motorbike which is supposed to be used for community outreach and to go get supplies. We left with officials speaking among themselves about who was to blame for not getting stock and letting donors come under such circumstances.

Back closer into the city we stopped into the largest orphanage in Luanda. 300 kids live here, abandoned or orphaned. The physical building etc was so in need of repair it was unbelievable. These kids were dirty, many physically or mentally disabled, babies who had been found in plastic bags, kids who no one cares for and the government is failing too. Honestly it was shocking, the smell, the dirt the general disrepair. Two kids to a bed and the smell was like the smell at the zoo from animals. When we asked why we were told it is just the smell from the bathrooms and the fact that disabled kids go to the loo everywhere. Unicef partner with the government on legislation changes for abandoned or orphaned kids, and we were joined by the head of the child survival program. They have been successful in getting many of the kids fostered but overall this visit was difficult, heart breaking and a reminder that the most disadvantaged in any society need moral justice and others to look out for them.

Last visit of the day was with a 60 year old widowed foster mother of two. She was delightful and the kids have blossomed in the two years with her. We saw pictures of the before and interacted with the after. An 11 year old boy and a 7 year old girl. They warmly welcomed us into their home and showed us their homework etc. It was very hopeful that those kids can be fostered or adopted by Angolans and that there are people who care. That said, to get to the house we walked through a slum which had the most appalling smell and again saw people living in awful conditions.

Enough for now, a hot shower awaits as I think I can still smell the fish on my clothes and hair.

Two great quotes from the day to share - a sign on the road *this is your road, it would not be smart to destroy it* and on a kids t-shirt *resolve to evolve* Amen to that!

Wednesday low point

Exhausted Wednesday eve I decided to skip the group dinner and have an early night in the hotel. The crew wanted to watch the world cup match and the words glass and chew came to mind for me of course. However, when I wandered out this am to meet the team they had all been taken down by food poisining in the night - every one of them including three who live here and should have better immunity than the visitors. Apparently whatever was on the menu last night did much damage. I always knew there was a reason i did not follow soccer.....

Knackered after a long day today. more updates tomorow.

Wednesday recap

Yesterday was the highlight of the trip so far. I have already shared our morning ride and coffee break experience now let me tell you what awaited us in Andulo.
Andulo is a provence in Kuito and this entire area was most heavily hit by the civil war which ravaged the surrounds and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to become displaced persons in the capital, or amputees if they stayed put, or widows and orphans.
We were greeted at the municpal building in Andulo by the director in charge and by dancing singing ladies and a welcome line of officals. The director is regarded as one of the most progressive in the provence and possibly the country. She showed us around her municipal offices and then we met with her team to hear about the progress they have made in the 8 years since peace. When it was time to hit the road and head to see the progress ourselves the ladies once again danced and sang for us - I got some great video and photos of this.

The first project we visited was a clinic for mothers and children which has been improved through Unicef funding among others. The lady in charge showed us around and gave us the tour starting with a new surgery unit, very basic and not yet operational but a big plus for the clinic. We then were shown into the prenatal unit. I should say that when we arrived there was quite literally a sea of pregnant women outside the clinic, some with babies, others expecting. When we were shown inside the inside was overflowing with pregnant women too. We met two babies born that day and we saw up close the vaccinations and HIV testing being done. The babies were literally adorable as you would expect but the sea of faces of mothers looked very young too and many of them had a toddler and a new born or a toddler and were expecting.
We were shown into the maternity ward where the new moms and babies were recovering and others were preparing for birth in the beginings of labor. I asked if drugs were given during childbirth and was happy to hear the response was yes. However, when I asked what was administered I was told paracetamol. Shocking.
We then were moved into a sick kid ward and met some kids with malaria and some malnurished.
During all of this I felt a real sense of unease that here we were staring at them and invading their privacy. Of course Unicef wants donors to see up close and personal but I could not help but think that we were invading. I did my best to hurry us all along and leave these poor ladies and babies alone. The doctor was a Cuban chap. Apparently it is very common to find Cuban doctors here and probably more importantly it is uncommon to find an Angolan doctor, something which will have to change for them to become self sufficient.

After the clinic we were taken to a remote village where outreach nurses were administering their mobile clinic. This was an amazing experience. When we pulled in there were literally hundreds of people and a sea of color on all of the ladies and their kids. The men, including four generals, stood in a line to meet us. Here we saw babies being weighed, getting immunizations and mothers getting prenatal care. We observed one little girl being weighed while we were there and she was clearly malnurished. Her mother was given 24 sachets of food supplement for the kid for a week. All free and at no cost to the Mom. We also visited classrooms at this location and saw happy kids who sung to us in clean newly constructed classrooms.

Some of the best tshirts I saw on Wednesday «

• On a little kid « dont be a fool - carpool
• On an old man - superman t-shirt underneath his suit jacket
• An obama tshirt
• On a little boy who was filthy - Carmel, California - he could not be further away

Throughout the day we saw kids everywhere and mothers too- we got to see upclose how challenged the circumstances are for the average remote Angolan but also the progress being made and the sense of pride in what they have accomplished and what they can do. Also really great to see Unicef materials and money funding so much progress.

Airline of the year award

Just got back to Luanda flying TAAG the national Angolan airline « beyond bad, quite literally the worst airline I have ever flown. The flight was four hours late, everyone sitting around wondering if there is a flight today or not, then it arrives only to find out we have a detour to some city in the south before heading back to Luanda. Overall the trip took nearly nine hours between checking in, not checking in, waiting around, flying, stopping and finally arriving. End of rant. The term, time sensitive « is obviously unknown here.

Wednesday morning - coffee clutch

6.30 am start today and our convoy was headed to Andulo provence about two hours out of Kuito. We enjoyed tarmac for some of the journey but dirt roads for a significant distance too, a very bumpy ride. About an hour into the journey we stopped the cars on the side of the road and enjoyed morning coffee. There we were in the middle of the african landscape of beauty as far as the eye could see. It's winter here and so there is a crispness in the air in the morning but it does not compare to winter in other parts of the world. As we enjoyed our coffee it occured to me that this beats any Wednesday morning coffee I have had for probably as long as I can remember, if ever. I had a moment of feeling extremely priviliged to be able to enjoy the morning like this and the beauty as the sun perched itself high in the sky. Very memorable.

Along our journey we passed about ten tanks on the side of the road or in ditches. These are left over from the civil war and have been stripped of anything valuable but sit there as a reminder of the extremely violent past this country has had. Most are courtesy of Russia, Cuba or maybe Ronald Regan, all of whom funded the Angolan war in some way. I got some snaps of them to share. Kuito is the area which suffered perhaps the most under the civil war and Andulo was in fact where rebel leader hailed from. Off to get a bite.

Tuesday - Kuito

Today was a stop and start day. We met at hotel reception at 6.30am for our flight to Kuito. We had been warned of possible delays and that there was a chance the flight would not go at all. Off we went to the airport. It was to be seen to be believed. Outside there were guys selling locks with keys and very large rolls of tape - I knew our Dora would appreciate their efforts. The departures consisted of some officals and a white board with handwritten departure times and places. Photo to follow. Anyway, our flight was not going anywhere soon so we took off to a local hotel - actually a really nice hotel.

We stayed there for a few hours and got the call around 9.30 that they were checking in our flight - a good sign apparently. Off we went back to the airport - guys selling locks were still outside.

Very odd system - we checked in around 10.30 and were through security and then boarded around 1.30 pm. The plane was probably a really old Russian plane sold to the Angolans. It smelled really bad. We took our seats and before we even took off the lady opposite me took out a pot with a stew of some kind in it with toothpicks in it and she and her companion started eating an undisclosed meat on sticks. I held my breath.

When we landed we were moved into the protocal lounge where we met the provincial director of social welfare and local media. It was hilarious we were seated in these huge leather chairs with local tv present.

After that we were whisked off to the hotel and from there to govt buildings for our meeting with the local authorities/officals in their offices.

We ended the evening with a great group dinner at our hotel and I am shortly off to bed. I will say that the buffett choices this evening were goat or an undisclosed and rather odd looking fish. I had rice, potatoes and veggies for dinner. Another early am kick off tomorrow. Good night from Kuito.

Monday afternoon

Monday we spent a lot of time in the car getting to the specific projects. Traffic is really outrageous. Imagine Boylston Street (or Stillorgan dual carriage way) and seven cars wide in a two or three lane road - it's brutal and not for the faint of heart, seems the only way to do it is to keep pushing your way through. Luckily we are in huge Unicef 4x4s and the drivers seem very capable. Scooters swerve in and out of cars non-stop. Ok enough about traffic and congestion.

In the afternoon we visited a school with new construction funded by Unicef - the school has 2,000 students who come in two shifts, 1,000 at a time. The kids wear white coats over their clothes like pharmacists (or shopkeepers in Ireland). They were well behaved beautiful kids who were intrigued by the visitors. They share a textbook between two or three students and are responsible for buying their own copy books and book bags. We told them why we were visiting and had some fun with them and they had some questions for the visitors from the USA which were great:

How old are you? (the women among us all looked at the floor)
Do you know Beyonce? (who was on most of the covers on their copy books)
How was the weekend?
Why are you here?
Their English is limited but we enjoyed the interaction very much and these kids are the future of Angola, not to mention beautiful beyond words. Pics to follow.

Viana Municipality

After the office de-brief we headed to the field. The first stop was in the Viana municipality which anywhere else in the world would be called, slum. There are people everywhere on the sides of roads, traffic is awful and everywhere there are people selling stuff (see earlier posting). We pulled in at the side of the road and met with a Unicef partner, a local NGO focused on stopping child trafficking. This is a program started in January with the Africa nations cup which they have continued with. They stand at these busy intersections giving advice and know your rights to kids. Here trafficking is a huge problem and these kids get taken across borders never to be seen again. When we visited a dozen kids were listening to the details, as well as some adults. It's pretty basic stuff like don't go with someone you don't know etc. but here the most basic advice is needed. From there we went to a school under a tree where the NGO was teaching self protection and what to be aware of to a group of maybe 25 kids. They also teach basic hygiene and HIV prevention.

11 commitments

We started the day Monday at the Unicef offices, inside a very large UN building in Luanda. There we had a briefing from the team on the work being done in Angola in the 8 years since civil war ended and the work has moved from emergency to development. The main focus of Unicef's work here now is around the 11 commitments to Angolan children a government initiative launched in 2009. The 11 commitments are:

• Life expectancy
• Food and nutritional secuirty
• Birth registration
• Early childhood education
• Primary education
• Juvenille justice
• Prevention of HIV/AIDS on children and families
• Prevention and mitigation of violence against children
• Family capacities
• Children and the media
• Children in the state budget

Everything UNICEF does here correlates to one or more of these commitments. The great thing about UNICEF is that while they are in the field helping children they are also at table making policy with the government. This allows them a unique influence.

For Sale

Great first day in the field today. We just got back to the hotel after visiting several projects which I will write about in more detail later. The traffic is unbelievable here and as you sit in traffic there are guys selling you name it to drivers. Here are some of the more interesting things I saw for sale today in Luanda »

• remote controls
• rabbit ears for tvs (not sold with the remotes)
• rolling pins
• axes
• wall clocks~
• laminated white boards and pens
• bic biros
• pillows

Dinner shortly with the team and an early start tomorrow. Laters.

sunday recap

Yesterday was a great first day. We were hosted for lunch by the country director, a Belgian doctor who has been here for two years but with Unicef around the globe for close to 20 years. Very interesting guy. We also got to meet the rest of the local team: Lone from Denmark, Sergio from Brazil, Graham from Scotland (married to a girl from Kerry) and some others I did not yet get credentials on. His apartment was on the sea front and on a strip which could be Nice or some other beautiful coastal town other than the fact that there is abject poverty all around. I will update photos when I can. The government planted trees along the strip for the African Nations football contest hosted here a few months ago, and then took them out once the games were over, you can see the large holes left from uprooting them. This is also where the Togo team got shot, at least in Angola, not Luanda.
So we had a very civilized lunch on his veranda looking out on the bay.

After lunch Lone took us to a very trendy part of town on the beach. We had drinks in a bar which was literally on the beach and could have been the W it was so cool. Certainly seeing how the other half lives here on our first day.

Today we are off to the Unicef offices, followed by some urban projects here in Luanda.
Luanda was built to accommodate 500,000 people and today 7m live here. Congestion abounds, litter is everywhere and it appears extremely run down. Plenty of military and we are not far from the Presidential palace.

Luanda, according to my sources, is the most expensive city in the world to live in. Yesterday I spent $15 on a small bottle of hair conditioner. Lone tells me one peach costs $5 at the local supermarket and that she periodically sends her shopping receipts home to Denmark because no one would believe what you pay for basics here. I told her about stuffbackhome.com-

Got to see the rerun of the final and Rafa's win last night, there was not much contest there.

Off on Monday adventures now. Ciao

Sunday morning, Luanda

Greetings from Luanda.
Arrived safely yesterday by lunchtime and was met by Melissa of Unicef (NYC). We had lunch in the hotel and by 3pm local time I was unable to put a sentence together with tiredness.
The hotel is quite lovely and has most of the modern conveniences we have come to expect. The local architect for Unicef was on our flight too and traveled with us to the hotel. An Italian, he is responsible for designing the schools and any other construction for UNICEF on the ground. He has been here 3 years. He lvies next door to the hotel on the 13th floor but elevator does not work. Luanda is one of the most expensive countries for ex-pats to live in the world according to a recent survey. Italian guy told us a two bedroom apt with basics and subject to no water and electrcity periodically is $8k a month, and he is required to pay a year up front. The landlord then disappears to Europe to spend his windfall and so if anything goes wrong with the apt he is difficult to track down. This guy sounded fairly cheesed off by the whole event.

Luanda is on the coast and all you can see in the bay are giant oil rigs. Yesterday coming from Johannesburg there were lots of chinese men travelling here, all of whom are apparently flocking here for the construction and oil work. As we drove through the streets from the airport it was dusty, dirty and overcrowded. Lots of folks selling their wares on the side of the street, bananas, fish etc and scooters everywhere. Congestion too throughout the city.
>Right across from the hotel are two tower blocks which would put Ballymun to shame. I have taken pictures and will upload as soon as I can. There is general filth on the side of the road and in the doorways of buildings, clothes hanging from every window and satellite dishes everywhere too.

After lunch I took to bed and slept till about 7.30pm. I then watched some TV and fell back asleep around 9.30 sleeping soundly until 9.30 this am. When I woke I felt like a new woman, and the impact of the treck across the globe has diminshed on my body. The noise from the street was signifcant last night (although it did not keep me awake) loud music, horns and scooters etc. Electricity went out twice last night in the two hours I was awake. This morning I heard a cock crowing.

Just had breakfast with the crew. Another party arrived since I was asleep, a lady from California who arrived from Botswana where she was on safari for a week, which sounded amazing. She sits on the LA chapter board from Unicef and so we swapped stories of snowflake balls last year - mine with David Duchovney and hers with Angelina and Brad, George Clooney and others.

We are being hosted for lunch in the country director´s home for Unicef. No wireless hook up yet and having trouble with power adapters but I will hopefully be able to get pictures up soon.

Hoping to see the men's final this afternoon or on replay this evening. Go RAFA!!!

Arrived SA

Arrived Johanesburg and now on flight 54 to Luanda. Beautiful sunny morning here.

You gotta laugh when you fall off a sofa

Flying SAA reminds me of one of my all time favorite Alan Partridge episodes where he is trying to impress a South African business man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOGn2nvKIUQ

classic

At Kennedy

Made it to JFK without incident and will shortly be boarding SAA. The flight is 15 hours 25 minutes. We take off at 11.15am and US time it will be 3am when we land in South Africa. Luckily I stayed out too late last night with the girls and so will have no trouble sleeping.

Some findings from my recent reading to share with you:

• Angola gained Independence from Portugal in 1975
• Civil war waged for 25 years ending in 2002 when Savimbi (rebel leader) and two dozen of his body guards were shot dead by government troops
• Since then Angola has become one of the richest African countries, largely due to oil and other natural resources.
• Despite the oil bonanza almost three quarters of Angola's people live on less than $1 a day and 45% of its children are malnourished.
• in 2005 the UN development programme ranked Angola 160th out of the 177 countries in its human development index (Norway, Sweden would be in the ranking of 1 or 2)

Welcome to my Angola Blog

Wednesday evening in Boston - work ridiculously busy - why is it always that way when you are trying to get away? Last day in the office tomorrow.

Friday is a day of pure travel. Pick up in Boston 6.30am for flight to JFK - then 11am depart JFK for Johannesburg - 15 hours. Connect in JB and arrive Luanda Saturday lunch time.

My trip this time is with Unicef and I am traveling with three other donors - we will be visiting projects on the ground in Angola funded by US fund for Unicef.

July is considered winter season in Angola with milder temps and cold at night. Angola is five hours ahead of NYC or same time as Dublin. Note to self look at atlas and see how that is possible. Currency of Angola is the Kwanza.

This extract from my briefing book is good:

Visitors to Angola are advised not to photograph sites and installations of military or security interest, including govt buildings, as this can result in fines and possibly arrest.

And a good extract from Wikipedia:

Angola's economy has undergone a period of transformation in recent years, moving from the disarray caused by a quarter century of civil war to being the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the fastest in the world. In 2004, China's Eximbank approved a $2 billion line of credit to Angola. The loan is being used to rebuild Angola's infrastructure, and has also limited the influence of the International Monetary Fund in the country.^[6]

Growth is almost entirely driven by rising oil production which surpassed 1.4 million barrels per day (220,000 m³/d) in late-2005 and was expected to grow to 2 million barrels per day (320,000 m³/d) by 2007. Control of the oil industry is consolidated in Sonangol Group, a conglomerate which is owned by the Angolan government. In December 2006, Angola was admitted as a member of OPEC.^[7] The economy grew 18% in 2005, 26% in 2006 and 17.6% in 2007 and it's expected to stay above 10% for the rest of the decade. The security brought about by the 2002 peace settlement has led to the resettlement of 4 million displaced persons, thus resulting in large-scale increases in agriculture production.

Famously Princess Diana visited Angola in 1997 observing landmines left over from civil war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=YseI_CWlCcg&feature=related