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!!!