Angola - money matters

Picture the view. Peering out to an oceanic vista with millionaire yachts docked on your doorstep. To the left is a 7km stretch of beachland called the Isla. To the right is the centre of town - a multitude of giant buildings and construction sites on their way to becoming giant buildings. At night, the skyline is more reminiscent of Hong Kong - electronic billboards and lazer lights - than the stereotypical image of Africa.

But there is a twist (there's always a twist). Our vista was affectionately known as "monturo de beuena vista" roughly translating to "rubbish dump with a nice view". You see it is nosebleedingly incredible how expensive it is here. The dump was actually the car park of the Luanda Yacht Club who very kindly allowed us to pitch tents much to the bewilderment of Zirka, our taxi driver, whose jaw almost hit the floor when he saw that we weren't like the usual punters he drops off at the Yacht Club (I thought at one point, in fact, that he was going to offer some of our fare back. No such luck!)




Angola holds a bit of a mystique when you are in Namibia. Off limits, down talked and yet so close, it wasn´t a hard decision to want to find out what really goes on here. And what we found was a country which truly does seem to be putting its war years behind it, rolling up its sleeves and building for a bright future. The amount of construction work throughout the country had to be seen to be believed.

By using public transport, we figured that we would be doing things on the cheap, yet even packed minibuses were mindnumbingly (not to mention bumnumbingly) pricey. How the local people afford such prices is beyond my comprehension. One person we spoke to simply said "we Angolans are very innovative". And from what I saw I can't disagree. The people, in fact, were brilliant. I read somewhere that if a journey through East Africa is about the landscape and wildlife, the West Africa is about the people. Angola has really started to live up to this. It wasn't just the innovativeness of the Angolan people though, but more the fact that people seemed willing to spend money. In Namibia I often felt like people were reluctant to part with their cash. In Angola, people bought things on the street, got their shoes shined and generally seemed to be happy to contribute their money elsewhere. And noone seemed remotely interested in us. Anywhere. Angola is very very untravelled and white faces are seldom seen, especially in the rural areas. Yet noone took a blind bit of notice. It was fantastic. We would converse, barter and pass just like anyone else and that anonimity really made you feel safe and, in a strange way, very welcome.

Of course there are many sides to a picture. I can't for one minute say that its all sunshine and roses here. I think I read that the GDP is still amongst the lowest in the world and certainly the slum areas were in a very bad state indeed. And there were children everywhere. In Benguela we took a long midday walk along the beautiful beach and there were hundreds of Angolan children revelling in the sea. It was wonderful to see, but you realised that the children were out because there are no schools for them to go to. I hope that the future is bright for these people and the money which is clearly pouring into the country gets down to those who need, and deserve, it.



So country number two, Angola, a big thank you. You have proven that a book should not be judged by its cover and I will be watching with interest. I can't think of any place where I've been more intrigued about going back in five years time to see how it changes. I'll just save my pennies before coming back and hope for a room with a view next time.