Luanda, Angola

I got my hopes up as I got on the plane because it was an enormous plane and it seemed as though there were very few passengers in the waiting area.  As I approached my seat my hopes were dashed as I discovered that the fellow in the seat next to me was a large fellow. I decided that there was no harm in asking so I asked the flight attendant if I could move to one of the empty seats. She looked sympathetic but she said that the flight was full. I had just started to doze off while we were still on the ground when the flight attendant was trying to get my attention. She moved me to an empty row of my own. How luxurious! Two long flights in comfort.

Unfortunately the comfort didn't extend to better sleeping. Maybe all together I slept another 90 minutes or so. I watched the Quartet and Monsters University both of which I enjoyed a lot. I also watched Lincoln again and a few minutes of the Croods before they abruptly shut off the displays.

When we landed the air was cool and humid as we packed onto a bus to shuttle us to the airport. One of my fears had been that they would object to my vaccination record. I got a yellow fever vaccine when I was in Ghana but apparently they didn't fill out the form the way they are supposed to. They indicated that I had the vaccine, but they didn't put that in the right place on the form. Fortunately, while the location of the information did confuse the health worker briefly, he saw what he needed to see and let me pass into the large room roped off for the cattle processional.

I guess it was the early hour (around 4:30) but it was really quiet in this line. I slowly made it to the front and saw these LG Monitor displays all showing a TeamViewer error message on it. It made me chuckle because TeamViewer is the software that I use daily to remote connect to my colleagues in Africa. No one who worked there seemed to notice the error and I wasn't about to make waves to point it out.

I noticed to posters duplicated on most every surface of the hall. Two things struck me. One seemed to have something to do with crops and showed a bunch of produce with fruits organized in the symbol of the country, a crescent, sword and star. The other was an ad for a bank perhaps, and I was struck with the fact that the model did not have perfect teeth.

Another thing that seems odd to me is the difference in the lines for Nationals verses Foreigners. The line for nationals was so small that it was practically non-existant. The line for Foreigners was packed and slow. It is the opposite when arriving in the US.

There was a young fellow in line that I really would have liked to photograph. He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, and old style navy cap, tattoos up and down his arms and a handle bar mustache that made me chuckle. I know it can be touchy to take pictures in airports and I was also too shy to ask him so I missed the chance, but he really looked as though he stepped out of an old fashioned post card.

Immigration was simple. Apparently since I had filled out my visa application so many times I had no paperwork on the plane and nothing to fill out when I landed. They checked my passport, scanned a few pages, took my picture and stamped my book.

Normally I feel I have very good luggage mojo. I noticed that this airport had a fully modern baggage carousel system. I normally find that my bag is one of the first to come out on landing. This was a small exception. It was so late in the delivery that I started mentally manufacturing scenarios where I had to figure out what I needed to purchase until my luggage caught up with me. As usual, I didn't really have to worry about it. On the last set of luggage to come off, my bag came down the carousel, completely intact.

Then I sailed through Customs in the "Nothing to Declare" line. There were so many people waiting outside that I couldn't tell if my Embassy Expediter who was supposed to be waiting for me was in the crowd or not. I looked around for a while, wondered if it was possible that I had missed him and decided to deal with my first priority of finding the toilet.

I reminded myself that I should ALWAYS listen to my mother so when she says to pack a bit of toilet paper just in case, next time I will listen.I don't think that bathroom has seen toilet paper in ages.

When I came out I nearly bumped into a young fellow with a distinctive khaki colored vest with US Embassy Expediter written on it. His name is Golf and his English was perfect. He made sure that I was ok and then we walked to the car. There was a distinctive smell of ocean in the air as the Atlantic was just over there.

We saw, in the distance, the Parliament
building still under construction

Golf sounded embarrassed that the white van was dirty from a rain shower that had occurred earlier that day. Golf said it would be a very quick trip because there was no traffic. Considering how many cars there were and how many times we came to a complete standstill, I checked with him a few times that this is what it's like when there's no traffic.

Golf said the traffic was much improved when Luanda built it's first bridge in the 90s. Then another was built. That reduced the traffic a great deal and now it will encourage them to build even more.

The two shower doors roll toward their
walls from the corner.

We pulled up to the hotel. I was told that I might have been allowed to check in when I arrived if I was willing to pay an extra $100, but that seemed silly so I set up residency in the lounge area just off of the lobby. I got on wifi, contacted David and Mom, and then snoozed a bit until it was time for me to check in.

The place is rather nice. Mostly akin to a Marriott, but $342 per night (Luanda is the most expensive city in the world.). The shower had a very cool, clever shower door that opens from the corner.

I noticed pretty quickly that when they said that my room was ready they didn't mean the same kind of ready that I thought they meant. There were no linens, no towels, pretty stark. Of course the two things I had most been looking forward to were a shower and a nap. I went downstairs to the reception desk to ask for these things and I think they thought that I had sheets and towels and wanted more. It did not take long for two people to show up from housekeeping, one was clearly a manager who got on the phone and it sounded as though she was scolding someone. She seemed incredulous. The second, younger woman set out to not only bring these items, but to clean the room top to bottom. I know it would have been easier if I had not been in the way, but with two days without a computer, I had to take advantage all that I could.

Towel arranged to spell the hotel's name Skyna

Finally I got to shower and nap. The shower was lovely. When the woman brought towels she also brought all of the fancy hotel types of things such as soaps and bathing caps and shoe horns. This is, however, the first hotel that I've stayed in in Africa that does not provide water. Brushing my teeth will be a bit complicated.

I thought I might have trouble sleeping as the street noises were intense and there were noises coming from the other rooms, but I had no problem sleeping. I did finally wake up when Lourdes (the Chief of Party in Angola) called to tell me that there had been a mistake and the plane ticket that was purchased was for today not tomorrow. She asked me to go to the travel office and try to get it worked out.

It was very confusing.When I got there they informed me that they would not be able to purchase a ticket for me. I needed to go to the airlines travel office, but they would be closed so I would need to go to the office in the airport. ($70 shuttle ride.) It appeared that the flight would be full so I might not be able to fly after all. I would have to pay an additional $50 No-Show charge plus a penalty for re-booking to run up to about another $70 charge. At this point I did the math and thought that replacing the ticket and just losing the original ticket might cost less then trying to fix that ticket. Eventually Lourdes called to help because things were getting more and more confusing.

It turns out that we will get the shuttle ride from here to the airport ($70 for one person and $105 for two people for about a 15 minute ride at that hour). I will go directly to the travel office and try to get a stand-by for the first flight and if I can't get on I will try to get a flight that has a connection somewhere.

While all this was going on, Chilufya, my colleague coming from Zambia, showed up at the travel office looking for me. He is almost exactly as I had imagined him. Very, very tall and slender, extremely bright and very enthusiastic. The only real difference between my imagination and reality is that I had imagined him a bit on the quiet side. Not for any reason -- it was just the picture that I had in my head. He is not at all shy. He is young, fun and loves his job. He will likely provide a lot of the training in this area that they need. Of course this will take away a lot of my chances to come again, but that will certainly make David happy and save the company a lot of money.

Once we had finished that business we walked three blocks to get to the Tendinha restaurant that was less than a block away. Chilufya really called it when he said that in Africa they don't know how to give directions. He half jokingly said that since we had been instructed to turn left then we probably should turn right. We turned left, went about a block and a half, before we pantomimed and showed the name of the restaurant on a paper. We had passed the restaurant  back when we turned left when we should have gone right.

It was a lovely small place. Chilufya asked just the right question. We can't read the menu so please tell us what is on the menu that is particularly Angolan -- not Portuguese -- Angolan. We got a lovely fish dish with green beans and potatoes. It was perfect. I found out that Chilufya almost left Abt for another company but we were able to keep him by moving him from IT to training. He is not new to training and just by talking to him I can tell that he must be terrific at it. He has two young daughters and clearly loves being a dad. I gave him the "Don't let them become teenagers" lecture and he was rather confused why anyone would want to have rats as pets much less why someone would let their child have rats as pets. He bragged that his 4 year old makes her own bed and cleans her own toys every day. I think maybe we need to bring her to the US to provide a training for my daughter.

We walked the quick walk back to the hotel and now it is finally time for me to sign off and get most of a night's sleep. For the full set of pictures follow this link.