Upcoming elections

On August 23 Angola will hold the first national election since 2012 and this is a BIG deal since the current president is stepping down after 38 years! Brief history lesson- Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975- directly after independence the Angolan Civil War started.  There were 2 main groups fighting for power, MPLA who was backed by communist countries like the USSR and Cuba and UNITA who was backed by the US and South Africa.  Elections occurred during the war but as you can imagine they were hotly contested affairs but MPLA has held the position of president for the entire 42 year history of an independent Angola. The current president has been the leader of the MPLA party since 1979.  The civil war ended in 2002 with the death of the UNITA leader but elections didn't occur again until 2008 and then again in 2012, both times with MPLA winning by a landslide.

Their system is a sort of Parliamentary system so the party that wins the most seats holds the position of president.  We assume MPLA will maintain the majority and a new leader has already been identified but it might be an interesting 2 months.  We have been assured the Angolans don't have a taste for revolt after living through the horrors of a 27 year civil war that decimated their country (see side note).  But you do hear them wanting change - there is a lot of corruption in the government and many citizens seem to feel that corruption leaves them poor and without access to basic services like medical care, medications and clean water.  UNITA has had a few rallies - below is a video out our window of the most recent.  It was maybe 50 cars long, lots of chanting but no issues.



We expect election day will end up being a holiday for the company since all citizens are expected to vote in their home "precinct" and most drivers and employees live outside the city so they won't be able to come to work.   I figure it will be like a hurricane party for us here in the apartment :)

Side note- it is hard to grasp that every Angolan over the age of 20 lived through a bloody civil war.  Our driver is in his mid-40s and it hard to think his whole life included war.  I have yet to ask him about it but we know that he speaks some French so we assume his family fled to the Congo at some point.  Things here are sometimes frustrating and part of that has to do with what seems to be a lack of care about the future or progress but when you remember what they have been through you realize they have a hard time thinking past today or next week - survival is key here for the Angolans.

And a few random pictures from the past week:

Movies have an intermission here!

All day, every day!  Ladies carry items on the head, piled high, load changes but always entertaining to see

10 eggs not 12- what!?

Leak in our A/C unit (very common) - our building is Chinese built so the repair guys can be fun to try to communicate with but they are quick to help out!  This was 6:30 at night 

View from the balcony - those are 3 federal police officers- they roam the streets  - interesting sight

Cape Town

Cape Town from the air- Lions Head is on the far right, then Table Mountain - far to the left is Cape Point

We were exited to get out of Angola for a few days and see something new.  We flew the Angolan national airline, TAAG, and it was a surprisingly good experience.  On time, well equipped plane and a pretty easy boarding process.  We arrived in Cape Town Friday afternoon and went to our AirBnB to check in - we stayed about 20 minutes south of the city.  The cottage was part of a large private property which was pretty plush - the lady was from Mali original but lived in Europe most of her life so she was really interesting to talk to.  She had a house full of help plus a driver and gardener- fancy.  After settling in we went to a local mall - we had a great burger (and forgot that we could order in English!) and then wandered the shops.  We needed some specific things like new workout shoes and headphones but ended up with a few other niceties like new silverware to replace the cheap stuff we got with the apartment.  We also wandered the grocery store (Woolworth's) and picked up some things we can't find like tortillas, naan bread, quinoa, dried fruit, and licorice.

View of main house from our cottage steps

We arrived a few days after a huge storm in Cape Town and it continued to rain most of the time we were there which on one hand was really nice - rain is scarce in Luanda and it was cool (in the 50-60's).  On the other hand it did limit what we could do - so much of Cape Town is outside stuff like Table Mountain (only saw it as we flew in), Lion's Head, beaches etc.  Saturday we did get in a semi-dry 2 hour hike in the Cecelia Forest which was next to the cottage - Cape Town has a lot of nature very accessible.  It was our anti-Luanda experience - cool weather, slight rain, gorgeous views and outside walking!

The last blue sky we saw

Views from the morning hike- this one overlooks the wine region

After that we headed to the Constantia Wineries which are basically a suburb of Cape Town and date back to the 1600's.  It was a $3 Uber ride away (yep they have Uber in Africa!).  We went to Buitenverwachting first and enjoyed a 5 wine tasting with very generous pours for the grand total of $8 which was waved since we bought 2 bottles of wine.  Part of Blood Diamond was filmed here so the wine we bought was called Rough Diamond as it came from the vines that Leo was in during filming.  Then we had an amazing lunch in their fancy restaurant which included an amuse-bouch, pallet cleanser, bread and wine for $25 total - so food is cheap here to say the least!  Then we headed to Constantia Glen and had another tasting and a meat plate - similar prices but busier.  As it was raining we headed back to the mall to wander a bit more inside - we picked up some Indian food at the grocery store and headed home.

Stop #1

Amazing lunch (yep- fish and chips!)

National flower of South Africa (King Protea)- I am obsessed

Stop #2

Meat plate- two new delicacies Biltong and Droewors along with Rooiboos smoked butter

Very pretty architecture

Winery Dog

Overcast skies and winter vines but still pretty scenic

Sunday was raining again but we headed into the city proper to see some of the touristy stuff.  Went to the V&A Waterfront and the rain let up so we could walk around.  Got some steps in, saw some boats and architecture and then headed to lunch.  After lunch we went to the Aquarium - saw a huge leatherback turtle and African and Rockhopper penguins.  After a lovely dinner we headed home.

Waterfront

Not much to see of Table Mountain

Cool building that used to be a grain silo near the port but transformed to a hotel

Jelly Fish

Next morning.... I am sick!  I can only assume it was the lovely dinner I was so excited about - salad!  New lesson: salad is not safe on the entire continent not just Angola.  Spent all day trying to feel well enough for our evening flight home.  Flight was good again and got home about 9pm.  Sadly I spent 2 more days pretty sick and finally headed to the company medical clinic where I was tested for Malaria (sure makes that risk more real!).  Thankfully I don't have Malaria but did get a boatload of medications to make me better (for free I might add!).  So after a week I am finally on the mend - moral of the story - no salads.  Cape Town was great but we need to go back when it is not raining to see it in all it's glory.

Headed home

My collection of free meds

**Follow-up on Malaria - yes it is a real concern here, Angola has a deadly variety of it  (P. falciparum) and people get it all the time (estimated 3 million cases happen each year).  We both take Malarone (a high effective anti-Malarial drug) every day and avoid mosquitos as much as possible.