Trip to Conda

We had an amazing trip last week to a little town about 6 hours away (when the traffic isn't too heavy), called Conda, in the province of Cuanza Sul.  With millions of people living in Luanda, the rest of Angola is very rural and has a wonderfully diverse landscape that is not present in the capital of Luanda.  We were, and are continually craving nature and the chance to "spread out," so during the kids' October break, we jumped at the chance to leave the city.

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   Riquita, a coworker of Briant’s with dual Angola/Portugal citizenship that has worked at the embassy for the last 25 years, told us about a wonderful place where she had visited and stayed in Conda.  It was a farm, or "fazenda," that was run by Portuguese.  There were plenty of new things for all of us to see at the fazenda and on our road trip there.  So many things, that we took 1,900 photos!  Actually, it was Briant who manned the camera while I drove to prevent my carsickness.  I am to blame for all the pics outside of the car though.  But I could totally see why our RSO Nick made fun of Briant on a previous road trip, saying that he took pictures like a "little prepubescent girl."  Really, I can't blame him though.  These pictures capture a memory for us, and even though pics can't truly show the beauty or interest of what we see, they do speak volumes about what rural Angolan life is like.  Here are some of them:
Leaving Luanda:

Getting to the outer limits of Luanda

After crossing over the Kwanza river and bridge:

There are many landmines left from the Angolan civil war that began soon after they gained their independence from Portugal (1975-2002).  They have still not been cleaned up so Angola is one of the most landmine contaminated countries in the world.  Unfortunately because of the war, much of the agriculture suffered and the coffee plantations and fields were destroyed in Conda and the province of Cuanza Sul.  And with the prevalence of landmines, the provinces in Angola are still not able to use much of their land for agricultural purposes.  Here is a warning sign to avoid the area due to landmines.

Once leaving Luanda, the concrete and cinder block houses became huts made from dried mud, rocks, and sticks with dried leaves of some sort on the roof.  Living in a high rise apartment that is usually pretty clean, we still see cockroaches occasionally here.  I can just imagine the work it must take to keep bugs from taking over the houses and roofs.  And of course almost all of these villages (especially the further we got from Luanda) were functioning without grid electricity.

A few hours outside of Luanda, we started to see a lot of rivers.  Thomas was writing the names of all the rivers down, so I think we calculated that there were 15 or so rivers on our way to Conda.  They looked so beautiful in their calm and peaceful way.

Burning in the fields:

Driving, I had to be very careful not to hit people, goats, chickens and dogs that walk on the side of the road.

There were little villages all along the way to Conda.

The Sumbe river and the Sumbe Binga Falls River.

The falls:

Stopping to look at the falls.  We had to sign in and pay this "official" man to enter the park.  The falls were beautiful and we enjoyed stretching our legs at the same time.  This was about 3.5 hrs. into our trip.

There was a smaller area of falls to the right of the large one that was fun to explore as well.  The kids loved climbing all over the rocks and we enjoyed mingling with some of the local children that were fishing there.

This boy was the "chefe," or boss of the group.  He was catching all of the little fish.  They said they would go home and cook them before they ate them.  Luckily the boys in the boat on the left weighed nothing because there was a whole plank in the middle of the boat that was missing.

Angola is definitely the place to see uniquely colored lizards!

A beautiful old, unused bridge at the top of the falls.  It is definitely falling apart, but is still standing.

Briant worked really hard to get over from the new bridge we were on, to the old bridge to get this picture.  The falls are below.

Around the bridge area, people were bathing and washing clothes.

Vendors in this area of Cuanza Sul.

Long empty roads that led to little villages scattered about.  We were making our way into those mountains in the distance.  

Now in the mountains--they were so beautiful.  We felt as if we were in Brazil or Hawaii.  Humid and lush, green with a variety of trees and bushes including large palm trees, and wonderful smells of nature.

 

Coming down out of the mountains now and making the last portion of our journey to Conda.

These clouds were astounding.  This picture doesn't capture it, but the mountains were huge, and the clouds were even larger, rolling over the mountains in a sort of tsunami looking wave.  Amazing.

The famously large "rocks" of Conda.

Not much going on in the town of Conda.  Mud huts, homemade mud "bricks" drying in the sun, laundry lines, people hanging outside of their homes together, kids playing creatively with "non-toys," etc.  We saw a police station, a small government building, a school, and a church.

During the long drive to Conda and even in Conda, we usually got long stares from the locals, not usually smile-filled stares, so it was nice when we received a smile or a thumbs up, like from the kids on the top left picture below.  We were definitely "strangers" in their communities with our car and white skin.  Of course when we would stop and ask a question to someone, like where to find the community pool, they were kind and helpful. 

Here is a community pool that we were told was very nice and that we would enjoy.  It was a good thing we had a 4x4 because we drove downhill on a very bumpy, unpaved "road," if you can call it that.  We asked a few locals for directions to the pool, and everyone just pointed in a certain direction.  We kept going, and going, so we asked again where it was and how far away it was.  Everyone kept acting like it was just "around the corner" so we were expecting it to be closer.  After 20 minutes of 4x4-ing, we finally reached it.  Again, I was glad I was driving because I still felt a little sick with all the shaking.

Directly to the right of the pool, outside the fence, were a bunch of women and children using the drain water from the pool to bathe and wash clothes.

  The clothes were strewn everywhere, even yards away, along the road that we took to drive to the pool.

 Unfortunately, after all the effort of getting there, we decided not to use the pool.  It looked nice and pretty clean, however the local children, half-naked were looking over the pool on a small hill next to it.  You had to pay for the use of the pool, and we could hear some of the older kids complaining that they didn't have money to pay but that they wanted to swim there.  We also heard them complaining that the pool owner was allowed to have as much water as he needed for the pool, but the people in the town didn't have access to water like he did.  The thought crossed my mind that we could pay for all of the kids to go swimming, but I didn't think the pool owner would appreciate that, especially with how dirty they were.  I felt embarrassed as it was, pulling up in a car as people were washing in the "leftover" water of the pool, so the thought of splashing around the pool with my own kids while local kids were left outside only to watch, felt wrong.

I dislike the injustices in this picture below.  A $40,000 car next to a naked child with little hope of anything more than the absolute necessities of life.  And even then, those resources are meager and inadequate.  Makes me sad because there is so much this country needs and yet it's overwhelming to know where to begin or how to make a difference.

This little village that we passed through on the way to the pool had electricity!

 After 7.5 hrs. of driving and exploring along the way, we arrived at the fazenda.  It was preserved during the civil war because it was actually used as the MPLA's headquarters (MPLA was one of the two political groups heading the war).  So the adorable charm and quaintness of the Portuguese style remains.

Here we are in front of the fazenda looking at the beautiful rounded mountains that look like "half-peanuts" as Briant says.  The formations are beautiful and so unique to what we have seen before.  What a delightful place.

We drove in to the fazenda, avoiding a large area where they were grinding corn into flour.  The brooms they're using are made from some sort of dried reeds or brush.  They actually use this kind of broom in the city as well.  I feel bad for their backs though without having longer handles!

Young kids sat around as they watched their moms work.  No toys.  Very worn and dirty clothes.   

Part of the farm.  Papaya trees, pineapples, bananas.

This was the first time the kids had seen how pineapples grow.  Exciting!

Exploring the fazenda.  There were "pools in progress" that weren't ready to swim in yet unfortunately.  But we had other things to explore--animals, plants, and food growing.  We explored in areas where we found out the next day, had cobras.  :)

Along with corn, they process coffee beans at the fazenda.  They have a machine that takes the shells off and then they bag the beans.

Our little casita was adorable and cozy.  It was nicer than we thought it would be.  Flushing toilets and electricity with the help of a generator.  There was no air conditioning, so we opened the windows at night.  It was still hot so we slept with a little sheet on us.  Luckily I took a fan that helped cool us off.  There were 5 bedrooms, so there was room for the "F" family too that met us at the fazenda the next day.

We ate wonderful food.  The fruit and most of the meat came from the farm itself.  The meals were served outside on a veranda nestled up next to a forest, very jungle-like.  It was refreshing to spend so much time outside in the fresh air with the trees and to hear birds talking to each other.

We enjoyed our time with the "F" family.  They brought their dog Carolina that kept Savannah happily busy as she kept the dog entertained.  The kids ran around the fazenda exploring, playing with frogs, playing soccer, playing with rabbits, and playing UNO at dinner.  The fazenda owners also made a campfire for us that night.

The afternoon that the "F" family arrived, we had some "visitors" at the fazenda.  There were 4 kids riding around out front on homemade scooters.  I was so amazed by the craftsmanship of them; that it held their weight and actually worked.  So we talked to them for a minute and found out that their dads had made them.  The "F" family had the foresight to bring some toys and books to give out to the local children, so they gave them some toy cars.  The cute boys tried them out on the steep driveway and squealed with delight as the cars flew down.  They returned to their village and must have told all of the kids, because we had another six kids come with their wooden scooters as well.  While waiting for Valerie to get more toys from her car, I found out that they have learned a little English in school, so we did a little language practice.  They were pretty quiet and didn't say much, but I was grateful that we had some interaction with these local children.

These men and women helped to make our stay at the fazenda pleasant.  The woman on the far left owned the fazenda with her husband (man in the middle) and the other Portuguese woman and man managed the fazenda.  The Angolan women were our cooks and waitresses.  They were willing to let me take pictures of them.  It's funny though, because something I've noticed here in Angola, is that noone smiles when they're in front of the camera.  I had to ask them to smile, and luckily I got some natural smiles from the women as they were laughing about trying to smile for the picture.  :)  They were kind enough to give Valerie and me some beautiful flowers called porcelana before leaving.  It is a very heavy, thick, leather-like textured flower; smooth like porcelain though, so I can see where it gets its name.  We enjoyed our time so much there that we are planning to return, at least one more time before we leave Angola!  And this experience with Portuguese hospitality along with Portuguese food, architecture, style and decor, has solidified our desire to travel to Portugal!

We left the fazenda and drove in fog through the mountains for a while.  It was beautiful!  

 We drove faster through the curvy roads of the mountains than we had on our way to the fazenda because the "F" family needed to get back home quickly.  So Savannah got car sick and almost threw up.  She buried her face in her pillow with a grocery sack in hand in case.  She asked us to turn on our audio book to distract her from how she was feeling.   Luckily on our trip to Conda and back home we listened to the audio book "The Unmapped Sea" from the series "The Incorrigibles of Ashton Place."  We all, adults included, absolutely love these books so noone minded listening to it for hours at a time.  We finished 11 chapters of the book.  :)

We stopped one more time at the Binga falls because the "F" family hadn't been there yet.

We found a decent looking gas station on the way home to fill up.  As soon as you pull onto the driveway, kids surround you and ask if you want to buy from them.  At first we thought these kids were selling small, shriveled carrots but they turned out to be fresh-water shrimp.  Still didn't buy them of course.  They could turn out to be very bad for our bodies.  :)

 One of my favorite things to see and take pics of are the roadside food stands.  I'm amazed that day after day, the vendors return to sell their wares in the heat and dirt.  Fruits and vegetables, different varieties of dried fish, pork, and beef, along with brush and coal are sold.  

Right after crossing the Kwanza River bridge, we saw wild monkeys.  It looked like one of them was peeling and eating a banana.

Home sweet home.  After driving 6  hours, it was great to be out of the car.  I looked for a large vase for the flowers that were given to me at the fazenda.  I realized that I have no vases here in Angola with us, so the largest thing I could find to hold water was a water pitcher.  I had to put the water pitcher inside something taller though or else it would have tipped over.  :)  A wonderful trip!