HUAMBO....TANKS, MINES, BBQ AND PLEASURE

HUAMBO, A STRANGE AND WONDERFUL PLACE



Boo!

The Halo House, Nathaniel and Lotty

Owing to our favourite airline, TAAG (Angola's national airline) having cancelled our flight today to Catumbela, we have a couple of days rest here at school before we can go on our Christmas break, so i thought I would use the time to write the next thrilling installment for our blog. The visit to Huambo. So here it is.On our half term holiday we thought we would visit the two sons of some friends of ours, these two young men are working for the Halo Trust here in Angola clearing landmines, and they are based in the town of Huambo, which is south east of Luanda, more or less in the middle of Angola.

Savimbi's house, after a visit from the MPLA airforce

Huambo used to be the headquarters of UNITA, the group lead by Savimbi, who was shot about two years ago, which brought the civil war to an end. So, after a short flight we arrived in Huambo to be met by the smiling face of Nathaniel, who was there to take us to the HALO house in Huambo where we were going to stay for the next two days.

Huambo side street

The short drive into Huambo from the airport was intriguing, Huambo is completely different to Luanda, but not in the same way as Namibe. To begin with, Huambo is on the Plano Alto (High Plain) and is about 1700 meters above sea level, so much cooler than Luanda, it is also a weird mix of unbelievably shot up buildings and beautifully maintained and loved small Portuguese houses.

Um.... sort of speaks for itself, I think

A church in Huambo

As in Namibe, the town was generally much cleaner than Luanda (But then, anywhere would be cleaner than Luanda, even your local rubbish tip!) and the air smelt of pine and Gum trees instead of bad drains and filth, bliss to our poor suffering noses, I can assure you.

Some people like to have Gnomes in their gardens..others prefer a T62

And another joy of Huambo was that one can simply walk around, wander to a bar, drive yourself and generally live a normal life, which for those couple of days is what we did.Here are none of the dreadful compounds of Luanda, no separation of expat and locals, all were happily mixed up together in a friendly hotch-potch of life.

Apart from the inescapable fact that Huambo is a small provincial city, I suspect that I could live reasonably happily there, I mean, it even has a working train service - it may only travel about 30 km to a nearby town, and only have one or two passenger coaches (and several cattle trucks which are happily used for people rather than cattle), but it is a train!!!!!

Reid, Nathaniel and Helen, Mine clearance Inc.

Once we had settled into the Halo house, and met Ally and the other good folk of HALO in Huambo, Helen and Reed (perhaps spelt Reid?) we went off to the office to have some basic info about landmine clearance in Angola.

Ally guarding his collection

Murderous technology

There was a small collection of landmines and other nasty "ordinance" collected on a table outside the office, which showed how small landmines actually are, which given their primary function of maiming rather than killing I suppose should not have surprised me, but somehow I had the idea they were huge metal things, not tricky little things made out of wood or Bakelite. A collection that gave both Lotty and I pause for thought.

We also saw the files on the various minefield in Angola that HALO is working on, hundreds of files, each one representing a minefield. Apparently there are about 10 or 20 million landmines scattered about in this unfortunate country! No one really knows. There is an Angolan saying I have heard, "For each Angolan, there is one landmine waiting".

Halo Trust runabout

After this chilling introduction, we went off to have a look around Huambo, a quick drive around in an armoured Landrover, which is a strange idea too.

Ruined Portuguese Army Officer's Quarters

And as I said earlier, this is a strange mix of things, lovely houses, some in good repair, some not, huge, hideous Cuban built blocks of flats war damaged houses, with rusty tanks in the garden, good roads, dreadful roads and so on.

Angolan wheelbarrow

However, it does have another strange quality, back in the 50's, the Portuguese decided to make his the most beautiful city in Angola, so they set about creating this Nova Lisboa in the heart of Africa, which has resulted in a city which in its centre is a very strange time warp affair, it is purest 50's in architecture and feel, very odd. Owing to the war, nothing much has been built there for a long time, so it is in its original 50's state, a time capsule.
I have to confess it has merely confirmed my feeling that the 50's were a time of dreadful design, ghastly buildings and civic decorations (fountains etc). Having said that, it is a very friendly place, as are all the parts of Angola we have seen so far.

Walking into a minefield, both sides of the marked path are mined still

The next day, Nathaniel had arranged a treat for us..... a visit to a real minefield!!!!

With trepidation we set off in the landrover to the edge of the city to an area well inhabited, and parked by a small stand on the edge of a lot of houses. The minefield was pointed out to us, it was a long strip of land beside a military camp, about 200 meters from the houses and a small school. Apparently the mines had been laid along the perimeter of this camp during the war, and it was now Halo's job to clear it. So, we were briefed about the history of this minefield and what Halo was doing about it by the Angolan who was in charge of clearing his particular field.
A very clear exposition in extremely good English.We were then issued with body armour and face masks, and so clad, looking in no way like Princess Di, off we went into our first minefield.

To walk towards what you know is a minefield, and to know that in a couple of seconds you will actually be walking into it, even though you know that the path you will be led along has been cleared is a very strange and unpleasant feeling. The scary thing about minefields I have now discovered is the fact that they don't look dangerous.... Simply ground, grass... Nothing more.
If a mine field had, I don't know......umm..teeth, or nasty fierce looking lumps it would be less scary, its the lack of any obvious danger that is so horrible. We walked along a path with red and white sticks on each side of the path...the path was about 1 meter wide. The sticks indicated the minefield, so outside that meter wide path lurked mines. The idea that if I should step out of the path, go 80 cms to the left or right, I might tread on a mine...... nasty, scary, and strange.

Mine clearer at work

We were shown the way the mine clearers worked, a case of enormous patience and very hard work in the full sun. They work for 30 minutes, then take a 10 minute break and then another 30 minutes and so on, all day. Slowly and carefully digging a 1 meter wide ditch, digging from below with small trowels and matocks... never hurrying, slowly and carefully working away. It is so slow and painstaking, this work, but apparently this is the only way to be entirely sure that all mines are found. Mechanical means (bulldozers and so on) are much less sure, as they can leave mines and detonators in the ground.

Mines are filthy things, totally, and it is our lovely governments who make and sell these things.

Seeing the totally professional way in which these people, both Angolans and expats go about this very necessary work is so impressive, and to be with people who are doing a job which is so completely worthwhile is an experience too. I am completely overwhelmed by them all.
During this visit to Huambo, we saw another minefield..... but I think I have said all that needs to be said on this subject....

Kids with splendid bike

We also spent very pleasing evenings sitting on the edge of the garden of the house in which the expat HALO people lived, (with their trusty hound), watching the locals wander past on their evening perambulations and visiting the vast open air market on the edge of the town and generally enjoying our time in Huambo.

The market at Huambo

As we had missed our flight back to Luanda (the plane left Huambo three hours earlier than scheduled), a young French woman who worked for another NGO invited us to a BBQ in a place called Carla, about 30 km outside Huambo, so off we went, Nathaniel, Lotty, Helen, the French woman (who was driving) and a small group of their Angolan friends. Once we got out of Huambo the road rapidly became extremely bad, but this didn't worry our trusty French girl, she calmly drove on, obviously totally experienced with this sort of driving.

View from near the top of the kopje at Karla

In due time we arrived at Carla, a small town much like a typical Algarve village) and then headed off onto a side road, after having stocked up on beer and other things needed for the BBQ.In due time we arrived at a strange rock sticking up out of the ground, about 100 meters in height (called a Kopje in South Africa) - there were many of these rocks sticking up all over the place. This one turned out to be a sort of ring of rocks in fact, so we could go inside the ring and have our BBQ there. Lotty and Nathaniel went off to climb to the top - almost - of the kopje, producing a couple of amazing photos, while the rest of us stayed below and drank beer and chatted gently.

The BBQ spot inside the ring of rocks

In due time we cooked the meat, and unlike most BBQs I have been too, it was neither burnt nor undercooked, but just right...we continued to have a gently pleasant time there until it got dark, we then went back to Huambo and to an early bed.

Happy Lotty at BBQ

This was our visit to Huambo, a mix of emotions and several experiences we will NEVER forget!!!!! Angola continues to surprise us, and to give us experiences that are very powerful in so many different ways. And the more I learn about this place and its history and the daily realities of the average Angolan's life the more admiration I have for these people.

At the age of 63 to be given the chance to have these experiences is a privilege which I value enormously..and enjoy too. Lotty, much much younger, agrees with this feeling.

Well, with this account of our trip to Huambo, I have sort of brought the account of our times in Angola up to date, I imagine the next posting will be about the trip we are about to undertake... if we can actually get onto a plane to get there... We are off to Benguela, Lobitho, Lubongo and perhaps Huambo again. Watch this space for the continuing saga.........

NAMIBE..... NOT NAMIBIA. OUR FIRST TASTE OF A DESERT

NAMIBE, DESERT IN THE SOUTH

Me snoozing in the sun

On the first school holiday, half term, we thought it would be good to see another part of Angola, so we booked ourselves into a fishing lodge in the south of the Province of Namibe which some colleagues at the school recommended. Namibe is the southern-most province of Angola, and is mainly a very flat and rather dull hard sand and pebble desert. However, the coastal strip is completely different. It is made up of the same sand like material, but is weathered and worn into a beautiful mini version of painted valley in Arizona. Amazing buttes and gully's and arroyos. Superb!

Flamingos flying along the beach

The choice of a fishing lodge isn't the first place we would have chosen, given that neither of us is even remotely interested in fishing, but our friends had told us the area was beautiful and one could simply relax and enjoy the place... not obliged to fish... so we booked. Getting there entailed flying by domestic airline (TAAG) to the city of Namibe, our first glimpse of life outside Luanda. It turned out to be a very different place to Luanda, much like a typical old southern Portuguese town. Lots of tiled buildings, wide streets, trees, and a general feeling of calm and peace. It was almost clean too! About the same degree of cleanliness you would expect in a southern European town, I suppose. Altogether a pleasant surprise after the rigors of Luanda.

The Oasis in the desert

The flight was unremarkable, nothing fell off the plane and the trip afforded us some tantalizing glimpses of other parts of Angola as we bumbled along for the several hundred KM of the trip. About the only thing of note was that I have discovered now, after a number of domestic flights with TAAG, there are unfriendly people in Angola, and they all work for TAAG as hostesses. They behaved rather the way I imagined Soviet hotel managers behaved.. Grumpy, bossy and grim faced. Also, getting checked in at Luanda airport was an experience......... Regular third world chaos... Shoving and sweating. But we managed that OK. What was less amusing was that on arrival at Namibe airport (actually called Yuri Gagarin Airport) we found that no one was there to meet us. Now this was a problem, as there are no busses or taxis and the airport was in the middle of nowhere! So, taking my courage, and my three words of Portuguese, I managed to organise a lift into Namibe, to a hotel, thinking that from the hotel we would be able to phone the fishing lodge and arrange to be picked up..... So that is almost what happened.

Sandstone cliffs

We got to a small hotel, and Lotty went in and asked the porter if we could phone Rico (the owner of the fishing lodge). Upon hearing Lotty say that name, the fellow who had driven us in from the airport shouted that he knew Rico very well, and he also knew where to find him in Namibe! So, that was all organised for us by a gang of happy Angolans, and in due time we found ourselves in a heavy 4x4 jeep hurtling out of the town of Namibe... out into the flat desert.....

Lotty contemplating the Owner of the Lodge's baby

For about an hour we drove along a dead straight road, over a flat and rather dull desert, which made me, at least, wonder what we were in for, wondering where the advertised "beauty" was to be found around here. However, after this part of our journey, the driver suddenly turned off the road into the desert, and off we went, bumping along at about 60 km per hour over a rapidly changing landscape. We drove along a dried up river bed mainly, with occasional lurches into proper sand dunes... all the time at this speed, so it was pretty rough going. But, the advertised beauty was with us. The desert was breathtaking, even from inside the speeding jeep.

Butte

After some 30 km of this, we finally arrived at the Lodge. Which, as you can see from the pictures, is not exactly the height of luxury, but the people there were friendly, terribly apologetic that they hadn't been at the airport and generally made us welcome.

Once we had settled down in our little hut, and been introduced to the motley group of Angolans and Afrikaners who were there, we realised that we had found exactly what we were looking for...peace, simplicity and a truly beautiful place, in a bleak sort of a way.

Lotty in the middle of no-where

Our days here were mainly taken up with sleeping, reading, chatting to the other people there, eating superb freshly caught fish and going for walks in the surrounding desert.

The desert was wonderful! Such a silence............... And beautiful too, as I hope you can see from the pictures. I had a lot of trouble choosing which pictures to put on this blog, we have so many from that short holiday.

This is either love, or we needed support.....

So, basically, we spent a week here, doing almost nothing, which might seem reprehensible perhaps, but in fact it was the first proper break that we had had since 1997, so we needed to do nothing for a while.

Had to be included! Sunset over the Atlantic

The desert had a range of landscapes, inland it was as flat as a billiard table, going on for ever, it seemed, with dead straight roads cutting across it, and every so many miles a shot up deserted restaurant, otherwise nothing to see at all. Except!!!! Except in the middle of this desert we were taken to an oasis. This was a case of driving for god knows how many km across the flat desert, and then suddenly, with no apparent sign, turning off and the road and driving into the desert. And suddenly after several Km we found ourselves descending into a sort of a long narrow valley, going quite deep into the ground. his broadened out, and there it was, the oasis, a huge lake, surrounded by greenery, as any self respecting oasis should be. A wonderful peaceful place. We found a very small village of reed huts there, in which about 50 people lived, who obviously made their living from growing and selling vegetables...though god knows how they got it to market!

More desert

Desert....and Sea

The bar at the Lodge. The two white things are whale's jaw-bones

Our luxury accommodation

Rocks

In due time it was time to return to Luanda, so we were put into one of the huge 4x4's and driven off back across the desert to the road to Namibe airport.... You remember, the famous Yuri Gagarin Airport. An uneventful drive, except for us coming across a wrecked Pick-up truck beside the road with an extremely dead guy lying nearby, who had apparently managed to somersault his truck and been thrown clear of it and smashed his poor head on landing....
So, the guy who was driving us, a very competent young man, hunted around for the dead man's wallet and took it and off we went again (he was going to report it to the cops in Namibe).

Our flight back to Luanda was pleasantly uneventful, complete with the Soviet style hostesses, grumpy as only TAAG hostesses can be. Leaving the airport terminal (for want of a better word) in Luanda and driving back to the school was a real shock.... We had forgotten how the place stinks and how decrepit and ruinous it all is..and so many people!

It had been a pleasing week, relaxed us a lot, and showed us that Angola is not all like Luanda, something that we have had confirmed by a later trip we took to a town called Huambo, which is my next posting. An exciting story of landmines, ruined tanks, BBQ's in the bush and other such things...watch this space!