So far things are going well. However, they could be better. During month of May, I have moved definitely to Lucala. I have been working on electricity and building courses that we may begin this July or August. I have also been working on the preparation of the material and all those essential things for the Professional Polyvalent School in Lucala that will begin next February in 2012.

As always, there are a lot of facts to tell, good and bad moments! But I will focus on two different facts that have reminded me where I really am and how lucky I am to have been born in a developed country.

A curious fact is that a lot of people come up in my mind, especially those people that are always complaining. This fact depends on the situation in which I am during the day. If these people could live where I am now just for a few hours, I think that they would stop complaining, because they would face real problems. I wish I could do this because they would learn to value what they possess.

These are the two following facts:

1. The formation week that I assisted with in Luanda with other professors from other Professional Polyvalent Schools, I can consider it positive because, in my case, it allowed me to know how work with the other schools. Which difficulties they face and also how they implement the contents. Definitely, this experience allowed me to exchange experiences and the most important thing – to learn about the errors and not make them again.But, once more, I realized one of the big problems that countries under development have is the low level of qualifications that the professors have. It is worrying that there are people working in the education who have difficulties in reading, writing and also in simple mathematical problems. For instance, we did some mathematical problems that are going to be taught to the pupils. One of them consisted in calculating the 23% of the salary that the government pay to each of them (which is 40.000 Akz/months, 310 €/month … I know that it is outrageous, but in Mozambique it is 100 €/month). From 19 professors, none of them could work out this simple problem correctly. I could explain more facts like this, but this one clearly shows the problem there.The low qualification is not because of them. The professors show really big enthusiasm for learning. I am faced with the same problem in Mozambique: a lot of professors and pupils, but such low qualifications.

   In both cases due to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of some governments that are only interested in the outside numbers to justify the aid they receive, that every year graduate X students. 80% have difficulty in reading and writing (or some cannot do either), and I know what I’m talking about because, unfortunately, I have seen it with my own eyes.

   Another problem that also affects the professors is the professors’ abuse of their pupils, especially their abuse of female pupils. They order them to buy something, to wash their clothes, wash their cars, to cook … and the pupils accept this without saying anything. Unfortunately, I can hardly do anything. The only thing that I can do is prevent this happening inside the Professional Polyvalent School in Lucala. Each one has his or her own role: professors to teach and pupils to learn and to study. If one professor does not know how to cook or how to wash their clothes, they should learn. The time of slaves has now passed fortunately.

2. We did an action on the 28/29 of May in order to know which was the state of health and hygiene of one of the communities in Lucala closest to our project; it is called The Graveyard Community (it is called this because it was built near to a graveyard). As most of you may know, Angola is one of the countries with the highest infant mortality rates in the world and their life expectancy is under 40 years old.It is really common see kids dying, and at the same time to see adults die at an early age for several reasons: malaria, cholera, bad health habits, bad nutrition.More or less this is was what I expected, because every day I visit and speak with people from this community and I know their sad life, but the fact of going from home to home, listening to their problems, knowing the conditions in which they live, seeing them crying, listening to their wishes … It made me feel a really angry and impotence at the same time. Here I leave you some significant figures:
   • 40 Families visited.
   • 203 people.
   • The 80% (32 families) have no toilets in their homes. They use the country or just at the back of their homes.
   • The 85% (34 families) drink  the water directly from the river. They pick the water from the river because they don’t have another source of water.
   • 0 Families have a space set aside to dispose of rubbish. They throw it away anywhere.
   • Diarrhea, stomach ache, headache and malaria are the most common illnesses. The first and the second are the most common in every day life.
   • The 100% of family members have been sick at least once in the year.

With this world we faced last week. As you can see, all facts are related to each other. The need of hygiene and the fact of not cleaning the water, make for the apparition of diseases.

Another surprising fact is that last year the help to the families to clean the river water were deleted. Why? Nobody knows.

During the following day we decided to begin awareness training with the population. We insisted in the need of keeping the communities clean, to boil the water before cooking, to create a common space and away from the community to throw away the rubbish. We insisted in the importance of visiting the doctor when feeling sick.

We handed leaflets with drawings and explanations about the causes, consequences and solutions to the problems that they face on a day to day basis.

This visit made me really think and it also gave me ideas about what to do with the money from donations. I think that health would be a really good beginning.

After my first month in Angola, I decided to rate my experiences in this wonderful place. Furthermore, I know a little bit more about this country, its people and the project that I will be working on now.

To start with I will focus on the work that I have done since my arrival. Then I will talk about future projects, and to conclude I will express my opinion about this country.

Since my arrival in Angola on the 16th of March, I have been based most of the time in the house that ADPP Angola has in Ramiros, 40km south of Luanda. It is a really peaceful place, located in the Bahía of Mussulo, surrounded by nature and it is made up of the offices and the foreign worker’s homes of the Organization. At this place, they manage 43 projects, which ADPP has running at a national level at the moment. This place is also used for all of the meetings and conferences

What has been my work since my arrival?

1. I have been working on electricity and construction courses preparing the juveniles of Lucala. The province of Kwanza North. Due to its its location and energy sources – water and electricity, it is seeing a crucial increase with regard to the number of companies that are offering jobs and also the number of its inhabitants- some of them were those who were looking for shelter in the big cities during the war. It is important to know that the war in Angola was over in 2002. This resulted in the need of skilled labour, especially in the construction industry. We are facing the problem that a lot of young people can work, but they do not have the relevant qualifications needed. So, with these courses they will be able to get these qualifications and they will be recognized by the National Professional Training Institute of Angola. Then, with these qualifications they will have plenty of opportunties to get into the workplace, through companies or if they wish, to become self-employed. Courses last 6 months and we plan to begin these courses in August.
2. Preparation, programming, search of materials, promotion … of the Polyvalent Professional Lucala School. We are initiating this in February 2012. This course is similar to a Professional Formation (FP). It will last 3 years (7º-8º-9º Grade). In the second year, students will be able to decide which speciality they want to specialise in:
   • Agro-Food Aid
   • Cook
   • Energy assistance – what would come to be electricity and plumbing.

Students will also get an acknowledgment due to their studies. With this idea, we want this to give them plenty of opportunities to get into workplaces, or for those students that want to continue with their studies as they will be able to get into 10º Grade. During the next few months, meetings and talks are going to be started to decide which professors are going to teach on these courses.

In both cases, I will be responsible for the projects and my only want and desire is that these projects become successful.

We are really excited with these projects, even though we have had, and we will continue to have a lot of problems and setbacks. So it is really crucial not to get discouraged. We must go on with the same dedication. We also want the population to get involved in this project. We want to get them educated and qualified because they must become the owners of their destiny. All of this empowering and “exploding” across cultures, traditions and customs is unique and with what they have to identify themselves and be proud of themselves.

At the moment the school is under construction (photos can be seen on the Web), and it is expected to be finished in three months time. We are also sharing the same place with the Future Professor Kwanza-North School, another ADPP project; its construction is close to finishing.

In regard to Angola ( a country where the levels of corruptions are high), it can be said that it is a country full of contradictions. It is a rich country inhabited by a lot of poor people. In Luando, its capital, fortunes are mixed; luxury houses, exclusive places … It was considered the most expensive city in the world in 2010. There are two reasons to explain this fact:

1. Angola has oil exploration and it also has large reserves of diamonds and gold … It makes its capital into a business city in which a lot of people and different companies make alot of money. Nearly all the crude oil is extracted by foreign companies that setup their whole workforce there together with the workers families, this has caused a sharp increase in the cost of living in the city. Such as, rent, restaurants and clothes shop prices which are exorbitant (a pizza and a non-alcoholic beverage cost 25-30 euros in a cheap place). Just having a walk in Luanda for 30 minutes you can see there 15-20 Hummers and a lot of really expensive cars that cost more than 100.000 euros. So, it can be said that the population living in Luanda have purchasing power at high or very high level.
2. The civil war and the use of landmines made people leave the fields and stop working there. That in turn means, Angola has to import everything because it does not produce anything. As a consequence, the prices go up.

In the rural zones we are faced with misery, poverty, need of resources, need of food, shortages and bad quality of the services offered, infant mortality, curable diseases that become deadly … In short, it is what is known as the Third World. So we have a population that does not have basic resources to live (economic, health, education etc…) and also they have to buy food and staples which are really expensive. The prices of things is what is striking here, and that can be compared to those of Europe or even surpass them.

A plus to Angola, if it is compared with Mozambique is its infrastructure. In Mozambique even though it has a lot of paths or paved areas these are in poor condition, Angola on the other hand, has a lot of kilometres of good paved roads, and nowadays they are being improved. In about two years, all the capitals or cities in Angola are going to be connected by roads. China is to complete this task (with its consequent economic benefit of oil) and will make it become true.

By the way, the number of workers and Chinese companies is incredible. All of the construction work or roads are being carried out by Chinese people because of the agreement between the governments. This causes a really funny situation. When I walk down into the communities, the kids call me “Chinese”, because the only white people that they have ever seen are Chinese people. So, they think that I am also Chinese. Another curiosity is that most of the traffic signals or advertisement panels are written in Chinese or Portuguese.

They also have a railway that takes passengers from Luando to Malanje. I have already been there because the project that I am working on is placed between these two cities. It is important to mention that the quality, services, comfort, punctuality … is much better than the trains in Spain, and I am not exaggerating. They just work three days per week, but I admit that I am not traveling in bus anymore.

To finish, I would like to say that I have been talking with people or partners that have been here for years and they admit that Angola is growing rapidly since its civil war ending in 2002, and in short, it can become a reference for other countries in Africa (I hope not in terms of corruption though). With this rapid growth in the country it is very important to develop education (in quantity and in quality) and especially, in the farm reconstruction, so the import of products is not necessary. It is crucial to become independent.

I will be here to confirm if both the projects and Angola are successful, and what is happening, so don’t worry.

A greeting to everybody!

PS1: As always, any comments, doubts, or questions … are welcomed, and replied to sincerely and as rapidly as possible.

PS2: What I write here is just over 10% of what comes into my mind. I try to give a general view. Please let me know if you want to know the deeper aspects of anything.

Webmaster note: Translation by Josep Ausensi i Jiménez