THE AFRICAN SCENE: Luanda, Angola Friday March 4 2011

Luanda is the capital of Angola with a population of over 5 million. Most of the Portuguese left when the civil war started which left the city in crisis because there weren't many people capable of efficiently running the infrastructure which the Portuguese left. Cubans who came to fight in the civil war, took over a lot of those responsibilities.

We had an armed guard (AK47s) escort through Luanda - and most places we were escorted by Police and/or security people. It was more keep us from being pestered than for protection from danger. The traffic in all the countries was horrendous - too many cars and motorbikes and people. They wanted us to enjoy our visit as much as possible.

There's apparently a lot of petty crimes - theft, breaking and entering, etc. and a majority of buildings (houses and commercial buildings) have bars on the windows - this is a 7-11 type of market.

This is a typical apartment building in the city - I had to laugh because almost all of them have satellite dishes and air conditioners no matter how poor the building seems.

In the city there isn't room to set up stalls like we've seen in the suburbs so the vendors set their wares on the street itself. The proprietor of these goods didn't want her photo taken.

These enterprising greengrocers didn't mind having their pictures taken - as was the case with most people. There is some superstition that things can happen to people if they have their photo taken but fortunately, most citizens are more advanced than that.

Most women carry shopping, etc. on their heads but many of them carry items to sell to the walking and driving public. This woman is selling hard-boiled eggs - with salt/pepper an mayonnaise on top of the eggs.

After visiting the Museum of Anthropology we walked to the Church of Remedios built in 1655 and restored in 1995. We were personally welcomed by the monsignor and were entertained by singing of the 'choir' inside. The monsignor also talked to us (in Portuguese) for several minutes - with translation by one of our fellow passengers and lecturers.

Here's Francisco, translating the monsignor's words - words of welcome and words of appeal for help.

This is the 'choir' who sang for us - they sounded very good.

We were constantly amazed by the amount and weight of items were carried on the head. This load definitely looks heavy.

On our drive from the church to the next stop, we were taken to this seaside market where we spent 20 minutes or so. I think we all found something to buy there - I bargained for two 12" high busts. While one seller was considering my offer for one, another seller sold me two for the price I had offered.

Finally we arrived at Fortaleza, a Portuguese fort now being restored as an open air military equipment museum. We couldn't go inside, but took in the walls and hilltop view.

The port city of Luanda from the Fortaleza hilltop. In several years, this will become a major port and tourist destination. As you can see, they are really working on bringing it up to snuff.

We could see our ship but it was dwarfed by the other commercial ships in dock. It is just to the left of center - black hull, white decks. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Here's another apartment building - air conditioners galore - and washing hanging out to dry.

We drove past the best building in the city - the National Ban Building - it formed an 'L' shape and was very well maintained.

Not all citizens had such nice buildings to live in ... in all countries we visited the distance between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' was extreme.

This was a total surprise to see - and we didn't stop!!! We did get burgers on our ship, however.

We went to the Ilha de Luanda resort for a fantastic buffet lunch. The U.S. Ambassador visited us and gave us an interesting talk - no really, it was interesting. We were welcomed by this colorful dance troupe.

Here's Paula (left) and I at our lunch table - many of our fellow passengers and ship crew confused us constantly. I really don't think we look that much alike - and I'm so much younger!

This is the mausoleum of the first President of Angola - the tower looks rather like a missile and we tried to get to the base of it but weren't allowed inside the fence. The president was originally entombed like communist leaders but was eventually cremated and his ashes were put in the base of this mausoleum. I tried to determine the height but could not locate that information.

Our final stop was at the Mama Maxima orphanage, operated by 5 nuns and helpers, and which houses 120 boys and girls from 3 - 19 yrs. Some of the girls sang for us upon our arrival and we were given a tour. The children looked quite well cared for but some were overwhelmed by all the attention.

This is one of the sleeping rooms - it had 32 bunk beds and the children slept 3 to a bunk and some slept on the floor.

Some of the girls who were happy to have their photos taken (as long as they can see their photo on the digital camera screen) - then the giggles ensue.