When I was waiting for my transport from office to home, came the moment when I spotted this posting on a blog talking
Baia de Luanda about Luanda. He or she, whatever the gender of the writer is, was spending a week in Luanda. He or she, but let's say it is a "he" to make it simple, was a bit paralyzed to see the landscape of the city when his car was just out of the airport. He described in disgust how he could not even sleep for he was feeling traumatic of what he had seen, how he stayed in the best hotel in the city that is still very very low standard, how he did not even take any drink because he did not trust the water, how he could not believe the level of poverty and how on earth can human live there. He also described how suffered he was and that he rescheduled his departure back from Luanda to escape from the place as quick as he can. He also described how glad he was when he arrived back in London that finally he was back to civilization. Apparently he comes from that part of the world. The civilized part.

I am not here to judge his writing. I just can not believe how different my impression is on Luanda! And how his impression is actually just about all the warnings I got from people before I decided to go here. My husband and I were warned hundreds of times to think twice, three times, and hundred times before we decided. Still, my husband and I decided to go. And now that we are here for almost two weeks, not a single second have we regretted our decision.

To dig deeper into the topic, I still think it takes a queen or an empress for someone to blurt out in such a way about Luanda. Really! I make myself as a reference. I was always called a princess, not because I am pretty, petite and beautiful (you can see I am very far from these qualities, hehe), but because I was raised as a spoilt little bitch. I was used to previlleges. I was raised by loving parents in a big house with 3 maids, one gardener and a driver. I never ever had to worry about taking care the house, everything was always provided and taken care of.  And still not enough, I am still one of the lucky bitches who was taken to yearly intercontinent vacation since I was 3 years old by my parents to see the bigger world, it is even too long to mention where in the world I have been. I spent a bit of my adult years working here and there including London and before that, I spent my teenage years in a megamodern city, Tokyo. Talking about civilization, if offered, I would like to take the honour to describe it from what I have seen in Tokyo. I can compare in detail what is what in most world's big cities and I have to say, nothing beats Tokyo in terms of "civilization and modernization", and that the next modern big city is at least 15 year lagged behind. And I am proud to say that I had a chance to be part of this level of "civilization" (if you would like to call it!) for so many years back then. To make it short, if there would be any child grew up in a more spoilt way than I did, it would only be Paris Hilton.

Now, please let this ex-spoilt child (now a spoilt woman) make a description about Luanda, the capital city of Angola, based on her 2 week stay in the city.

Spending my second week in this nice sunny city of Luanda, I can only say that this is by far a nice place. Can also be because I am treated well by the company I work for, can also be that I am objective, I don't know. But to stay here for 2 weeks, so far I like it a lot. All the warmth in the weather, in its people, the nice beaches just near the center of the city, the nice cafés on the beach. I even like the mess. I have had enough with robotic atmosphere I found in subways or tubes where people do not smile to each other anymore. Where everything is taken care of and provided by the system. Where the words "people interaction" are such strange ones. In Luanda, it is like I am unique again, I am not a machine anymore... And that finally I am human again. Yes, there are some very poor part of the city, that you need to be extra careful to walk in the streets and that sometimes systems are extremely messy or even barely any system at all. But still, here, I feel like I am amongst people, not robots, and I am part of humanity again.

The most challenging is only the pace, to get things done takes a lot more time. But even for that, looks like just in 2 weeks, I slowly adapt to it. Believe it or not, I am getting used to the waiting time for transportation every day -on average 45min late- without complain. Hey, why not use this time to browse stupid stuff from internet, or reapply my make-up, or sitting doing simple meditation exercise, or write a rubbish posting like what I am doing now. To my surprise, I am getting used to enjoying the moment rather than catching up with my to-do-list of the day. It is like finding a new side of me that was never revealed before.

This place has huge amount of potential. I heard from people there are big changes you can see on the streets from day to day. Luanda a year ago looked different than now, things are quickly developed. I strongly believe that in 15years from now this city can be one of the players and I am looking forward to seeing its interesting development while I have the chance now.

I am curious if I would still be saying the same thing in 2 years from now when I know how it is like to have a life here. We'll see.. :)