First Impressions of Angola
(traveling by bus to a Luanda hotel)
Journal entries by Lucinda Scheldorf, of Louisville, Kentucky, a participant in the recent General Board of Global Ministries-sponsored Mission Study Travel Seminar to Africa (Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe May 21-June 6). Actively involved in "peace and justice" initiatives of the United Methodist Church, Cindy also works closely with new immigrants and youths in church school and camp. In this, her first trip to the continent, she recorded "first impressions" in preparation of the Summer School of Christian Mission she would be teaching on "Hope for the Children of Africa" upon her return.
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Homes, shelters, shacks are built in any available space, including the land within 500 yards on both side of the airport runway.
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Women carry various items on their heads: blue plastic basins containing fruit; plastic dish-drainers; packages of spaghetti; canned goods.
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Young girls, too, balance loads on their heads while carrying infants on their backs.
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People, including children desperately try to sell sandals, handbags, electric shavers, lamps, cigarettes, hair bands, underwear, plastic razors, packages of toilet paper, office furniture.
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Large faded, yet colorful umbrellas shade some vendors in the hot afternoon sun.
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Buildings stand several stories high with store-fronts on the ground level and apartments or offices above. Metal bars cover windows and doors; clothes hang from windows to dry.
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There is traffic congestion: cars, pickups, vans.
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A youth with pleading eyes raises his shirt to expose a tumorous growth on his stomach.
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Women wear wrap-around sarongs, with colorful blouses and head-wraps.
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Five youths pick through a dumpster.
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Men shine shoes.
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The Atlantic ocean flows peacefully.
Day Two of a View of Angola
Journal entries by Geneviev Scheldorf, Cindy's 78 year old mother, who, like her daughter, is also engaged in immigrant concerns and works closely with church youths, was the most senior participant in the Travel Study Seminar. The retired school teacher added her observations to those of her daughter (the following day).
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We travel by bus through miles of "misery", poverty, chuck-holed roads lined with shacks of tin and whatever could be put together--more shacks with open doorways.
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We see many people walking. Some carry plastic tubs of water on their heads; others carry baskets of bread rolls and other foods.
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There are wide gutters on each side of the road, and intervals of garbage dumpsters left with heaping mounds of garbage surrounding them. Pigs rival with humans in the waste in the search of food.
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Whole worn out tires, plastic non-biodegradable bags half-covered with mud and other debris is scattered; broken water pipes made the dirt less dusty.
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Small children, half-dressed play in the dirt and filth.
The refrain of an old song impacts my mind like a rumble in my head, "
There's a
world out there, can't you hear it crying; there's a world out there, don't you hear it cryin', cryin', cryin'..."
And finally we reach the first United Methodist Center we are to visit. We stop at a corrugated tin wall. Someone pushes it open. It is like an oasis--clean with real buildings of classrooms filled with 30-45 students. There are desks, chairs, a large blackboard and chalk, but little else. The children are without needed resources of sufficient books (in Portuguese), maps, paper and pens or pencils. The presence and work of the United Methodist Church is helping but there is need to do more. "There's a world out there, can't you hear it crying; there's a world out there, don't you hear it cryin', cryin', cryin'...."
July 26, 2000
Further Reading:
Children of Africa: Mission Study Resources
God is Working Miracles, The Rev. Marilyn Robb, July 26, 2000
Sanctuaries of Hope, Rev. Marilyn Robb, July 26, 2000
A Second Look at Africa, Brenda Wilkinson, GBGM
