Safe and sound at 8 degrees south, 13 degrees east

After a seven-hour flight from Lisbon, I've happily arrived at Luanda's Quatro de Fevreiro airport. Getting through the passport control, a vaccination controller and the customs within 20 minutes was a much welcomed surprise. Last year in Lusaka, I ended up standing in the immigration line for 2 hours before getting to baggage pick-up tired and dehydrated, only to find out that my bags had never arrived (they were eventually found in Mexico City after a slight confusion by the Ethiopian Airlines, but that's a different story). Thankfully, this time in Luanda everything went very smoothly. The uncontainable wave of expectation to see all things new really hit me only when I saw Márcio waiting near the exit. It also brought an amazing sense of gratefulness to my heavenly Daddy for letting me come on a trip like this; all the money spent on the flight ticket, visas and pocket money came from my scholarship that I haven't used up in Paris. I can't see this as anything else but a huge, huge blessing.

Other than catching up on random dates, during the next two weeks we will be going to Maju's workplace, an international NGO called the Development Workshop. The remaining two weeks will be filled with further discovering Luanda, meeting friends and family, and hopefully traveling to Benguela province and possibly Huambo to get a peak on the Angola beyond Luanda. 

I'm also hoping to soak in as much Portuguese as possible to be able to communicate more independently and make friends more easily. As we say back home, "As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being". Whether it's on the linguistic, cultural or spiritual level, knowing the people's "heart language" enables us to understand them better, and equally be better understood ourselves. I believe the same goes for Portuguese and Márcio's family.

With this exciting schedule ahead, I pray my time in Angola with Maju is used to build us up as a couple, as individuals, and hopefully to inspire and build up those we cross paths with.

Vamos ver!