Dirt Roads

The promise: two cities both alike in dignity situated down under.

The plan: a romantic escapade (on a 3-day weekend) to Benguela and Lobito, the southern gems of Angola.

The result: after a day & night of finicking about in restaurants dominated by [insert grimace and pause for effect] foreigners, Luis and I found ourselves in not one, but two, police stations. Please don’t panic ladies and gents, our little fieldtrip was all on a mission to find a little yellow school which I had been asked to photograph for one of our clients. Our guide, a cop, who was defaulted into showing us the way, was one of the most picturesque Angolans yet (ex-army, very smart though with a middle school education, and intoxicatingly honest). When we left him at the station after taking the pics, we realized that we had not taken a shot of him. Moments are not always so easy to share.

The school “1 de Junho” (1^st of June – Children’s Day) had recently been built by the Cooperativa Cajueiro, an organization that quite literally dominates the construction landscape in Angola in the area of quality-meets-low-income...and by that, I mean little houses with a fence, two-three bedrooms, running water, electricity, and (wait for it) a yard. Pure luxury, we don’t even have a generator that works.

So, what did it take for us to reach the school? I would love to share with you tales of a mule, a broken bicycle, and a nomad that led us along the promised path, but alas, nothing quite as exciting. We did however take a pleasant little trip down a dirt road. You know, I’ve come to realize that little dirt roads are like Secret Santa, you really never know whether you’re going to like what you get but after waiting for it for EVER, you have to smile when you open the package (or when the car stops, in this case). Little dirt roads are our specialty.

So, the car stopped, we smiled, took some pics and headed on the 7-hour trip back to our paved-road reality. Smooth.

Coming next: Rio Longa…