My Trip to Moxico and Angolan History - DAY 11
Last Day
Today is the day.
By 1130 AM, I had put my bag outside of my apartments. I sat near my door, and looked in front of me. I was trying to picture every corner of the house, all the plants, all the turtles, all the fish in the fountain… Then I started walking around the upper floor, watched the city… The tears were wetting my face and I sincerely didn’t want to cry in front of any one. I just sat there, in the balcony, and watched the population of Lwena, the one that “suffers a lot”. Some women were coming from the river, carrying the washed clothes over their heads. Some children were playing around, running.
I will miss the silence, the simplicity of one’s existence. I will miss the smell of the wet earth after a day of rain. I will miss the laughs and the smiles around the table. I will miss the comic commentaries of D. Gabriel. I will miss the joviality of the sisters and the fathers.
I never liked good-byes. Probably, that should be something I had to get used to, but I probably will never do…
By 1230, we started going to the airport.
The city of Lwena was changing. The President would come for his birthday, so the government of the province was trying to hide some of the facts that Lwena was in miserable conditions. They started hiding the holes of the streets, cleaning up the garbage around and the scrap-iron. The house of the governor was being paint and the park in front of it.
D. Gabriel was convened to go to the radio and talk about the President and what good he did for the Angolan people and to finally get peace. Making the difference between “being asked” and “being convened”…
D. Gabriel asked me, in two words, what I thought of Lwena and the trip. In two words, it was quite simple: “Vou voltar” (I’ll be back). D. Gabriel smiled and said “It was quick. It could be ‘Nunca mais!’ (never more). But if it is ‘I’ll be back’, it is ok.”
At 0130 PM, we got into the same United Nations World Food Program beech craft and came back to Luanda. 2H10min after, we landed in the Military Air Base and Jojo came to pick us up.
I’ll be back.
The chapter is now closed.
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