My Trip to Moxico and Angolan History - DAY 3
The day started in a funny way. I was in front of my door, wondering if I had to go downstairs to eat breakfast or knock at Maria’s door. Jojo was passing by, with documents under the arm, and looked at me.
“Good morning, sis. I like your new hairstyle!”
“Good morning, Jojo. Well, thanks!”
Then Father Onorio left his apartments, next door to mine, and took one of my braids.
“Oh! Market hair! You borrowed hair?”
“No! I bought it! Now the hair is mine!”
We started laughing. Maria says that in her times, it wasn’t like that! Priests wouldn’t walk around as freely as they are now. We look at Jojo, I can see another brother of mine. We see Father Ornelas, he is another nice man. We see Father Onorio, he is a very comic man. Nowadays, we don’t have the word “religious” on the foreheads!
Today was the monthly reunion of the different religious congregations of Lwena. It was at 9 AM, at the Reunions room, on the first floor. From my room, I could hear D. Gabriel speaking. I was reading in front of my door ("The Fifth Knight" of Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, great!) and would hear some “Caritas” in the middle of the speech, but didn’t understand a thing. Mind you, I am far from being a religious!
I guess the reunion was to go till 1130 AM, but it really finished long after 1230 AM. When it finally ended, I was in the front of my apartments. Father Onorio came to me and asked:
“You are the lady of the house. When are we eating lunch?”
“In a while.”
“Yes… but when?”
“Normally, it’s at 1230… But since it is almost 1 PM, I don’t know.”
“Oh!” he looked his watch and shook his head.
I smiled. Everyone was hungry! As a sister had said yesterday: “It starts by 9 AM and it ends when it has to end!”
Father Onorio and Father Ornelas were impressed of the length of the reunion. I quite understand why. If those are monthly reunions with several congregations, I probably would talk much more than D. Gabriel. But I am not D. Gabriel and I don’t have many congregations, neither can I speak in public! Those are the different ways in the destiny of a human being!
During lunch, we had the honor to know what happened the day Father Noel arrived in Noel: “The day I arrived, they were waiting for the Ambassador of Vatican in Angola (normally they have a precise name, but I can’t find it right now; the ambassadors of the Vatican are all priests) . There was a huge reception, then I came out. I thought it was for me, but it wasn’t. They were waiting for the Italian, arrived the Japanese!” We laughed so much! We end up discovering Father Noel was a very funny man, although we wouldn’t hear from him a lot.
Old Moxico: After lunch, D. Gabriel took Father Ornelas, Father Onorio and I to visit Moxico Velho (Old Moxico). Maria had to give her Biblical classes.
Moxico Velho is 30 km from Lwena. We took the same road as yesterday (the road of Sakassange). Along the way, we saw many people coming and going with coal and wood to sell in the market. Women and young girls carrying huge bags of coal over the head and some man carrying on their old bicycles. D. Gabriel said: “The women are those that suffer the most during those wars. But they are those that survive the best too. In the camps, 2/3 who escaped are women. They work hard. They have the whole family over their shoulders”.
Then Father Onorio, who was behind me, took one of my braids and said: “It all starts by carrying other people’s hair over the head, then they can start carrying water and wood!”. D. Gabriel and Father Ornelas started laughing and I, of course, blushed like a tomato. The day had already started with my hair and I guess it was to end like it!
After a couple of kilometres more from Sakassange, there is an entry in the middle of the woods. Like a shortcut. It took at least 30 minutes in the middle of the bushes to get in a glade where stood the mission. I have never seen such an extension of colours! Shining colours! Many areas were already burnt for the season; it was so wonderful to see some clear violet plants in the middle of the burnt earth… The straw had a vivid golden colour; the high trees had bright-green foliage! Then, we could see a degrade of fire-orange, gold-yellow, red and brown. Made me want to paint again. Really! I wish I could have my painting material, but I guess I forgot how to paint. It has been almost two years that I haven’t put anything to paper. I could give a try, though.
Arriving in the mission, Father Onorio rang the colonial bell that was in behind the house of the priests. He wanted to hear what it looked like then said “D. Gabriel has arrived! They must know!” We laughed over it, Father Onorio is too funny! Little did he know that D. Gabriel visits the area often. We must say that D. Gabriel is a very simple and modest man. Really. And very modern too!
The locals saluted us. We jumped off the jeep. D. Gabriel thought I would be in trouble because today I decided to wrap myself in cloth. But, hey! I am African! I am Bantu! There is no way that cloth could fall!
In that camp, D. Gabriel said that many refugees already left, but lots of them stayed because the priest (Father Estevăo) stayed. The camp was built around the old house of the governor, done in the 1930s and then served as the house of the priests.
So, the only thing that was from those times, were the house, the school and the church. Now, around that central part, there are huts of earth and straw. D. Gabriel managed to make the government know about the situation of the church and of the school. So in no time, they are going to be restored. So we hope, as we know how the government of this country is… One of the locals said that we could send the material and they would do the work themselves. Can you imagine a school from the 1930s, with the desks of that time? D. Gabriel said “count your age times 3 and you’ll see that all this area was really nice!”
Ouch!
Father Ornelas has a digital camera, so he was taking pictures of the kids and showed them in “da box”. They were so excited! They have never seen themselves but in the rivers and this technology is quite new for them (as well as for me). You don’t see children starving or sick. They have this incredible love for life and it’s a lesson we should learn from them. They are always smiling and playing although they work as the adults. The girls help their mothers in the house (hut) shores and go to the river to pick water. The boys go with their fathers and elder brothers to the plantations or hunting.
One thing you can witness without the need of speaking the language. The children are happy and have fun, no matter what happens around them. Of course they suffer, but they can get over it with much more facility than the adults. In that aspect, I don’t see the “fun” of being a “grown-up”. Children know how to live and how to survive. Adults think of too many things at the same time. Probably that’s why many of them keep on dreaming about the innocence of their childhood and youth.
(Anyway, this is my theory about the situation).
What I have observed in every place we have been, it’s that all the kids are in the school. When people ask their names and ages, they are happy to know that “foreign” people are interested in them. All of them speak at least 2 languages. They speak Portuguese and Tchokwé, the local language, or Umbundu because many of those children came from the south to escape from the war, when UNITA occupied Huambo (in the South).
I hope someday and somewhere, they will have a future, a better future. All the children of this Angola are hurt and need protection and help from the outside, because, inside, they won’t have it. At least, not in ten years! And yet, I have my doubts…
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