My six months in Angola

INTRODUCTION
My work as volounteer in Angola

My name is Alessandro, I am 30 years old, I come from Rome, Italy, and I decided to spend six months of my life to work as a volounteer in Africa. After six months of preparation in the DRH school of Holsted, Denmark, I am ready (I hope so) to fly to Luanda, Angola, where I will work in a school as a “Development Instructor”. The school lies 40 km south of Luanda, nearby a small village named Ramiro, and it is called EPF (in Portuguese “Escola Professores do Futuro”), which prepares students of the age of 19-30 years old to become teachers and help to satisfy the huge need of education in this Country. As far as I know, my tasks will be to help the school to run properly, concretely giving English and computing courses. That is all I know at the moment.

picture 1. in the village of Ramiro.

A short introduction about the Country:
Angola is an African Country which lies underneath the Equator, and its borders separate it (from North to South) from Congo, Zambia, and Namibia, with the Atlantic Ocean on its West side. The climate and the nature range from tropical (rainy forest) in the Northern Province of Cabinda to sub-tropical (desert) in the Southern Province of Namibe. Although is a huge Country (more than 1.200.000 square kilometers, 4 times as big as Italy), it hosts less than 16.000.000 people.

picture 2. the map of Angola.
Angola used to be a Portuguese colony from the 15th century until 1975, right after the end of the Salazar’s dictatorship in Portugal. Portuguese is the official language, though more than 15 dialects (or local languages) are spread in the whole nation. Its first President was Agostinho Neto, leader of the MPLA party, considered as a national hero. After the independence, the Country was devastated by a bloody civil war which lasted 27 years (1975-2002), leaving it in disastrous conditions: the rate of analphabetism and poverty are among the highest in the whole Sub-Saharan Africa and in the World, and the plague of Aids and other diseases are reducing the possibility of growth, despite this Country is full of natural resources, in particular oil and diamonds, which attract many foreign investors – American, British, Dutch, Portuguese and Chinese. The friendly relationship with China in particular is shown by the political system of Angola, which full name “Republica Popular de Angola” tells much. The actual President is José Eduardo Dos Santos, of the MPLA party.

picture 3. the Angolan flag.

The currency is the “kwanza”: 100 kwanzas are worth, more or less, 1 Euro, and are enough for one meal at the local restaurants.