Survey Trip: Week Three

Saturday, June 14^th – We spent the morning in Huambo and had lunch in one of the city parks. That afternoon, we flew from Huambo to Luena. We were warmly welcomed by the missionaries and spent the afternoon and evening settling in, buying groceries, and cooking dinner.

Sunday, June 15^th – Happy Father's Day! We worshiped with the small church of Christ here that is made up mostly of returned refugees to Zambia. It was a wonderful time of fellowship that reminded me piercingly of church meetings in rural Kenya. The church served us lunch afterwards, and then the guys stayed on to meet with some of the leaders while the girls and Alex went home to rest. We had dinner with the Trotts, missionaries here in Luena, and Alex enjoyed playing with their two boys, ages 5 and 7.

Monday, June 16^th – Some of the group visited the local clinic. Others went out to visit an NGO that is doing some de-mining in the area. We also visited the local market, did some laundry, and enjoyed some time just to rest and process.

Tuesday, June 17^th – We flew from Luena to Malange, the last stop on our tour of Angola. We spent the afternoon getting settled in at our hotel and buying a few groceries. The hotel is very nice; unfortunately, there is no water in the pool right now. We walked downtown to a restaurant for dinner, then came back to the hotel and watched a movie in English (with Portuguese subtitles).

Wedneday, June 18^th – We enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel, then drove out to the Kalandula waterfalls. They were pretty amazing. We enjoyed the view from the top; then, a “guide” offered to take us on a hike down to the base of the falls. We trekked through the jungle, along a trail that got pretty muddy towards the end, until we reached the river. Rusty did an amazing job with Alex in the baby carrier on his back. Then, some of the guys hiked along the river to the base of the falls while the rest of us waited at the river. After we hiked back to the top, we had lunch and relaxed for a bit, then drove home. We had dinner at another restaurant downtown, followed by another English movie back at the hotel.

Thursday, June 19^th – We decided to head back to Luanda a day early since we were pretty much done with our surveying, and the missionaries in Malange were very busy and had told us they could not spend any time visiting with us. The guys spent the morning meeting with some of the ICA ministers while the girls took moto-taxis to the market. We checked out of the hotel, made our way to the airport, and boarded the plane for the flight back to Luanda. It was great to be back at the Baptist guest house, our home away from home!

Friday, June 20^th – The guys had a couple of meetings downtown scheduled for today. The girls (and Alex!) stayed home and did a mountain of laundry and made tortillas for our taco night. Yum