13 August 2010

Luanda, Timezone GMT + 1


People are friendly and helpful, and after asking a few times, I understand their Portuguese. Food in the supermarkets is expensive, as almost everything is imported. About twice the price of the same goods in Germany. Even fruit and vegetables that I thought were local produce are extremely high priced. Apparently the land is still full of mines from the civil war, so it cannot be used extensively for agriculture. But I found no coconuts, no big yams, nothing that I would expect here. There are women on the streets with big baskets full of bananas, plantains, oranges and (small) avocados. I have seen goiabada and feijoada in the shops and restaurants, the food definitely has a Brazilian influence .
So how does the average Angolan survive here? I have no idea how they can afford all these goods. Even rice, pasta and bread are twice as much, and a can of Red Bull in the supermarket is around 2,30 €!
Well the average flight attendant survives by bringing some of her own cans of Red Bull, and enjoys the ready made organic vegetarian curries bought in india a while ago, as it is too difficult to find some food without meat or fish in some of these countries that still regard meat in the food as a status symbol. I read a great article in the "Zeit" newspaper yesterday about vegetarianism these days, that people become more aware of what killing an animal means (and the torture of animals in mass production) when it is unneccessary in our times and western European countries. It was the leading article on the cover! Quite impressive for a German newspaper.

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