Money

In Angola’s capital city Luanda the average rent for a (not particularly great) apartment costs somewhere around 5,000 USD per month. Yes, five thousand North-American dollars. For a place that doesn’t necessarily have running water, and where you still need to buy the gasoline for you private generator. Kids begging on the streets ask you for (at least) 200 kwanza, the equivalent of 3 USD. Which stops to be surprising, once you realize that the price for the smallest piece of bread you can buy, has risen from the equivalent of 35 cent last week to 20 cent this week. A bottle of mineral water is more expensive than on Heathrow airport. I once allowed myself the “luxury” of a chocolate bar and paid 5 dollars for it. But maybe one has to consider that imported goods just have to be incredibly dear. However, bananas (a local produce) are often more expensive than at my local corner shop back home. The smallest recharge for a mobile phone costs the equivalent of 11 USD and can last up to 10 days if you don’t make “conversation calls”. I don’t think I have heard people talk about money as much and as often as in this country and I find it quite surprising that a secondary teacher earns more than his colleague in Italy after a couple of years of experience. But if they can fill a concert hall with thousands of people who paid at least 100 USD to listen to some international celebrity singer, than one has to start asking how much money there is in this country and if it will be able to manage it in order to also reach the poorest, the malnourished children, the sick and weak which live in the most remote corners of the country as well as in Luanda’s city outskirts.