July 14, 2005
Angola 2005 May outreach: When all hope is lost...
Main Story
Traveling
Scars of the war
Menongue
Life in the villages and refugee camps
Clinical work
Devine Appointment: The Tank Dentist
Bushmen
The people of Angola
A lady from the bushmen tribe, south of Menongue: See more...
Angola is a country ravaged by civil war. While Cubans joined forces with the MPLA government, the South Africans linked up with the rebel UNITA forces – prolonging the conflict. It is estimated that there are up to 10 million mines polluting Angolan soil. The recent war that raged from 1992 to 1994 cost the lives of half a million children.
Aid to Africa is a medical outreach program of Doctors for Life. We are working in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Angola. Angola has become a special objective – its people are warm and friendly despite the fact that they live in a crippled, war-ravaged country. The roads are terrible, it is estimated that there are up to 10 million landmines polluting its soil, people live in the most poor and awful conditions. What is more heartbreaking than the lack of medicine or food is the spiritual starvation that these people live in. So this year, Aid to Africa pulled its resources together and assembled a team of ten to go into one of the most war-torn areas of Angola, the Cuando Cubango province.
A map of Angola: Click on the map for a larger image
Unfortunately some doctors pulled out shortly before the outreach and finding others to fill their place was not possible. Augusto Chemaia was our contact in Angola and arranged all the places were to work in. The objective of the trip was to offer medical help and to preach to the people of Angola .
It took us 3 days before we passed into Namibia and slept over in Rundu, just south of the Angolan Border – covering approximately 800km a day. The fourth day’s anticipation had us up before sunrise as we headed to the Angola-Namibia Border. Passing into Angola , the road immediately took a turn for the worse. After a brief dinner by the river, we took to the road again. The goal was to reach Menongue, about 350 kilometers away, in eight hours.
At the Angolan border at katuitui: See more photos of traveling...
The country was open and untouched except for the occasional village. Although the land is beautiful, there are no sign of wildlife except for some birds. Apparently, the starved population has hunted down and killed the animals for food. The road became progressively worse and we could barely cover twenty to thirty kilometers per hour. Late that night, not even half-way, we stopped for supper. A decision had to be made – either find a safe, landmine-free area to sleep, or push through.
The first of landmine warnings: See more photos of the impact of the war...
Hours of driving finally brought us to another halt as we came to the first of several landmine warnings. These sticks in the ground warn of an anti-tank mine. After about 26 straight hours of driving, we arrived in Menongue in the early hours of the morning. We met our host, a missionary in Menongue, Calvin Brain, and looked forward to a day of rest.
The next two weeks would have us traveling to surrounding refugee camps and villages around Menongue, as well as working in the city.
See more photos of the villages...
Kuatili was the first refugee village we visited. Our clinics were very simple and unpacking and setting up would take only a few minutes. Before continuing, the people would be gathered and we’d have a service.
Our first clinic held in Kuatili: See more photos of the clinics in the refugee camps...
Hundreds of the sick would sit and wait for an opportunity to be examined, and the rest would stand about and examine every move we’d make. There’s very little privacy in these villages.
See more photos of the clinics in the refugee camps..
The patient would explain the problem via a translator to the doctor, who would then examine the person. The prognosis and prescription would then be written down and taken to the pharmacy – supervised by Mr Mdlalose – and a translator would then explain the prescription to the patient. Because of the unsanitary conditions they live in, strange and terrible diseases affect everyone, especially the children. The people’s teeth are in terrible shape and some live with a dental abscess for weeks or even months. Dr Albu van Eeden extracted many teeth under the scrutiny of the fascinated locals and the assistance of George Oesch. However, the doctors broke records – seeing an average of 200 patients a day. All in all, we treated over 1500 patients, ranging from dental extractions, treating worms, skin infections, malaria, deficiencies, malnutrition etc…
A severely ill baby: See more photos of the clinics in the refugee camps..
Perhaps a reason these areas seem so badly hit by disease is the lack of infrastructure. The roads have been ruined by the war – in fact, Menongue, the third-largest city in Angola, which could be compared to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, is totally cut off from road transport for three months during the rainy season. The villages are isolated locations of closed living. One has to walk for hours to get to a clinic or hospital which has no medicine. If one gets examined by a doctor, one has to find a pharmacy – which is a mud building with a dirt floor and poor quality drugs sold at ridiculous prices. The war has truly crippled the country – Menongue, which used to be a thriving city, now has ruined buildings, no running water and no electricity. Most of the houses are built out of mud bricks and have dirt floors – built without order and wherever there’s space. There is no privacy. Sewerage runs through the streets and litter covers most of the city.
The city has a tank and military vehicle graveyard from the war and the roads have huge craters lined with mangled wrecks. And if the war doesn’t seem to have left enough damage, there are estimates of up to 10 million landmines polluting Angolan soil. There are many cripples from mine-related incidents. A prominent political leader had been blown up a few weeks before we arrived having driven over a mine on a well-traveled road. In fact, a recently-removed anti-tank mine’s imprint was clearly visible in a pothole we drove past.
Landmine warnings were everywhere – rocks painted red, or grass tied in a knot meant a mine-field lined the road. We could not stray off the road at all.
A landmine warning next to the road: See more...
One particular minefield was being de-mined by Halo Trust, who gave us a tour of the area. The man who was leading the de-mining operation said his uncle had been fetching water there when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine, killing him. Others were too afraid to fetch his body, so they left his him to decompose in the open. In the few months they’ve been working, they’ve removed about 450 landmines in this small area. What is disturbing is that the ruined and bare land is safe, while the beautiful areas of vegetation are still riddled with mines. Children were swimming and women washing clothes in the stream surrounded by this deadly mine-field.
Women and children (and pigs) washing in the river surrounded with landmines: See more...
The people live in fear and huge areas of land cannot be farmed or used because of the millions of landmines contaminating the soil. It will take millions of dollars and many years before one can walk about safely. Although the war is over, the military presence permeates the cities and rural areas with frequents roadblocks and flags of the opposing parties – UNITA and MPLA.
Their are a estimated 80 000 People amputees in Angola due to the war. See more...
The people live in small villages and grow subsistence crops, usually cassava or sorghum which they pound to flour. Their food is not nutritious and so deficiencies are common. Because the war is over, the baby-boom has really taken hold. Most girls, by the time they’re eighteen have two to three children. And it seems the age group of 20-40 years old men is simply missing. When you look at the people and the conditions they live in one is witness to how easy it is to destroy and difficult to build up. All the houses the Portuguese have left behind are either burnt out and bullet-riddled and the old mission churches are also just ruins.
A group of kids in a refugee camp near Menongue. See more...
Every morning before we’d start the clinic, we’d have a service – explaining the reason we’re there. Some of these people had never been exposed to the gospel. After the clinic, we would set up the screen for the evening film and service. Many Portuguese Bibles were given away.
A man listening to a service. See more photos of the people...
When we started packing and headed out of Menongue, we hoped to reach a Bushman camp, where we’d have our last clinic, by the afternoon. We left late, and saw far more wrecks next to the road than when we had driven up at night. Landmine warnings were all along the road and mangled tanks had their turrets pointing out of the long grass. After about three to four hours drive, we stopped to examine and take photos of an abandoned Russian tank next to the road. During the few minutes that we stopped there, we saw the divine appointment two men passed us on their bicycles on the way to Menongue. We noticed one of them had a severe dental abscess…
Dr. Albu van Eeden does the tooth extraction on the tank. See more...
The miracle of it was wonderful. This young man had been suffering for months and finally saved a little of his money and decided to ride eight hours to Menongue and on the way meets nine strangers. Not only did they have medicine, but they had a dental kit. We gave him an anti-biotic that is not available in Angola and even if it were, he could not afford it. After four hours of riding, they made a U-turn and rode home.
A bushman boy catches a lift to the camp. See more photos of this tribe..
We arrived at the Bushman camp, but unfortunately, they’d recently abandoned the small village and moved on. So we stopped at a village a little further on and held our last clinic, setting up camp and showing one more film and holding the last service. Before sunrise, everything was packed away and the vehicles left hoping to reach the border by late afternoon.
The deserted camp site of the nomadic bushmen
Then by mid-morning, we saw some Bushmen boys beside the road. Within a few minutes, the whole village was around our vehicles, excitedly speaking in their native tongue. These small people are nomadic and move around every few months and somehow, we had found them and could quickly make a stop and dispense medicine. Because they live in such a close community, almost all of them had the same diseases. So we de-wormed the entire village and handed out anti-scabies medicine. Before leaving again, we had a brief service with the excitable group – explaining the broad and narrow way. It was fantastic to reach out to this small tribe who live their lives in astonishing beauty and poverty.
Bushmen ladies listening to the tea. See more...
The road became worse as we continued and we realized that we could not reach the border in time. So we pitched camp a few kilometers from the border and left at dawn to Rundu in Namibia . It felt good to drive 120 kilometers per hour again. The next day, we again traveled next to Okavango marshes where we hoped to spend the next day resting from the continuous two weeks of work.
Camping near the Angolan border: See more...
The Okavango has exceptionally clear water and the papyrus marshes have many birds, eagles, crocodiles and hippos. It was our first real day of rest in almost three weeks.
The Okavango river: See more...
The next day, we left for home, which was two more days away… We covered over six thousand kilometers, held nine clinics, treated more than 1500 patients, dispensed thousands of pills, and most importantly gave the life-changing gospel to many thousands.
Lilies on the Okavango river: See more...
We hope to return to Angola in September 2005 and reach many of these tragically poor and impoverished people. We would like to thank all those who supported us, financially, with medicines, but especially prayer. We hope God blesses you, this ministry and all those involved.
We would like to give a special word of thank to Desert Wolf for their contribution to this outreach. Aid to Africa used on of their stainless steel Lynx trailers on a very demanding road.
'Doctors for Life International' represents more than 1400 medical doctors and specialists, three-quarters of who practice in South Africa. Since 1991 DFL has been actively promoting health care that is safe and efficient for all South Africans. DFL was founded as a South African organization in 1991 and has spread across the globe. DFL is involved in several community projects including orphan care, the care of terminal AIDS patients, malaria prevention and the care of abused women.