LUANDA - Home is the first word that springs to mind when we at Inter Campus go back to Angola. Both because we've been hosted by the Salesian priests for eight years and because we get a few days' insight into the difficult lifestyle here. Water comes and goes, there are regular power cuts and mosquitoes (hopefully not carrying malaria) keep us company at night. You occasionally see a rat scuttle under the table during the sparse dinners with the priests and numerous volunteers who work in this neighbourhood of shacks with no sewage system, where every rain shower turns the streets into a dark river of human waste.
You wouldn't think this place is overly conducive to hope and joy but every now and then a miracle occurs. The Salesian priests have created schools and houses for the kids living on the streets: genuine pockets of family and education for many boys and girls, to such an extent that lessons are run in a morning and evening shift. It's a little weird to hear the bell for break time and the usual sound of hundreds of kids at dusk!
Education doesn't end there however. There's the Polidesportivo Dom Bosco which runs countless activities including handball, basketball, capoeira and, above all, football, which is where Inter Campus come in. Our two tireless veteran coaches here in Angola, Alberto and Silvio, run courses on the field and in the classroom to train the boys and girls who have become educator-coaches (treinoeducadores) of the little kids. There followed a trip to the various sites around the city, Trilho, Palanca, Cacuaco, Bom Pastor, Mabubas and Alcune. The centres in Benguela and Calulo were too far for us to reach on this mission, although we did travel the three hours by car on the final day to see the Dondo site, on the Kwanza river.
With the state of the roads it's always a gamble when there's a plane waiting but the Salesian priests guaranteed us the protection of St. John Bosco! We weren't thrilled to be leaving at 04:00 after a busy week but it was all worth it. When we arrived, we saw the kids who had been waiting excitedly for hours (genuinely hours) to train in freshly washed Nerazzurri kits for the occasion. We ran a session and played a game before it was time to party: we shared our experiences with the local educators, handed out presents for the kids and certificates to the coaches who attended the previous course, whose work has been assessed over the past few months.
We then returned to the capital to pack our bags. We bid farewell to our friends the priests and volunteers from all over the world (Angola, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, France, Germany and Uruguay), promising to see each other in September, while staying in touch and coordinating the project via social media in the meantime.
When we left, tired but contented, we already started to feel a little saudade, that feeling of nostalgia that inspires wonderful music over here. Albeit for us it's a little unique: nostalgia for our homes waiting in Italy but also for our Angolan home that we left behind.
Até logo, Luanda, see you soon!
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