I am headed for Angola for the next week to visit my dear friend, Carmen. This trip has been long anticipated and I cannot believe it is here already! A lot of you have asked why I’m headed to Angola…after all, it’s probably not the most sought-after travel destination out there. Well, after witnessing the life-changing experience my friend has had in Africa and after seeing first-hand how God has worked miracles throughout this process, I could not turn down this opportunity.
I’ve asked Carmen to share her story of her work in Angola (below) and I hope in the next few days share my story of Africa and images I have seen through my lens.
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Please forgive me because I am by no means a writer. When my dear friend Karen asked me to share my story with her fellow bloggers, I had to say yes not only because she is such a good friend but because the story involves a cause that is so important to me.
In January 2007 I moved with my husband and two young children (6 months and 3 years) to Angola, Africa. My husband had just been given a 3 year assignment with ExxonMobil in Luanda, the capital city of Angola. Shortly after moving to Luanda I began volunteering for a local orphanage called Mama Muxima. The orphanage was started by Sister Katarina who came to Luanda during the civil war (a 27 year conflict that ended in 2002) to rescue children from the street. She started with 40 children in a 1 room shack and today the orphanage has grown to 100 children housed in two buildings, a church and a school.
During the civil war in Angola many people fled to Luanda to escape fighting in the countryside. As a result Luanda became extremely overcrowded. After the war ended, people were unable to return to their homes in the country because of landmines. More than 90% of the population of Luanda lives in extreme poverty in homes with no electricity or running water. As a result of this overcrowding and lack of sanitation, the water supply in the city is extremely contaminated. Contaminated water is a major factor in the spread of disease in Luanda.
After I began working at Mama Muxima, I quickly noticed they were in dire need of fresh drinking water. Sister Katarina was purchasing water every 4 to 5 days at a cost of $250. The water was rationed and the children were only given the amount they needed to survive. I decided to try to get a water well for the orphanage.
When I told Karen of my plans for a well at Mama Muxima, she told me about a wonderful organization, Living Water International. LWI is a Christian based organization that drills water wells and repairs well pumps in 29 countries around the world. Karen and her husband got in touch with the Executive Director of LWI, Gary Evans, to ask for his help.
Unfortunately at the time LWI had no equipment in Angola so they would not be able to come drill the well; however Gary offered to advise me and guide me step by step through the process of geting the well done by myself. I began raising money and getting estimates from local Angolan companies to drill the well.
On a trip to Houston in September 2007 I met with Gary to share with him my progress on the well project up to that point. He was outraged by the amount an Angolan company was going to over-charge us to drill the well. He immediately offered to come to Luanda himself and drill the well. Because of the orphanage’s close proximity to the ocean he felt we did not need drilling equipment at all. His plan was to hand dig a shallow well that would pump salt water and then filter the salt water.
Five months later, Gary arrived in Luanda and with the help of Gary Wilkins (who partners with LWI to drill wells in Namibia and Southern Angola) he hand dug a salt water well and installed a reverse osmosis filtration machine at the orphanage. After it was completed, Sister Katarina said it was the best thing that has ever happened to her and the children. The children are cleaner and healthier now and it is so wonderful to go to the orphanage and see the kids drink water whenever they want to—something I as an American used to take so much for granted.
Now, I am in the process with two other friends in Luanda of raising money for LWI so they can drill two more wells in Luanda this year. One well will be for another orphanage and the other for a TB/AIDS hospital.
When I first came to Luanda, I was completely overwhellmed by the devestating scope of the poverty here. I had seen on TV what it would be like here but that is nothing compared to seeing it “in person.” Gary Evans put it so eloquently “the first time I came to Africa, my heart was broken. It was broken in a way that can never be repaired this side of heaven.” My heart has been broken and the only thing that eases this pain is helping as much as I can while I am here. I know what I am doing to help Angolans is just a small drop in the bucket, but if everyone who came to this country did just one small thing to help the bucket would be much closer to being filled.
