The arrival

13-12-2010 - Laptop Miranda in the village Solo

Hello everyone!

Finally, I've arrived! This trip took way too long for me and I'm tired as hell but there are so many things to see and to do so there won't be much time for sleeping. This night at one o'clock I left the cold and snowy Netherlands to go some thousands kilometres southwards all the way to Benguela. Approximately 10 hours later the plane landed on the Benguela Airport and from there a from origin white, because now you can't hardly see it is white because the everything was covered with dirt and brown mud, and small bus with huge wheels took me to my destiny: a small town called Solo. The way from Benguela was extremely bumpy and sandy, it took only four hours but it felt like 8 hours. Because of all the holes in the way I felt very sick and we had to stop five times because I had to puke. However, at 17.00 we drove into the place I'll stay for one week. When we drove into this town I felt like a celebrity, all children and adults where standing along the sides of the road (which you could hardly call a road) and waving at me. I think this must be the first time they saw a car. Then the head of the town, an old man with a long grey board and no hair on his head, stepped out of the crowd and walked towards the car I was sitting in. I left the car and bowed for him, I didn't exactly know what to do but bowing won't hurt him I thought. Then he shook my hand and I shook his hands. His hands felt like they would break when you would shake his hand very firmly.

He brought me to the local public house while all the citizens of Solo were following us. He asked me to sit down so I did. He took place on the other side of the table. Suddenly, 10 servants brought us a 5 course menu with all kinds of fruit and vegetables I've never seen and I even saw some insects like grasshoppers, ants, beetles and many more. I was in a dilemma, I was starving because I hadn't eaten for like 8 hours and I think it would be rude to refuse but on the other hand I saw all the children and adults watching us and staring at the food like they haven't eaten for like 2 weeks. Moreover, I also recognized that those people in this village were tremendously poor and they didn't look that healthy. I'll insert a picture of the children I made when I drove into the village. Nevertheless that's the reason why I came all this way to Solo; to help the people here. While I was still thinking about how to give the food to the residents without being rude the doctor came in. I recognized her directly because we had lots of e-mail contact before I came here.

She is 31 years old and finished her study as a doctor at the age of 24. She always wanted to help the less developed countries and via a charity organization she heard about this village. Two weeks later she left her birthplace The Hague and started her work as a doctor. She told me she didn't saw it as working, she was very glad that she could do something for those people and she didn't want any money from them. The only things she needed were a place to sleep and a decent meal everyday. The charity organization gives her and her husband, which she met on the airplane, a certain amount of money every month to buy all the medicines and equipment they need. Her husband makes sure that more and more people know about these people by making advertisements and makes sure that they got all the drugs and tools which Miranda, the doctor, needs. When I read her story on the internet I was completely amazed by all the work she did and I had so much respect for her that I wrote an e-mail in which I asked if I could help. She responded that she would love that and now I'm here. She was really happy to see me, and so did I. She asked the head if we could get a room just for the two of us so we could have a talk. When we left the head of the village I let him promise to give the food to the children, so my problem was solved.

The doctor and I talked for like three hours about all the things I need to see to get a better view of the life of people who live not only in this village but also in the whole of Africa. We made the plan what we'll do tomorrow in order to make the life of those citizens just a little better and healthier and especially the life of those children because at the moment they haven't got any future at all. We will start with giving all children a piece of bread and a banana and then I'll aid Miranda with her daily check of the real sick people. Then she will explain me what we can do to make the future of those children better and I'll meet Bob, her husband. She also told me that two children need an operation in order to get better but she wasn't able to do this all by herself so she asked me if I would be so kind to assist her during these surgeons. After making these plans I went straight to bed because it was a very long day for me and I've to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my weblog and I'll post my new experiences tomorrow evening.

Sleep Well!

Lots of love from Solo,

Julia