Yesterday was a good day. Maria took us to the village by the sea where Petur grew up. Apparently things have changed a lot. For example, there were almost no houses on the way between the city and the village 18 years ago when Petur left, but today there are houses everywhere. A devestating flood washed away a lot of houses two years ago, amongst them the house where Petur lived for the last two years when he was here.
Other things have not changed that much. We went to the house where he lived for the first four years which was still intact. There we met a guy who lived in a neighbouring house which is identical to the one that Petur used to live in. Petur started asking about people who lived there when he was a kid and apparently quite a lot of them still live in the neighbourhood. Petur told him that a swedish guy who used to live there at the same time as him and has an Angolan girlfriend whose parents live in one of these houses had told him to say hi and then it turns out that it is actually that guy's sister! He invites us in to meet his parents and Petur starts telling his story. Then the father says that he knows one Icelander who he used to work with whose name is Skuli. Of course he was very surprised when he learned that Petur is Skuli's son.
Then the son went out with us to find some more friends and we managed to find three of them who were very happy to see Petur again, hugged him, told stories of Petur when he was little and laughed. One said that one day he would contact all the people who knew Petur as a kid and who still live there and have a little get together.
The village is very charming and has a beautiful view over the ocean. Petur intends to do his research there and I might get a little project there to work on as well because Development Workshop works a lot in this area.
On the way home we stopped by at Maria's mother's place where some of Maria's many siblings live. There we got some traditional cassava (mandioka) with peanuts and natural palm wine that drips of the palm trees. The wine had been collected the day before so it was not very strong, but apparently it keeps on fermenting and gets stronger with every day that you keep it. We got some to take with us in a bottle...
Other things have not changed that much. We went to the house where he lived for the first four years which was still intact. There we met a guy who lived in a neighbouring house which is identical to the one that Petur used to live in. Petur started asking about people who lived there when he was a kid and apparently quite a lot of them still live in the neighbourhood. Petur told him that a swedish guy who used to live there at the same time as him and has an Angolan girlfriend whose parents live in one of these houses had told him to say hi and then it turns out that it is actually that guy's sister! He invites us in to meet his parents and Petur starts telling his story. Then the father says that he knows one Icelander who he used to work with whose name is Skuli. Of course he was very surprised when he learned that Petur is Skuli's son.
Then the son went out with us to find some more friends and we managed to find three of them who were very happy to see Petur again, hugged him, told stories of Petur when he was little and laughed. One said that one day he would contact all the people who knew Petur as a kid and who still live there and have a little get together.
The village is very charming and has a beautiful view over the ocean. Petur intends to do his research there and I might get a little project there to work on as well because Development Workshop works a lot in this area.
On the way home we stopped by at Maria's mother's place where some of Maria's many siblings live. There we got some traditional cassava (mandioka) with peanuts and natural palm wine that drips of the palm trees. The wine had been collected the day before so it was not very strong, but apparently it keeps on fermenting and gets stronger with every day that you keep it. We got some to take with us in a bottle...
5 Comments:
Ég les bloggið með mikilli ánægju - finnst ótrúlega skemmtilegt að þú sért búin að vera blogga aftur :D
Annars skil ég ekki af hverju það eru tvö kommentakerfi, í hvort á maður eiginlega að kommenta?
Vó Vó ekki hætta að blogga Dóra þá finnst manni þið bara vera týnd þarna úti.
Allt gott að frétta af okkur á Íslandi förum sennilega út í Hjörsey á fimmtudaginn að vinna við að laga húsið.
Hlakka til að lesa næstu færslu og bið að heilsa Pésa ;o)
kv. Gudda
Er með tvö kommentakerfi bara til að vera viss um að fá einhver komment ;-). Nei, bara að grínast, ég er bara svo mikill nördi að ég næ ekki að eyða einu kerfinu út, þá datt hitt alltaf út líka og mér finnst betra að hafa tvö en ekkert!
Hæhó þið ævintýrafólk! Svo gaman að lesa bloggið, þú mátt alls ekki hætta að skrifa Dóra, þetta verður framhaldssaga ársins!
Finnst samt voða leiðó að þú skulir ekki vera á Íslandi núna þegar ég er að koma...snökt og sakn!
Knús til ykkar beggja!!
Hi Dora and Petur!
Its good to get some news from you from Angola. I try to imagine you there, and with the help of such interesting and nice descriptions of where you live and how you live it is much easier! its good to learn about a country i dont know anything about. I hope things will be well for both of you, and look forward to reading your messages once in a while.
In the meantime, we will keep the montreal summer going here. its been a slow start (it wont stop raining), but i am still enjoying it a lot. We play a lot of soccer, and we even won one game last weekend (which means we are no longer the bottom team!)
Take care!
Loes
Skrifa ummæli
<< Home