Wednesday, deep into the week.

Mornings are still filled with rain. How odd! I never experienced such a frequency of rains during my 5 years here. And from talking with the olders I find fishing off the rocks on the ocean side at dusk it seems that everyone is quite disoriented by so much water falling onto their heads.

The fishermen. They just seem to live on these rocks. When I leave the house at 6.30 in the morning, they are already throwing their bait in the dark waters. The same old roll of fishing thread to their side half buried in dried crab shell and fish scales, they are still pulling on their rudimentary lines long after the sunset (everyday around 18.30 / 19.00). Their equipment is limited to just a nylon thread imported from South Africa and a self-made hook. No rod, no reel, just the minimum. Years of fishing, the nylon and the salt have hardened their hands to such an extent than greeting them feels like shaking a piece of dry wood. I usually wave at them in the morning on my way to work.

The view of the Lobito bay along the way to the office, with the ocean fogs hanging off the cliffs, reminds me of the Norwegian fjords. The short drive from the guesthouse to the construction yard is a very special moment for me. For every time I took this long straight road from the far end of the Restinga (literally The road of the wealthy) through the small soviet-style city centre onto the port area I feel I am so much better off experiencing all this than sitting in the middle of a traffic jam listening to silly commercials in the hope of just 2 minutes of decent music to smooth all that surrounding frustration.

In France radios never play the music I like anyway. Commercial 'music' is the only one to find its way through the air. It is sad because a radio station that I really liked in Paris (Radio Nova) a few years ago, has now turned into one of those commercial junks. It used to air some excellent experimental electro music and other very little known world musics. It still does. But to a much lesser extent. With the French requirement to air a minimum of 40% of French music and the same speakers gone wrong - once resourceful in terms of music critics and now pushing forward mercantile intentions - Radio Nova does no longer serve its purpose to me.
In Africa you have corrupted administrations and people. In Europe you have administrations and people corrupting your mind and music tastes. What's best? I am not sure ...