Our next stop on the Tour de Friday Night, was back in the Alvelade part of the city. We were very kindly invited out to dinner with a co-worker, who wanted to make sure we felt at home in Luanda.
This is a special treat. Angolans don't always reach out to ex-pats to invite them to join them during social hours. In fact, when we told Nick (hubby de LBW prez, who is our co-worker) that this was where we were going next, he admittedly had to pick his lower jaw off the floor. I am very lucky that I have a nice team that looks to make Paul and me feel welcome.
Even better - we had two invites with Angolan families that night - the stop after dinner was a last-minute invite to our family friends' party they were throwing for the wife of the family, Theresa's sister. Theresa is a very good friend of Isabel's and she and her husband were very kind to include me in some weekend activities with the family the last time I was here. Both Paul and I look forward to visiting with them and getting to know their daughters better as part of our time here.
Back to BlueJazz:
So Sandra and her husband Diego asked us to join them, along with her primas (cousins) and other pals to dinner upon Paul's arrival. Irena - another co-worker, had given Sandra the idea (those two are certainly besties), and she was there too.
I'll get into the details of the food and entertainment in a bit, but first, a side story on Journey Management and Angolan Culture.
If one takes a moment to look at a street map of Luanda, one may also conclude that part of the traffic problem is simply due to the way the roads are laid. Add to this that most only have the Portuguese street signage, which consists 18-inch square painted tiles with the street name that are fixed to any building on a corner - same as Paris. The thing is that half the buildings that harbored this signage are gone, or they are covered up by trees, poorly lit, or just weren't there in the first place.
Our restaurant, which had a webpage, didn't have a street number, but rather just referenced the Avenida do Commandante Che Guevara as its home. When I realized this about mid day on Friday, I made sure to work with Irena and Sandra to figure out exactly where we needed to go. There is a bank building and TV Cabo's main office is on the same road. Bluejazz is right across the street.
So I print the street map, draw the landmarks, and when we meet up with Emiquilson, I ask him if he knows the restaurant. It's new, and it's not an expat locale, so not only did he not know, but when he called around to other drivers who nobly cart us to and fro, they were not familiar with it either. So we had a map, and we had landmarks, but we didn't know which street was which. We also had Sandra's phone number, but with the way coverage can be, we weren't quite succeeding in making a connection.
Finally, the good citizens of Luanda helped us. We stopped in a well-lit public area, and we asked a security guard to point us in the right direction. After leaving Club Navale around 7:45, we arrived at BlueJazz 20 minutes late at 8:50. No problem.
Some of you might be concerned that we showed up late to dinner and we are being honored by just being invited. However, as we walk into the restaurant, a modern space with waiters in bow ties and vests, white leather benched upholstery seating with rhinestones accents, cool navy and white pictures of old school microphones on the wall, and some low jazz playing in the background, there sat Sandra and Diego, alone at a table for 15.
I wasn't surprised, because after hearing about a few Angolan weddings back in Houston where Larry arrives on time (half an hour late) with Isabel, and they are the only people there for at least another hour, I knew we were not "late." However, I was quite warmed by the kind consideration of Sandra to come to the restaurant "on time" by way of US/Canada standards to make sure we weren't alone.
Long story short - Journey Management - intended to get you from point A to point B, safely and in a timely manner, only worked a little - as best we tried, and there really is no rush anyway.
So back to dinner:
We really enjoyed ourselves at BlueJazz - we had some "covert" on the table, which consisted of bread, proscuitto, olives, fresh queijo (cheese), and some tuna pate. After about 45 minutes, Irena arrived, so we ordered some vinho tinto (LOVE Duas Quintas from the Alentejo of Portugal), and about 9:45 one of Sandra's cousins came too. Around 10:00 we ordered dinner. Sandra and I both ordered the Gambas a Alho (garlic prawns) and Paul ordered a steak with mushrooms. Diego had a filet with chocolate molho on it. Irena had the house specialty - a filet with duas gambas on top.
At the same time as we ordered, the entertainment changed from live acoustic jazz performed by a duet in the corner to a quartet of boys singing a capella. Starting with Boyz to Men - End of the Road - they needed to warm up a little, but they a had a nice repertoire of songs that ranged from popular Portuguese and Angolan classics to a solo of Elvis' I Can't Help Falling in Love with You and Hotel California. They were probably all under the age of 20, and when finished, they were served a bounty of food at one of the tables.
As our meals came, so did more people. It was now around 10:30, and they ordered right away, because the kitchen was about to close. At about this time, Paul and I realized that we probably weren't going to make it to Teresa's sister's birthday party back in Talatona.
We all finished eating and enjoying dessert - I shared a passion fruit mousse with my hubby, and then came the coffees and Hennessy and pink sparkling wine for the table. One couple was celebrating their anniversary, so Sandra got the quartet to sing their wedding song, and out came sparkling Mateusand a few tears were shed in happiness. Very appropos.
The food was excellent, the conversation was lively, everyone was very warm and jovial, and we got along just great with the party. Diego is just finishing up his MBA while working full time, so Paul and I both had loads to chat about with him. Cin Cin - great meal and even better company.
We were being encouraged to go clubbing next, but it was almost pumpkin time, so we took a rain-check, called Emiquilson, and headed home. Act 4 is coming right up - canceling our 4th engagement of the evening, and getting Emiquilson home.
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