Given the depth and breadth that people on this group have travelled, this probably wont impress many but it puts things in perspective a bit (now that I have calmed down)
I live in Angola and I've just had an interesting hour but everything is OK.
Was in a meeting on the 5th floor of our building and heard lots of noise from the street below. Looked out and there was a bunch (I'm no good at guessing numbers but 10-15 people wide and about 500+ metres long) crowd heading past our building shouting stuff (found out later it was soldiers who were demonstrating because they had not been paid)
Decided to go up to the 6th floor which has a very large verandah area to see more and thats when the shooting started. Police (the serious ones in the black uniforms with the big guns) had started firing at the protestors. Problem was if they were shooting above their heads, thats where I was and if they were shooting at them, they were frigging serious. Interesting how you react - do you race for the door to get out of the open area or do you drop to the ground and hope the lowish brickwall surounding the verandah will stop the bullets. Went for the drop down scurry approach (probably looking like a big fat slug at that point but appearances weren't high on my agenda) and got halfway there but when the big bangs started (dont know if it was cannon fire or tear gas - as you know, I am not terribly experienced in this area) decided to go for the quick bolt. (Note to self, carry spare undies in future)
Things have calmed down now though I really won't know the full story nor details of any casualties until my guys can tell me tomorrow, based on what is reported in the local Portuguese news. Nor am I poking my head out in the meantime.
Elections are on in a couple of months so it will be interesting if this is the start of something bigger. Though what is most likely here is a very vicious overeaction by a pretty authoritarian government that will stop anything happening or at least stop it being reported. Serves me right for commenting that I had never really felt unsafe here
So, hows your day so far
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