Some people envy me for traveling all over the world and earning money to buy a house in a high-rise building, some people envy me for being well-informed and extraordinary, and when I was in Angola, Africa, I missed my parents, wife and children all the time. Some people say that I miss my relatives every festival, and I have spent seven or eight Spring Festivals, Mid-Autumn Festivals, and birthdays in Africa, and I have experienced the sadness of people when they are in a foreign country and have no relatives, and I know that I have to hold back tears when I am unhappy, and I am even more uncomfortable and laughing nonsense with others, so after experiencing many times of being gagged at gunpoint, I feel that earning this money can be regarded as pinning my head to my belt......
Figure 1: A black waiter sitting in a corner
I came to Angola on November 11, 2011 to start my overseas career. There is a good thing about being stationed abroad is to take care of the meal, go to the canteen early after work every day to eat, and diligent people like me often go to the canteen to help, this is diligent and good, in addition to learning some cooking skills, you can also eat more.
However, because there are few vegetables in Angola around 2012, so I often eat only potatoes and pig's trotters, my knife work is practiced at that time, the shredded potatoes cut out are like hair, uniform thickness, and I got the true inheritance of my mother, the fried adobe bean shreds can be called a must, and the great love is full of praise, so it is deeply loved by the masses of people, and is praised as the company's first knife...... Several colleagues invited me to cut potatoes and fry shredded potatoes when they were cooking and drinking in the dormitory......
Picture 2: The black guy who helped me get a beer from the freezer, although he only had two thighs, was also black
When working in Africa, few colleagues said that they had birthdays, not because they couldn't afford to be treated, or because they didn't want to drink and celebrate with their brothers, but because they were afraid that the joyful atmosphere would arouse their homesickness. When I celebrated my first birthday in Angola in 2012, I didn't tell anyone about it, but I just took advantage of the opportunity to go out to buy and eat a bowl of noodles on my birthday. It's a birthday.
Figure 3: The boss running around in an apron
After finishing the company's business, I asked the driver where there is a place to eat noodles? The driver said that there is anything I can't think of? It is very expensive to eat outside? I said that I want to eat some noodles after eating the company's food all day, and the driver said that he knows one, that is, it is expensive, 4000 kwanza a bowl of noodles. I quickly calculated in my mind that 100 kwanzas for one dollar, 1,000 kwanzas for $10, and 4,000 kwanzas were his grandmother's $40, and $1 was equal to more than 6 dollars and less than 7 dollars...... It's not that I don't know it, I'm shocked, this is his grandmother's bowl of noodles is about 250 yuan...... (Note: Around 2012, the exchange rate of the Angolan kwanza to the US dollar was 100:1, in 2014 and 2015 the exchange rate was 500 kwanzas to 1 US dollar, and then 600 and 1000 to 1 US dollar).
But this also has to be eaten, anyway, I haven't eaten noodles since I came to Angola, I touched my wallet and felt a little bulging, I felt that I could eat some noodles and eat, we couldn't even afford noodles after all, right?
The black guy who got me a beer from the freezer
The driver drove the car to a compound, this compound is also a company's station, after entering the door I saw a piece of iron plate with red paint written "Ruyi Hotel" signboard, yes, don't ask, this is the signboard, just rush this iron signboard I think this hotel must be prosperous.
After entering the door, a woman with a smile on her face in the apron of Thirteen Incense greeted her, Yo yo yo, for me who has been away from my hometown for almost a year...... The bright smile and the familiar scene in the hotel are indeed very touching, at that moment I feel like I am in a small restaurant on the street in China, especially the guests in the hotel make people have an inexplicable sense of intimacy, yes, how many days have I not entered the restaurant? If it weren't for the black guy serving the food (Picture 1), I really thought I was in a small roadside restaurant in China.
Figure 5: Two bowls of noodles and a bottle of beer
The freezers, tables and chairs, tableware and kitchenware and even spices in the restaurant are all shipped from China, and the magic is that you can still drink domestic snow beer, although the price of a bottle of 2000 kwanzas is much more expensive than the cool ga beer of 100 kwanzas in Angola, but I can drink the taste of my hometown that has appeared in my dreams many times so that I have forgotten the price, which is still cheap, and the bottles are more expensive, and it is estimated that the damage is too high, right?
The driver is very professional, he doesn't drink and doesn't drive, and no one checks drunk driving on the roads in Angola, which are all potholes, so the driver also drinks a bottle, but people don't drink.
I asked for a cold dish, two bowls of noodles, a bottle of canned beer, and it was good to have noodles, and it was a birthday if there were noodles. I was deeply moved when I looked at this bowl full of noodles...... Boy...... It's also too expensive...... But even if it is expensive, it is difficult to eat, and it is not easy to eat a bite of noodles in this foreign country...... I feel very happy to be able to eat a bite of noodles.
After eating, I burped back to the office and looked at the time on my phone, well, it's evening domestic time, if I'm at home, I should be celebrating my birthday with my parents, wife and children at the restaurant, in addition to the food and drink, there is also a birthday cake......
If it weren't for the sake of life, in order to make the family's life better, who would want to cross the ocean and wade through mountains and rivers to this place thousands of miles away from home? Who would want to come to this place where they are afraid that black people will rob them at any time? Okay, let's eat noodles and hold on a little longer.
PS：
Life is probably about worrying, thinking and missing, maybe I am a person who has no interest, no matter where I am most concerned about in addition to how much money I can earn is a family matter. Telling each other about warmth and coldness, worrying about hunger and thirst, sharing joys and sorrows, and carrying tribulations together may be the meaning of home! So, for a better tomorrow, work hard to earn money, come on, brother. Fox Fairy2023.12.18