Feriados!

If my travels have taught me anything, it's that people in most parts of the world don't like to work very much. Japan being the outlier of course - they take work to another level. Angola definitely falls in with the majority. As in Latin America, there is a plethora of holidays, and I've actually been told that there used to be a lot more but the government recently eliminated a bunch. The best part is that most of the time, people don't even know what the holiday commemorates. All they know is they don't have to go to work or school. This was also the case when I worked in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Every other week, it was Saint So-And-So Day. Each one of these "special days" was celebrated in the same way - block party. Here, there are definitely fewer religious holidays and considerably less fanfare. Whenever I ask my students what they did for the holiday, they inevitably respond, "I stayed in my home."
The Embassy is closed for both Angolan and American holidays. It's a miracle that anything gets done around here.

Surprise Holiday

This past Wednesday, the government announced that the presidential inauguration would be held the following day and it will be a national holiday. While Dos Santos has been president for 33 years, this past election marked the first time he actually won the seat by popular mandate. This would be the first time he would be officially inaugurated. No one told me of course, and since I don't listen to the national radio station, I was out of the loop. While I was making dinner, one of my housemates mentioned it, so I thought out loud, "Hmmmm I wonder if I have classes tomorrow." I called the Department Head who was "pretty sure" there were no classes. How do you not know? I asked him if the buildings would be open so that I could go into the office and correct papers. "Oh, yes. The buildings will definitely be open." I think you can see where this is going.
Class starts at 8am, which means I have to leave my house at 7, and so I wake up at 6. I decided that I would go to class on the off chance that students did show up, so I went with my normal routine. Because of the holiday, there were virtually no cars on the road. My commute to work was a miraculous 15 minutes. Sure enough, the place was completely deserted. We drove up to the gate and I asked the guard if the building was open. "Não! É um feriado!" No! It's a holiday! He seemed horrified that I would even attempt to work on such a sacred day. I explained to him that I had keys to my office so I just needed to get in the building. "Não. É muito complicado." What is so complicated about it? Without being able to get into my office, I couldn't get the papers and work from home, and what else was I going to do? Lie in bed all day watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians?
Finally, he opened the gate and let us into the parking lot but didn't open the door to the building, which was no help at all. I walked around the perimeter and ran into two other guards. They also refused to open the doors. I eventually accepted defeat and returned to the car. I apologized to the driver and told him to take me home. It fascinates me that the entire city shut down because of this  holiday that was invented less than 24 hours prior. I guess good news travels fast.
I ended up going to the movies and saw The Expendables 2, which was so ridiculously bad, that it was good. Plus, Chuck Norris made a cameo, so the day wasn't a complete waste.