He arrived in Ukraine in December last year, hoping to become a doctor. However, the conflict that erupted last month in the European country reduced the stay from seven years to just three months.
In addition to shortening Afonso Zinga's time in Ukraine, the armed conflict also postponed his dream: "My dream of becoming a doctor was completely postponed, my life took a backseat".
"I made a promise to my parents that I would only return to Angola as a doctor, and that was no longer possible", said Afonso Zinga, adding that the dream has not died and that it will remain "whatever the cost".
The student, who has already been received in Cabinda by family members, spent three months in the city of Kharkiv, where he entered the International Aerospace Faculty of the University of RAI, where he studied a language course at the same time as the preparatory course to enter the Faculty of Medicine.
Faced with the bombing of some cities in Ukraine, where everything indicated that Kharkiv would also be a target of the Russians, the Angolan grabbed his bags and headed to Lviv by taxi. From that city he took a train bound for the Polish border.
The taxi ride, he says, was hard and nerves, being alone and the city seem abandoned, didn't help either.
"I spent two days struggling to find a car that could take me from home to the metro station. There was no transport. During the three months I stayed in Kharkiv I never saw anything like it, it was the first time I saw a fully deserted, uninhabited. I left the house to the train station, without having seen a single person on the street", he revealed.
The journey between Lviv and Poland was not easy either. Already accompanied by compatriots, the student said that the trip was "a true odyssey, marked by humiliation, fear and despair".
Speaking to Jornal de Angola, he said that "it was not easy" and that he had never seen anything like it: "I went through enormous difficulties to get to Poland".
On top of all the chaos, the harsh winter didn't help either. "I almost didn't feel any action from my fingers anymore. The cold was really devastating, it was minus 6 degrees", he said.
In his odyssey, Afonso Zinga also spoke of discrimination at the border crossing with Poland. According to the Angolan, entry priority "was given to Ukrainian refugees", while "foreigners, especially Africans, have some constraints".
However, he said, this situation was eventually overcome, "because there were so many people pushing to cross the border and the Polish immigration authorities ended up" giving in.
In the process of withdrawing Angolans from Ukraine to Angola through Warsaw, the student said that in Poland they were welcomed, having received "food, water and even a warm coat to protect against the cold". He also recognized the work of the Angolan diplomatic authorities in Poland who provided transport, food and accommodation in a hotel near Warsaw, where he waited for the TAAG plane to finally return to his country.
The war postponed the dream of Afonso Zinga who, after finishing his high school nursing course, tried for three years in a row to enter a public university in the Central Plateau. However, without success, the parents offered to pay for his education in Ukraine.
The situation was also complicated for the Angolan's parents who, according to Jornal de Angola, followed the evolution of the offensive through television. At that time, the father was talking to his son daily over the phone to see how he was doing. Support and moral courage was the only thing I could give him.
Cited by Jornal de Angola, the student's father thanked João Lourenço for quickly creating the conditions to bring Angolan students who were in Ukraine to Angola, through Poland.
"The feeling is one of joy for every father, because, for the family, it was not easy to manage this very difficult situation that started since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Angolan students who were there, but also for their families. We had no sleep and no appetite for food. Everything disappeared in us, we felt that the world had collapsed", he revealed.
He also lamented the "serious difficulties" they faced in getting their son to study abroad and, in the end, "things got screwed up" because of the war.
It remains now "to believe in the good sense of the Government, because, on our side, we no longer have the financial capacity to carry out, once again, the intention of sending the kid to another country, where he can do his training in Medicine", referred.
Afonso Zinga says that his dream has not died and that his hopes are now pinned on the commitment left by an alleged entity linked to the Government that students who came from Ukraine would be helped with both internal and external scholarships.
While this intention is not realized, Afonso wants to return to Huambo to try to enter the university again.
