In the absence of a kitchen, the squatters who live there now prepare food in a smoky courtyard, with pots balanced on stones, where women can be seen bending over to fan the fires underneath.

A klah pot balanced close enough to keep its contents hot.

So Ms. Alfredo has been spending her nights in Uige, walking the long miles back and forth from her village with a small stove and assorted pots balanced on her head, another of the countless numbers of Angolans whom fear has confined to crowded cities, separated from the land.

At first they rode through the date-palm groves and cultivated fields outside the city walls where, in the first light of dawn, veiled women drew water from deep wells and carried it away in pots balanced on their heads.

After an hour, there was a tie breaker which involved the remaining players running up the steps of a Mayan temple with the pot balanced on their heads, with the first person to the top winning immunity.