Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Passeio
While living in Namibia, then Russia, now Angola Sam and I have been primarily pedestrians. We walk. A lot. We use public transport. We've hailed taxis, taken trains and used the metro. As I walked home the other day from the school at Mitcha, I thought about how blessed we are that especially in the beginning of living in a new country we have not had the financial ability to buy a car. Yes.
Read that again.
It really has been a blessing.
If you really want to discover a new town/city/country, do it on foot.
While living in Saint Petersburg, a friend once told me that it really is like 3 different cities. One is what you see by car - things whizz by quickly, your attention is, or at the very least should be, on the road. You are anonymous. Invisible. Just another hunk of metal rolling down the road. Another is what you encounter by public transportation - buses, taxis, and metro station to metro station. The latter really simplifies the city to a network of underground tunnels, that spit you out into the daylight at or near your destination, without really uncovering anything you didn't already know. And finally, the city on foot. Here's where you'll find the REAL city. The everyday people. The sights, the sounds, yes, even the smells. And you become part of it. Gone is the anonymity of the automobile. You are one of those sights. If you're walking and you happen to look quite different from the majority of those around you on the streets, oh...I don't know...perhaps having black skin in Saint Petersburg or white skin in Lubango, You. Will. Be. One. Of. Those. Sights. Yes, but you will also really get to see the sights around you too. I don't want to lose that connection - that heartbeat I feel that reminds me, "this is where you live." And it's unfamiliar, but it will become familiar. Not because you change it into what is familiar. But because it changes you.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
February Photo Challenge a la Amber
As she did in December, Amber, oh similar soul of mine, has challenged me with a month-long photo challenge. I haven't been the best at posting them daily as I had hoped, but today the network seems to be cooperating and I'm eager to play catch up.
So without further ado...
Day 1 - "My View Today"
Day 2 - "Words"
Day 3 - "Hands"
Day 4 - "A Stranger"
Day 5 - "10am"
Day 6 - "Dinner"
Day 7 - "Button"
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
The Farm 3/2/12 - 5/2/12
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go HERE A.K.A "the farm", which is really more of a ranch. it was a nice, relaxing weekend. Unfortunately Sam wasn't along with me, as he had to attend a medical conference in Luanda. However, I was invited along by Sam's cousin, Helena, and her husband Brent. It turned out to be a lovely weekend and a very nice birthday, which happened to be on Saturday. I had A HOT SHOWER!!! A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE!!! even a birthday cake. Here are a few pics I took over the weekend:
Wise Words 22/1/12
Over the weekend Sam and I got our chance in the kitchen. Earlier in the week Sam and Julina were talking and she mentioned something about wanting to make pizza, but not being sure how to make pizza dough. Sam told her I knew how and could show her, so the plan was born to have a pizza night on Saturday. Somehow the topic of apple pie also came up – I think because it just seems “American” and people have only ever seen it in movies. So Sam decided to bake an apple pie. It was a busy day in the kitchen. We spent the afternoon preparing dough and chopping up veggies and all the toppings for our pizzas. Sam and Miesenya worked on the apple pie. And Julina finished up a batch of yogurt.
Here at the house there are a number of entrepreneurs. Julina has a fruit tree business. She grows avocado trees from their pits and there are probably a hundred of them in small planters in the backyard. Also they make and sell their own yogurt – made fresh every day. It's sweet and tangy and really creamy and extremely popular. All day long people ring the bell and buy yogurt cups for 50 kwanzas (approximately 50 US cents). The soccer players who practice at the stadium across the street flock over after their games, groups of people stop in after choir practice, and of course tons of small kids and adults too, who come by at all hours for a cup.
So Saturday was a day filled with activity and that evening we feasted on pizza and apple pie. Both were quite a hit. The following evening, Sunday, as we sat down to dinner we realized that there was literally nothing to put on the bread. Someone went to the shop to buy butter, but there was none. Thankfully we discovered a block of cheese that we hadn't used on the pizza the previous night and so we had bread with cheese and tea. Everyone remarked how sad Sunday's dinner looked compared to our feast the previous night. As Julina ate her dry bread with cheese she told us about a saying there is here. It goes something like this: “When you dance on a rock, every once in a while step down off the rock and dance on the ground so you don't forget how to dance in the dirt.” True words of wisdom.
Parting Shot: “Yogurti!”
Give Us Now Our Daily Bread 14/1/12
We eat bread. A LOT of bread. These little loaves are my breakfast with butter or jam or peanut butter or honey to accompany my tea.
Here, lunch is typically the biggest meal of the day. As Julina says, “lunch is to be eaten with a fork”. Standard lunch fare is rice and beans, maybe fish – dried or fried, or perhaps a little beef with a sauce, sometimes a salad of lettuce, tomatoes and onion. Lots of people eat porridge made from corn meal - known as 'pap' in Namibia – and here called pirão. ("pir" with a long ee like "peer", "ão" like the vowel in the word "ouch") But none of the kids staying here with Julina and Eduardo care for it, so they tend to eat rice the majority of the time.
Then, back for a repeat performance....ta-da!
Yep, these little guys again with butter, or honey, or jam, or peanut butter, sidled up next to my tea. Which, brings me to the tea. Julina grows it. This tea is from a grassy bush. I have asked the name twice and still don't remember it. It looks like this:
It produces a light green tea and I also notice it has kind of a taste of ginger.
Parting Shot: “You Guessed It!”
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