...and I Lived to Tell the Story

DUUUUDE... it was NOT easy, but I survived! I survived, AND I beat my personal goal, by a whole bunch :D!!!

Just as I suspected, the beginning was HARD. My legs felt like jello by the time I reached the top of the hill, and guess what surprise awaited me? Tio Jolly, yelling at the top of his lungs from among the crowds lining the streets "Disiste pa, vamos embora!" (Quit already, let's go home!)... He was very much against me running on my patched up shin... And at that very moment my shin REALLY felt like quitting. It was quite through with the abuse. But I said 'Look here, Mr. Shin, you don't run this show. I do. And I decide when to quit, not you. And right now I say, the show must go on!' And go on I did. Right on through the uphills, flatlands, and downhills onto the stadium (such a glorious feeling to enter into the stadium and seeing the finish line after such a long trek...)
I still don't know how I placed within my category... All I know is that I was amongst a big crowd... the problem is that there were 4 categories: Pro men, pro women, amateur men, amateur women. There were almost 2000 people participating, and what a crowd it was. There was a mix of everything from super-serious pros with their two-piece aerodynamic running suits all the way to neighborhood teens dressed like clowns (or prostitutes, or anything odd and out of place) just to add some hilarity to the event.
The official times and places will be published next week... I'll keep you posted :)

Homesick

There are some days when I feel so homesick, that I just wanna catch the next plane to DFW and jet outta here. Those days are usually triggered by some sort of event going on that day or a memory that pops up in my head due to something I see, hear, or even smell.
Today, Dina was texting me about GYC and I got so nostalgic. She sent me a couple of picture messages just a while ago and they totally elicited some 'Dang, I wish I was there' feelings.
So today's post is dedicated to the faithful crew that braved the weather and the distance to go catch some of that Holy Ghost outpouring that has been so characteristics of other GYC events. May the Lord bless you all abundantly and may the event be a catalyst for young people making moves for Christ.

Tonight is pretty low key for me. I'm sitting on my bed icing my shin hoping it'll just last me one more day before it decides to finally give out from under me. It's getting pretty close to that, for real. But tomorrow is the big day. The day I've been waiting for... race day! It's gonna be awesome!

If you guys can catch some news of it from the TPA (Televisao Publica de Angola) online, try to access it. (Just google TPA Angola).

Anyways, I gotta get some sleep so I can be in tip top shape tomorrow.

God bless you all! Miss you all so much!

I Can Go the Distance

Today, practice consisted of a tour of the race course via motorcycle before hitting the track for a quick run. My impression of it? SCARY!
I've never been so intimidated by a race before. This thing is just ridiculous. It starts with an uphill. A long, steady hill that lasts a couple of miles. A couple of miles! You know how there were always hills in our cross country races, but you could see the top and aim for it so you just stride and ignore the pain in your legs? Well, I don't know if that strategy works when the hill is all you see for the first 15 minutes of the race. It's gonna be torture... especially since I've got such weak legs (not to mentioned my injury). The respite, though, comes after that. If I can just survive the first couple of miles of the race, then it's all good after that. it's pretty much flat or downhill the rest of the time. Now, if I can just block out how long the race is while I'm running it-- because OHMYGOODNESS it's looong. The guy that was assigned as my 'guide' kept saying and then we turn here, and then just glide this whole way because you're almost there. But then you go here, and turn here. And, you're almost finished.... after you go through here and then here and then... and I'm like DUDE! When do we finish?!!? Anyways. It's a half-marathon, I knew this when I signed up for it. And, well, I signed up for it. No backing out now.
And wow, I have a LOT of naysayers on this one. When I tell people at work I'm running the Sao Silvestre race, most of them just chuckle and shake their heads and say 'You're gonna quit, you're not gonna make it'. Umm, excuse me, I may seem all meek and mild (well, not even, but whatever) but I'm stubborn as all get out. I will finish the race even if it means throwing one leg in front of the other by using both hands. Me? Quit? NEVER! Today my uncle saw me icing my shin (Oh man, it's really getting painful to run on it these days... can't wait to finish that race so I can take a good long breather and recover!) he laughed and said. I'm gonna be waiting with an ambulance at the top of the hill. You're not gonna make it on that leg. I was like, I JUST finished running 8K. I'm still alive. I think I'll be alright.
Anyways... anticipation is definitely building. If I perform well in that race, it'll be such a fun way to leave 2009 behind. Talk about going out with a bang!

BPD: The Chronicle's of Elisa's Pursuers, Final Edition

I took the roses and read the card on them... it said something along the lines of "I hope you're having a great day and I hope the fragrance of these flowers sweeten your day..." Or something cheesy like that.
I look at the guy who delivered the flowers and ask: "How did you get here?"
-"A friend dropped me off"
-"Which friend?"
-"A friend from church"
-"Is your friend's name H*?" (H refers to the guy that likes me... Names have been modified to protect the innocent... and the not-so-innocent, lol)
-"No, it was someone else"
-"Are you lying?"
-"No"
-"Ok. Thanks for bringing these. "
-"No problem"

So he chitchats a little bit more with my cousin, (I think he's part of the crew from back in the day that were in pathfinders with my cousin...) and then he says his goodbye to leave.
My cousin walks him to the gate, locks it once he's out, and comes back into the house with a grin on his face.

"Umm, I saw who was giving the guy a ride," he says, "It was H."
-"I knew it."

I immediately pick up the phone and call H.
"Hello?" he answers...
"Hey, where are you?"
"I'm far away."
"Far away from where?"
"I'm at home."
"Really? You're not in my neighborhood?"
"Nope."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm at home"

Keep in mind, his home is on the other side of the city. With Friday night traffic, it takes a couple of hours to get from my house to his neighborhood. I called him about 3 minutes after my cousin had seen him parked a little bit beyond our front gate. Wherever he took that Macking 101 class, they totally forgot to teach him about how lying is NOT the way to win a girl over...

"Ok, well, I wanted to speak to you face to face," I continue, "But since you're so far away we can just talk over the phone"

"Well I'm busy right now. I'll call you some other time."
"No, it won't take long let me just say something real qui-"
"No," He interrupts me,"I really don't have time I'm too busy."
"Ok, let me just talk for like 30 seconds. The time you're wasting telling me you're busy is time I would've used, and I would've been finished by now"
"No! no! it's ok, we'll talk another time!"
So by this time I'm trying to get my words in and he's just talking loudly over me so that he won't listen to what I'm saying (you know, like when kids are arguing and one doesn't wanna hear what the other one has to say? Yeah. I know. How mature of him, right?)

I'm on the line just trying to get him to listen, but he's all "NOOO NOOO NOOO WE'LL TALK LATER! LATER. LATER. NOT NOW!"

This drags on for a minute or two, and when he saw that I wasn't letting him off the hook he finally shut up long enough to hear me.

So I start with "I got the roses. Thanks. But here's the thing -"
and he interrupts me again with his nonsense "AAHH NOT RIGHT NOW! I'LL CALL LATER! BLAH BLAH BLAH!"

So I'm basically yelling on the other end like, LISTENNNNNN! And he finally says "I already know what you're gonna say!"
"Ok, but you blocking me from saying it isn't helping you. Just listen!"

And I go into my monologue about how maybe he's got me confused with one of those girls that when they say 'no' they mean 'yes, but only after you shower me with gifts and attention'... Well when I say no, I mean no. Not today, not tomorrow. Not after a thousand roses. No, I'm NOT INTERESTED. And the more you insist the more annoyed I get and you're only ruining the chances you didn't even have to begin with. I'm sorry I have to be so harsh, but you're obvioubsly not understanding what I've been trying to tell you. So to be clear: I'm not interested in being in a relationship with you. I don't want to go out to dinner with you. I don't want to go to church with you. I don't want any gifts from you. I don't want you to call me for no reason other than to say hi or good night or whatever. Do you get what I'm saying?

And he says weakly, "yes".

"Ok. Well I'm sorry I have to be so rude, but you just weren't getting it. I'm very flattered that you like me and I appreciate your gifts. But I'm not gonna let you waste your time, your energy and your money when I know from the beginning that this isn't going to happen."

"Ok"

"Ok. Thanks. Have a good night and Happy Sabbath"

"Ok."

"Alright, bye"

And with that, I hang up the phone, sigh with relief, and walk back in the house to face my cousin just grinning from ear to ear apparently amused by what had just played out.

So what became of H? I see him every once an a while when there are large church activities such as la Hna. Bullon's conferences and stuff... He's very normal and just says hi like any normal acquaintance would do, and I respond in like manner. One night, I got a random text from him. It said "I miss you a lot". I didn't respond.
That was the last I ever heard from him.

The end.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Sigh...

Boy it's been a looong day. I left at daybreak, ate no breakfast or lunch, and came home at 10:00 pm. I was starving SOOO bad I thought I was gonna faint. Memo to self: Next time your day is gonna be this jampacked... PACK A LUNCH!!!! Anyways, I ate a hefty dinner and I'm all better now.

I gotta few random things on my mind tonight:

The half marathon is on Thursday. This week already... eek! Scary scary! I haven't been able to find the kind of tape one uses to tape up the shins for some extra support, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully no hairline fractures result from running on my weak shins... I just want to get it over with already so I can feel that sense of accomplishment :)

Today was such a random day... I was selected to be a judge for a Talent search type of program for gospel artists in Luanda. It was put on by a local radio station at an auditorium in an up-and-coming neighborhood. It was a cool program, but there were a few, um... how can I put it kindly? A few sensationalists from some of the denominations that participated, lol. I must say, the SDA representation was very good. And I'm not saying that because I'm biased. Musically, they were some of the best.

I gotta work on the Mexico itinerary! I canNOT wait til I'm back in a plane to head to MX. It's gonna be SO much fun.

Today I ran accross some facebook videos of Vivaldo doing the milk challenge, the one where he had to drink 1 gallon of milk in 1 hour or less... which is thought of as an impossible task. I haven't finished watching them... but I can already tell they're gonna be hilarious. Vivambo is such a silly billy.

It's late, I'm tired, I gotta get some sleep.

Stay tuned for BPD: The Chronicles of Elisa's Pursures Part III tomorrow. Or the day after that... heehee I'm just testing your patience. hahaha!

Ladies and Gentlemen...

The first instrument of the orchestra has been purchased!

One of the guys taking the music course has able to buy himself a cheap little violin and a clarinet from a local music store. I can already tell he's gonna be one of my star pupils. He's very enthusiastic and he already has a slight knowledge of music.

Watch out world... the next prestigious philharmonic orhestra is coming your way straight from Luanda, Angola!

I guess tomorrow's class will include a little bit of music instead of just people sitting on chairs wistfully longing for the day when they will be creating beautiful music with their instruments. Well, come to think of it, we'll still have that. But in their midst, one guy will be happily holding his precious instrument and well on his way to become the next Paganini or Henry Costa Jr.

Oh, the places we will go...

BPD: The Chronicles of Elisa's Pursuiters II

RAINY SEASON IS UPON US... AS WELL AS THE HOLIDAY SEASON. BOTH REASONS FOR WHICH IT'S HARD TO GET GOOD INTERNET SIGNAL THESE DAYS. THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY, DECEMBER 25th, BUT DUE TO LOW SIGNAL WAS UNABLE TO POST.... SO IT'S BEEN SITTING IN THE DRAFTS FOLDER TIL NOW.

I chuckled at his reply and said... "Ok then, good luck..." Oh, I forgot to mention that he had gotten my phone number while I was reciting it to one of the guys from church with whom I'm collaborating for a music program...

So that week he calls me. I was at work, so I didn't answer... and then he texted me something along the lines of "Hope you're having a great day". I replied, "thanks."

Later that night he calls me, and he says "Hi, I just called to say hello..." I just say "ok".

The next night he calls me with a similar message. This goes on for a whole week. He'd text me randomly throughout the day, mostly Bible verses that had to do something with God's will (because he was conviced that it was God's will that we got together) and he would call me at night to say "hi" or "good night". My replies were always either "ok" or "thanks", whichever seemed more appropriate. On Friday night, he called me to tell me that he would be at my front gate at 7 a.m. the next morning to take me to church. I said no thanks, I don't need a ride. He insisted, assuring me that he was gonna be there. I was like, no seriously, I don't want a ride from you. This conversation goes on in like manner for a few minutes... Until I say "dude, you have no idea how stubborn I am, you're not gonna be able to persuade me. I'm not going with you to church, give it up." His reply? "You have no idea how persistent I am, see you tomorrow at 7". And we left it at that.

Of course, I made sure to leave extra early the next morning just in case he actually showed up at the front gate at 7...

When I got to church, I was relieved to see that he hadn't come to worship at my church after all (somewhere in our conversations he had slipped in that he was gonna worship at my church from now on...). Sabbath progressed as usual. I had lunch at my uncle and aunt's, then went to another church on a different part of the city for an afternoon program in which I participated. At the end of that program I caught the bus back home and was happily looking forward to getting home and just chillaxing after such a long day.

When I was like 3 minutes from reaching my bus stop, the guy calls me.

"Hello?"

"Hi, are you home?"

"No, why?"

"Because I'm at your front gate."

"Why?"

"I'm here to take you out to dinner."

"I'm not going out to dinner with you. You should've asked me first instead of just wasting your time and your gas."

"Oh it's ok, I was already in the neighborhood visiting another friend. C'mon let's go, just as friends."

"Who else is coming?"

"Nobody."

"Then that's not going just as friends."

"Yes it is! I'm just taking you out to dinner like a friend takes a friend out to dinner..."

"Umm, I'm not stupid. If a guy likes me and is trying to take me out to dinner, I know he's not doing it as a friend." I should mention that by this point I had already reached home. And sure enough, I'd found him at the front gate.

So this banter goes on for a few minutes. Him insisting, me refusing. Finally I say, "ok, well, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Good night."

"ok. See you next Sabbath at 7 a.m.?" he asks, laughing as he sees my expression.

"NNNOOOOOO! N. O.!! NO!" I say emphatically, as if speaking to a child with learning disabilites. He just laughs and gets in his car. I roll my eyes and go inside.

The following week went pretty much like the previous one. He would text me throughout the day and call me every night, and I would always remain unresponsive. At one point, he started throwing in pet names... I was like DO NOT call me sweetie or baby or whatever. Thankfully, he actually listened.
That Friday, I got a phone call from one of the brothers from church with whom I was collaborating on a music program, and we agreed that he would pass by the house that night after church to drop off some music and stuff for the program. At the end of the day I got home, changed out of my work clothes, started putting something together for dinner and was just entering chillax mode when I get a call from an unknown number. When I answer, the caller identifies himself as brother so-and-so from central church, and that he had come to drop off something for someone. My cousin/roommate was there, and he volunteered to go to the gate to let the caller in. So I go back in the kitchen to finish up, and when I come out to the living room, lo and behold, instead of the music and program that I was expecting to see, it's a random guy standing there with a dozen roses in a beautiful bouquet arrangement. Baby breath, fern leaves, red ribbon, shiny red paper wrap, the whole nine yards...
I believe my exact reaction was... "What in theeee heck?!?!!"...

to be continued...

Break from work so I can work some more

I know all of you dearest fans of my blog from far and wide are holding your breaths for the next installment of "By Popular Demand: The Chronicles of Elisa's Pursuiters..." but I will not be able to do that tonight, because that would take too long and I got some pressing matters to attend to. I need to finish drafting up the workbook for the music classes so I can get them printed tomorrow, because they need to be distributed to the students on Sunday. I've got lots of work to get done with a fast-approaching deadline. I just feel so lazy to work because I'm on christmas break, lol... And it doesn't help that I totally got distracted by the 3rd Annual Salsa World Championships on ESPN... So, apologies, but I gotta focus. But I'll be back to tell you all the juicy details of the crazy boys in Angola.

P.S. Go look up the 'Cabaret' category of Salsa Competitions. It's crazy! I kept thinking someone was gonna either break their back or bust their head open due to their unbelievable spins and tricks.

But enough procrastinating. Gotta get work done :)

By popular demand...

Ok, my dear subscribers have a one-track mind... I didn't get any questions or comments about anything other than guys being interested in me.

Well it's like this: Guys here in Angola are not shy. If they like you, they'll pretty much go after you. The way they go about it, though, it's kinda weird. At least to me. I'm pretty sure having "game" here is an altogether different thing than in the U.S.... because whatever methods guys use here works for them with girls from here. With me, ummm... not so much... lol.



How are they different? Well first of all, they are direct. Like, TOO direct. To the point where you can tell they're just putting up a show to try to impress you. One guy, for example, (a janitor from my old workplace) would stop dead in his tracks whenever I walked by him, no matter what he was doing, and just stare. Stare HARD. He did it one time in the stairs, I was going up, he was coming down and he just stopped and stared at me super wide-eyed. I just said 'good morning' and he whispered, not SAID, but whispered back a fervent, intense, and almost reverent 'good morning'... I was like, wow. You're not normal (well I didn't actually say that, but I thought it). After a couple of more encounters with him around the office, he mustered up the courage to talk to me and ask me for my phone number or for a date or something (don't remember) for which I swiftly turned him down and he tried to act all devastated about it. But that was the end of that.

Another guy tried to show me some porn on his iPhone to show me what he wanted to do with me. Mind you, this is after he had shown me pics of his wife and baby girl on said iPhone and talked about them like a proud papa. Ummm... ok. I was too shocked to even be offended...I tried to sermonize him, but to no avail. He wasn't really seeing where I was coming from... in the end I realized that he didn't really see what was wrong with what he was doing, since unfaithful husbands are all too common in Angola and everyone accepts that as a fact. So much so that most wives expect their husbands to be cheaters, and many women don't regard a married man as off-limits.

There are also guys who never approach me, I just hear through the grapevine that so and so likes me. It's quite jr. high, but whatever. One less person to turn down, which is just fine with me, lol. One of my coworkers that I used to always sit with at the cafeteria was like, "Man, you don't know how many guys ask me about you..." I would just laugh and say, "why don't they come up to me?" and he would be like "I don't know, I guess they're intimidated". OK... I'm totally approachable, what's there to be intimidated about?!

And apparently at church some guys are scared to approach me because I'm my uncle's niece (he's kind of a church personality... you know how SDA's have local "celebrities"? He's one. Every SDA in Angola knows him). They try to go through my male cousins or even my girl cousin's husband, but I don't think my family is very encouraging. So they walk away even more intimidated than before...

There was one bold guy who devised a plan to get to spend with me while everyone was none-the-wiser. He was my cousin's (aka my current roommate)'s acquaintance when they were little... they were in Pathfinders together. Well, one day he offered him a ride home after the AY program at church, insinuating that he wanted to catch up with him and all these wonderful tales (My cousin lived in South Africa for the last 12 yrs... he just came back about 7 months ago...). So when they get to the house, they found me there. My cousin invites him in and he introduces us and they keep talking as if nothing and I go on about my business. Well, I was just finished making dinner, so I invited him to stay for dinner. Little did I know his plan was falling into place. He stays for dinner, we all have a lively conversation about the youth in the church and how we to fall back in love with the Word of God, and what we can do to be a part of a spiritual revival in the church and all these wonderful things. Well, somewhere in all this conversing, he finds out where I go to church (My cousin and the guy go to the Central church of Luanda, I go to a smaller church because I used to live in the neighborhood where that church is. Once I moved out of that neighborhood, I decided to stay in that church because I was too involved in it already and I enjoyed it), and he mentions that he's never been there but he'd like to visit someday. I told him the whereabouts of the church, but I didn't think anything else about it, and after a while more the guy thanked us for dinner and went home.



Ok, so fast-forward to a week later... It's Sabbath morning and I'm walking from my bus stop to church. It's about a 10 minute walk, and as I'm trying to hurry along, a car pulls up beside me and he says "Hey! what a coincidence, wanna ride?"

It's the guy. I say sure and climb in and we get to church a couple of minutes later. Well since I end up showing up with him, it looks like I brought a visitor. So I talk to the deacons to make sure he gets a seat (church gets pretty crowded here, if a guest isn't accommodated, they might have to stand or sit outside and listen through a speaker...) and go to my spot at the piano. I don't interact with him for the rest of the service.



After church, he walks up to me and asks where I'm gonna eat lunch... with that forlorn air, you know, like trying to pull an invitation out of me. By this point I'm annoyed because I already see where this is going. But I'm polite because, c'mon, it's the Sabbath, he's a guest at my home church, blahddy blah. Ok. So I go talk to my aunt, the one that lives in that neighborhood, whose house I used to live in, and in whose house I always eat Sabbath lunch, and tell her that if it's ok with her, there is a surprise visitor and if he can have lunch with us. Well, she's like "Oh, this is so unexpected, I didn't make anything for a visitor..."

You must understand that to Angolan ladies being an adequate host is of the utmost importance, so she wasn't too thrilled to be caught off-guard. I kept reassuring her that it's ok, he knows we weren't expecting him... but she was still unhappy about the situation. Anyways, she ended up saying yes, and off we went like a big happy family. When we get there, we set up shop to eat and then throughout lunch the conversation starts shifting to more of an interrogation session from my aunt to the guy. She's all: What do you do? Where did you study? Where are your parents from? and all those questions. I quickly realized he had fallen into the category of 'Elisa's friend' in their mind. The fact that I had explained to her that he's just a guy from Central church who had nowhere to eat that day TOTALLY escaped her mind and I could just SEE her inquisitive curiosity trying to figure him out like he was someone that was gonna be around from now on. And what's more, HE was acting like he was 'Elisa's friend' too! He kept talking as if he was trying hard to impress my aunt. I was like wow, what's happening here?

Anyways. We finish eating, I say I have to go back to church for a practice with one of the acapella groups. He offers me a ride. I say sure. When we get to church, he doesn't drop me off... he parks the car and goes in. To watch me practice. By this point I'm really through being polite and I ask him, don't you need to go somewhere? The whole day is passing by and you're just hanging out over here in this side of the city... He says no I wanna see ya'll practice. Ok. Whatever.

He wathces us practice and then he offers me a ride to the bus station. I say sure. When we get to the bus station, he just keeps going and says, well I might as well give you a ride home. That's when I confront him and say "How can you possibly have nothing better to do but hang around all day?"

"Well, I had kinda cleared my whole day"

"why?"

"To be with you"

"Why?"

"Because I like you" and he goes on to explain how he noticed me since back in the day when I first got to Angola and attended Central church, but then one day I disappeared and he hadn't been able to figure out where I went. That is, until the week before, when he had heard my cousin mention casually that he lived in Gamek at his uncle's house, with his cousin Elisa. That's when he offered my cousin a ride home, and that's how he ended up in my house the previous week.

"So why are you putting up this whole show of wanting to hang out with my cousin, and to see what the Viana church is like and all this? Why not just say what you're trying to do from the get-go?"

"Because I didn't want to give you the option to turn me down"

"Well, I think I have a right to that option."

As you read the above conversation, it may seem like I was being harsh. But I wasn't being harsh... it's all in the tone of how you read it. I was being casual/conversational, but direct.

Anyways, we had a long ride to my house, so I changed the subject and we had quite pleasant and easygoing conversation the rest of the way home. When we finally reached the front gate, I explained to him that although I was flattered, I was not interested in him so he should stop wasting his time and energy.
His reply? "It's MY time and MY energy, so I can waste them however I want."

Oh boy. This wasn't going to be easy, I could already tell.




Wow, would you look at the time. I gotta catch some zzzz's. I'll finish this tomorrow.

(Oooh, a cliffhanger... how exciting!... not!) lol

Ouch

Today's running practice focused on uphills. Steep, seemingly-never-ending uphills. My legs are still shaking a little, and practice finished like 4 hours ago... Oh the pain.

Anyways, I was glancing over the past few posts and I noticed a trend: All I ever have anything to say about is one of the following:

1. Work
2. Church
3. Running
4. Music

This realization, of course, comes as no surprise... since those 4 things are pretty much the bane of my existence at the moment. It's all I EVER do nowadays. But I realize this could be a bit monotonous to you all. And since you, my dear reader, are so important to me, I'd like to know what you want to read about on my blog. So go ahead and ask me questions. Any question, I don't mind. Ain't got nothing to hide. Well I have a couple of things to hide (SSN, bank info, etc...) but I trust you wont ask me about those :)

This is me officially giving you permition to ask, comment, criticize, commend, or just say hi to me through a comment. Don't waste this special and exclusive opportunity.

Buff and Shiny

So, would you guys think it would be totally crazy for me to get involved in bodybuilding? Wait, wait! Before you declare me officially bananas (... go, bananas! go, go bananas...) let me explain my rationale. I have three perfectly good reasons for wanting to become a bodybuilder:

1. I want to be super buff and manly-looking

2. I want to walk around with impossibly shiny skin

3. I want to sport an artificial tan 15 times my original shade.

What? You're not frantically nodding in agreement and reconsidering your whole career in order to become a bodybuilder too? Oh darn. All those high school persuasive speaking skills are obviously not so useful...

No but seriously. I do want to take up bodybuilding. But fret not! I don't want to become buff, shiny, and alien-like. I just need to find a way to build muscle fast during the off season so that next season I can train for the half-marathon with a much stronger body.

See, the half-marathon is next week. And although I've been training for a few months already, this whole training schedule has only made me realize how weak I am for an athlete. If I want to start participating in these high-intensity races, I'm gonna have to step up my game. Even if I never win, I want to at least reach my full potential. Right now, my legs are just too weak. My lungs can carry me for miles on end... I've yet to find a distance where my breathing gives out. My legs on the other hand, although they function for the entire duration of the run, are nowhere near the pace they need to be. Seeing as how I have pretty long legs, I should have a really competitive pace when I'm in shape... but that's just not the case. Uphills especially kill me. My pace diminishes so much it looks like I'm back in pathfinder formation waiting for the next "left flank" command from the drillmaster. I realize that I'm top heavy, which means that I have a higher ratio of body mass in my torso than on my legs and arms... Which makes me disproportionate in running (hello all Chicken-Legs Club members. Welcome.) Which is exactly why I need to figure out a way to build muscle in my lower body fast, so that I can become a little more proportionate and improve my pace.

Bodybuilding would do exactly that. It would make me slimmer on the torso and heavier on my arms and legs... all while strengthening my core. I'm also pretty sure that it would help me avoid injuries such as the shin splints that are giving me such a hard time right now, since one of the factors that aggravates shin splints is certain muscles of the legs having weaker counterparts. Yes, I've been doing my research. I'm serious about this marathon thing. If I ever reach this goal, I'm going for a triathlon. That would be AWESOME with a capital A, W, E, S, O, M, and E. But that's like 10 years down the road, lol.

All I know is, I really need to get stronger. And I mean normal strong, of course. I'm not gonna get all into the world of bodybuilding and start competing and stuff. That would be going a little too far. I'll just go as far as toning. When I'm toned enough, I'll stop.

So I'm gonna start looking into gyms around the city to see if I can start bodybuilding when I come back from vacation in February.

You might as well start calling me Elisa Schwarzenneger (sp? :S)

Groovin'... on a Sunday Afternoon...

Ok first of all, apologies for yesterday's post. It was totally scrambled and not well-thought out at all. It was really difficult to get my thoughts organized before putting them out there seeing as how I was seriously falling asleep as I typed, THAT's how tired I was. lol.

But today is a brand new, beautiful day (well, it's not really brand new, it's already 4:30 pm) and I'm sitting in the front porch enjoying some CRAZY BEAUTIFUL weather. Dude, if it wasn't for rainy season, I'd say this is the most perfect weather to live in year-round. It's sunny and bright with a cool breeze coming in from the shore... it feels soooo good. I could never complain about the weather here. It's lie-in-a-hammock-all-day type of weather. Which reminds me, anyone wanna mail me a hammock? I can't find any here! grrrr.

It's pretty rare for me to have free Sunday afternoons, so when I do have them, I try to enjoy them to the fullest. Most Sundays I spend at some church participating in some sort of musical program. Most sacred concerts here are on Sunday afternoon instead of Sabbath afternoon... I have a feeling that I'm actually supposed to be at some church this very instant playing/singing beautiful hymns and praising the Lord and all that, but you see, as I mentioned previously, my phone was stolen. What does that have to do with anything, you ask? Well, my phone was not only a phone in its own sense, but also my planner. I saved all my to-do's, memos, and whatnots in that phone. Now that it's gone, I have NO idea what I'm supposed to be doing today, and most of my contacts from churches around the city don't know that I don't have my phone anymore. So if I'm supposed to be somewhere right now, the people I made the committment with are probably calling my phone like crazy wondering where in the world I am. Little do they know, my little Nokia is happily traipsing around Johannesburg somewhere. And me? I'm just here, happily typing away, ignoring the nagging feeling that I'm standing someone up and trying to enjoy this false sense of freedom.

This morning was session 2 of the music classes at my church. Things are going well, the students are really eager to learn. We had our first orchestra practice today. It consisted of the orchestra members sitting in the proper semi-circle formation, facing the conductor (me), paying attention to every word I said. Oh, and also, noone had any instruments... lol. It's so cute how we call ourselves an orchestra when it's just people sitting on chairs. Hey, we're just keeping our eyes on the ball, visualizing our goals. We'll get there someday.

I just hope someday is sooner than it seems at the moment :)

Sun is setting in the weeest...

Well, my Sabbath didn't go according to plan: I ended up spending the afternoon in the little corner shop because I was locked out... the family whose house I live in is in town for the holidays and they had taken the set of keys. I have no phone,I had no way to alert someone to come rescue me, so I just sat there and kicked it with the guys from the store for a good while.

I ended up going to a cousin (who lives nearby)'s home around sunset and just kicked it with her the rest of the time til the fam came home from their Sabbath afternoon activites. Actually, although it really didn't go according to plan, my Sabbath was pretty enjoyable especially this evening when I got to spend time with one of my favorite cousins.

Now it's super late, and I gotta get some sleep because I gotta be out of here bright and early in the morning so that I reach in time at my church for the music school sessions to take place.

Are we there yet???

WHOA, it's been a looooong day!

It's been disaster after disaster and crisis after crisis all up in here... This is gonna have to be a list kinda post:

-It all started with the flight back from South Africa... we were supposed to leave Johannesburg at 3:30 p.m.... ended up leaving at 9:00 pm. Why? They were just running late. Ridiculous.

-We landed in Luanda at around 11:30 pm. The baggage didn't arrive until about 3 a.m.

-When the baggage FINALLY arrived, I checked to make sure everything was ok and nothing was missing. Found out my phone and my ipod were both missing from my backpack.

-Reported to the airport authorities that my bag had been stolen from. They made me sit down and wait around for an hour while they disappeared behind closed doors supposedly to go track them down (theft by airport officials = not uncommon in Africa).

-No results from that lame investigation. I decided to go home. I no longer own a phone or an ipod. (sorry Sabs. I loved it with all my heart while it was mine :( )

-Got home and went to bed around 4 a.m. Keep in mind I had to be at work at 8, and be at the bus stop by 5:45.

-Napped a little, jumped out of bed, no shower, just my devotion and a fast and furious toothbrushing session (aka the BARE ESSENTIALS).

-I was gonna make it to work on time... but I got to the last leg of my commute and realized I had to go to an ATM because I had run out of cash to pay the fare, so I got to work 10 mins late.

-Kept fighting a losing battle with my eyelids all morning. I really needed some sleep!

-At lunchtime my wisdom tooth was just throbbing in pain. Quite aggravating, because I really like to enjoy my meals in peace. Can a girl just chew her food with gusto? Is that too much to ask?

-Went to the phone store in the afternoon and found out there's now way to recover the same phone number because I wasn't under a contract. It's gonna be much harder to recover all the contacts I had... especially the ones in the music ministry ALL OVER the city. Ugh.

-The day just dragged on and on in like manner. But now the workday is over and I can go home and enjoy my Sabbath. Thank you Lord, we're finally there. Sabbath bliss here I come!!!!

Good to be Back

Gotta make this one short and sweet:

I'm currently back in Luanda, at the airport waiting for my luggage to arrive at the baggage claim area. Well it's not even luggage, it's just a backpack, but the check-in guy made me check it in because it went over the weight limit... grrr so annoying considering that with the Angolan airline you have to wait a looong time for the lugagge to get from the plane to the claim area. It could take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours... it just depends on the staff they have at hand. SOOO annoying!

Anyway, it was good to experience South Africa. My impression of it? It was just like being in the U.S. lol. Seriously, everything reminded me of the U.S. except for the driving backwards and the funny accents. It's nothing like other African countries. There's courteous customer service, an abundance of stores providing anything you need within a 1 mile radius at any given urban area, a mixture of races among the population, billboards everywhere that emphasize just how much of a consumerist culture exists. The hotel was nice and clean. The people were nice. Taxis are expensive... not like in Angola where they cost $1 or $2... lol. I can't speak much for Johannesburg the city itself, since I stayed in a suburb (Midrand) and only familiarized myself with that area... but seeing as how everything there reminded me of America, it's probably alright to assume that it's just like any other big city in the U.S. Except maybe more crime...

Anyways, it's good to be back. I took this trip like a mini-vacation and indulged in a salon trip to tighten my locs and get a pedicure. Then I indulged some more by eating a delicious sit-down dinner each night (vegetable curry and rotti one night, sushi the next night...) instead of the usual fast-food meals I stick to when I'm traveling and broke.
All in all, definitely a good place to hang with the KJSC... I'm sure we would have a lot of fun there, as long as we do our research beforehand regarding things to do and prices.

Yay or Nay... what's that you Say?

I just finished watching "Freedom Writers". It was SOO inspirational. RO, and all you teachers out there, need to watch it! I'm sure you've watched it before, but after all this time, watching it again is like watching it for the first time.

One of the biggest things that got to me is the fact that Mrs. G did NOT give up on her goals even though there were nothing but naysayers around her. I can totally relate to that at this point in my life. When I got mugged, my mom told me to just let it go. Move out of Angola. Forget your goals and the lives you're trying to change. There will always be poor people, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Umm, ok Mom. Thanks for the great advice, lol. I know she was just speaking out of pure panic, but I was not happy to hear it.
It only served to remind me that there will always be naysayers. Most of them will give what seems like completely rational advice, and will be the people closest to me. But I can't let that wear me down.

The theme of the Freedom Writers helps me to strengthen my resolve to stay in Angola, and do what God has placed me there to do.

So to all naysayers I say: Thanks but no thanks. I'm staying right where I am. kThanksBuhbye.

You thought I fell off...

Sabrina, wipe that smug smile off your face! I did NOT fail the challenge just yet: The fact that I didn't post yesterday doesn't mean I wasn't willing to or intending to do so. It's just that, as I predicted in my disclaimer on the first post of the challenge, there was a power outtage for a few minutes last night, and the wireless lost signal until this morning. Therefore, I can post today to make up for yesterday... and I'll post TWICE today to get back on track.



So there. I'm still in the game.



On to yesterday's post:



ENEMIES



I've never hated anyone in my life. I've never had an enemy. It's just things that don't really go with my personality. If someone is a bad person (or behaves badly) I'll write them off as one whom I can't trust and won't give him/her another thought, but to hate them or consider them my enemy? That's just unnecessary and only harmful to me in the long run. So no enemies for me. That is, until these last couple of weeks.



I've realized that I have an enemy, or rather, a group of enemies that will follow me around for the rest of my life no matter where in the world I go. This enemy HATES me. Thus, in return I hate them. They do everything in their power to make my life more difficult... and more often than not, they succeed.



This powerful enemy I'm referring to is called THE EMBASSY.



Any embassy, of any country in the world, is my enemy. Based on the horrible way most of them function, any new embassy that I come accross is immediately branded as 'guilty before proven innocent' in my mind. Let me just paint you a picture:



I scoured the South African embassy website so as to be informed of all the required documents one must have ready in order to receive a visa. I showed up with my perfectly filled out documents, bright and early, so I could be attended quickly and efficiently and go on my merry way. Their response: You're not on the list of people to be attended today. Come back tomorrow.

Ok, fair enough, I think to myself. 'Can I sign on to the list for tomorrow?' I ask being nothing but compliant. Their response: No, you have to sign into the list on the same day.

-Ok, can I sign on to the list for today?

-Nope, it's already full.

-But its' like 8 in the morning!

-We start taking names at 4. I suggest if you want to get on the list, come by between 4 and 5 AM tomorrow.



Ok. I will not be deterred. I make arrangements for a friend who lives nearby to pass by and sign my name at 4 am the next morning. I'm at the top of the daily list. I should be one of the first people attended.



I come back the next morning, bright and early. My documents STILL perfectly filled out, and get ushered in as one of the first 10 people to be attended. This should be a breeze from here on out.

Um, not so much.

Once inside, I wait in line as people are attended one by one. By attended, I mean they take your papers at the window and tell you to go sit down until you are called. Again, I'm nothing but compliant.



So I wait. And I wait. And I wait.... I wait so long, that I watch as the second group of people get attended, get called again, get their receipt and go home. Same for the 3rd group, and the 4th...



I get up to go to the window to explain that I was supposed to be outta there with the first group. But instead of letting me speak, they were just like, 'Miss, go sit down until you're called'

-'But...'

-'UNTIL YOU'RE CALLED'

Ok... Fine. Don't wanna tick them off or they'll send me home empty-handed. So I sit down. And I wait. By this time it's around noon... they close at 1 pm. The room eventually empties as one by one everyone is called and sent home with their receipt in hand. Finally, one of the clerks looks at me and says, 'Miss, what's your name?'



I say 'Elisa Gouveia'. He looks around and spots my documents... sitting on a table behind him, by itself instead of included with the documents being processed... basically just being ignored. He looks at me and I say, I was in the first group. And all my documents were correct... why haven't I been called?

He just shrugged and said, 'you should've said something'. I say, 'I tried!, you yourself sent me away 3 TIMES. He says, oh, sorry. Here you go. And hands me my receipt so I can come back the next week for my stamped passport.



I was so mad. I had been there from 8 am, til 1 pm... when I should've been out by 8:30 or 9:00. Simply because someone pushed aside my process and forgot about it, I lost all morning, missing work. I had to come back and face my manager and try to explain the situation. But I could see it in her face... nobody wants to hear lame excuses.



Anyway this story is longer than I intended... But to wrap it up, I had to come back for my passport not once, not twice, but 5 TIMES the following week before they finally handed it to me. Why? I have no clue! The guard was a TOTAL anushole for no reason. High on his so-called authority... I had to end up basically STALKING one of the clerks, waiting outside the building until he came out for his lunch break, to talk to him into giving me my passport already.



All I kept thinking was, 'If this is what happens when you're in the first group, and your documents are all in order, what happens when you're a little late or one of your documents is missing?'



Anyways, I finally got my passport back thanks to my genius idea of stalking the clerk. SUCH unnecessary drama. And the worst part is that all of that was just so I could get into South Africa so I could have an appointment at ANOTHER embassy: The Mexican Embassy. Thus far, they already lost cool points because, even though I've been communicating with them for weeks, to make sure nothing went wrong when I came here (I only have 3 days to work out the Mexican visa), they FAILED to tell me that Dec. 16th is a national holiday in South Africa, so the Embassy is closed. That only leaves me ONE DAY to work out everything and fly back to Luanda, visa in hand.



Estas embajadas... one day when I'm powerful I'll get my revenge. Oh, the day will come.



Anyways, please pray so that everything works out tomorrow when I go face my sworn enemy. Perhaps, at the end of the day, I'll have found a new friend instead :)

Start spreading the news: I'm leaving... er... when again?

So I think it's been established that I'm bad with time, right? Like I never know what day of the week it is, or what the date is, without consultiong a calendar or document containing that info. Also, I'm HORRIBLE at estimating how much time has elapsed from one event to another... I HAVE to look at a clock or watch in order to have a clue as to what's going on. It's like I have no depth perception... except with time as opposed to distance. Dina got that skill, I was blessed with the skill of geographical orientation (or at least I was til I moved to Luanda :S).
The reason I mention this is because when I got to work this morning and started going about doing business as usual, I eventually came across some paperwork that revealed to me a very crucial piece of information: Today is December the 14th. I was shocked. I'd gone through the whole weekend miscalculating my dates, and I thought today was the 13th. I quickly verified on the computer, the phone, and the calendar... and sure enough, it's the 14th. Why so crucial, you ask? Well, you see, the fact that today is the 14th means that tomorrow is the 15th. And you see, I happen to have a pretty significant appointment on the 15th.
I have a flight to South Africa booked for December the 15th. I know. I know. I'm not serious... I was seriously gonna miss my flight tomorrow had I gone through the whole day thinking that today was the 13th. Which would've made me miss my appointment at the Mexican Embassy in Pretoria... which would mean no visa in time for my February vacation. Wow. I need to get it together (yes, I still use that overused phrase from 2001. Get over it.).

In other (time-airheadedness-related) news: It just dawned on me yesterday that I'm only 2-weeks away from the half-marathon I've been training for! I feel SOOO not ready, considering I'm up against real professional runners from all over the world. Ok, so maybe I'm not UP AGAINST them. I'm in the individual category... which means I'm up against other non-contracted athletic amateurs. But we're all participating in the same race, at the same time. That's rather intimidating, but really, since I've only been training for about 5 months, the goal for this year is just to survive. After the race, I need to take a breather and figure out a way to do some treatment for my shin splints which have been getting progressively worse for a couple of months now. I'm pretty sure by the time I'm finished with the race, I'll hardly be able to walk. My coach keeps pressuring me to take some anti-inflammatory medicine, I just laugh and shake my head. Poor coach, he doesn't know what a stubborn anti-chemical-drugs athlete he has taken on :) Thank goodness for google- I'm sure I'll be able to figure out some effective homemade remedies...

So in a few minutes when I get off work, I gotta go run a few miles, then catch a ride to home- on the other side of the city- so I can pack my backpack, then come back to this side of the city so I can spend the nigth at the Tadeus so I can have a ride for my 4:30 a.m. check-in tomorrow.

You besta believe I'll be glancing at my watch and calendar every second for the next couple of days just to make sure I don't throw my schedule off and throw away my chance of vacation bliss!

Music to my ears...

I just came back from the inaugurational ceremony of the Elisa Gouveia Conservatory of Music. Ok, maybe there was no ceremony... and it certainly isn't called the Elisa Gouveia Conservatory of Music... Alright, alright, I'll rephrase: I just came back from the very first session of the music courses I'm offering at the church. It's official... what I pray will become a well-established institution of formal music education years down the road, is starting as a humble group of church and community members ready to learn all they can from my limited knowledge of music.

I have so many goals for the little school... I'm eager to see where we'll end up in a year. The biggest goal, for this year, is to foster enough dedication in each student to take their instrument seriously. It's too common for people to have the DESIRE to play, but not the DEDICATION it takes to learn how to play. And what's more, I'm hoping to be able to have an orchestra recital at the 1 yr anniversary of the school. Now, that's a feat.

See most people have NO formal knowledge of music, those who have some, it's just a little bit... and that little bit is interspersed with a rather confusing bunch of concepts that may or may not be correct. Another challenge is the fact that so many people can't afford the instruments that they want to learn how to play. For the people that want to learn flute and sax, we're going to be able to start with the recorder. But for people that want to start with the violin and clarinet, there's no cheap, temporary option! They gotta go to the store and buy the real deal. From what I've seen, the cheapest option for a clarinet is $200... for a violin $100. That's still way too unfeasible for a lot of the students.

And then there's the fact that some of the students have to travel to get to class. Today, a guy showed up that had travelled 3 hrs to get to class on time. He plans on doing that EVERY SUNDAY. It's crazy! But his motivation encourages me to make this music course the best darn music course this side of the Atlantic.

Above all, I pray that it gives all of us involved in this project a chance to witness to the community through the music we bring.

Heraldos, Heralds, Arautos...

When I first moved here I didn't bring with me all the sacred music CDs that I had access to back in TX. When I got here, I immediately started fishing around for good music to fill the void. That's when I was introduced to a brand new (to me) world of sacred music: That of the Brazilian SDA music. It's widely popular here. From what I've learned, it is largely influenced by the Adventist University of Sao Paulo. They have a host of productions, groups, solos, quartets, ensembles, what have you... it's a WORLD of music, in the SDA sense. I was thrilled by this discovery. I hadn't seen such an organized SDA music scene since I left Montemorelos... it was SUCH a treat. And to top things off, I have a cousin who grew up and studied in UNASP (the SDA University in Sao Paulo), who moved here after graduating and now became a dealer, of sorts, of all the latest CDs and DVDs that are lauched in Brazil. She's the one that has introduced me to it all, and she keeps me updated on all the latest and greatest as they are produced...

One of the discoveries that delighted me the most was that of the Arautos do Rei. That's right, the Heralds of the King, in Portuguese. I've always been a fan... ever since the old school days of the Heraldos del Rey in Mexico. I haven't always been updated on their latest albums and releases, but any time they cross my path I absorb their music and hum along to their songs replaying in my head for days. So getting to hear this new and improved version of the long-lost quartet was absolutely awesome.

I just HAVE to list some of my favorite songs, the ones by which I've felt the most blessed, from the Arautos do Rei albums:

-Graca
-Jesus de Nazare
-Vale a Pena Esperar
-So um Pouco Mais
-Filho Vem, Chegou a Hora
-Foi Por Mim

So here's to the Arautos, los Heraldos, and the Heralds. May the Lord continue to use them to change lives all across the globe until His soon return!

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Sabrina thinks I can't write a post every day for a year because I'm too much of a slacker. Oh ye of little faith...

I accept your challenge, Sabrinota.

I, Elisa Ester* Kassova Hebo** Feliciano Gouveia, hereby declare nomad girl engineer a daily-posting kinda blog FOR THE NEXT 365 DAYS. Declared on this day, December 11, 2009.

And now, for some disclaimers:

-In case of little to no access to the internet (let's face it, I DO live in Africa. And I don't know how the conditions are going to be once I start going out to the rig...), I will be required to compensate for the lack of posts within 1 week of the originally scheduled post date.

-In case of total blogger's block, or just the plain old condition I usually find myself in that some like to refer to as extreme writing lazyness, I am allowed to write a short and sweet post. And by short and sweet I mean at least 1 sentence in the English language, as long as it embodies a complete thought. No fragments.

-Sabrina, I'm gonna need some kinda incentive for taking on this challenge... what do I get at the end of 365 days???

-Editted on May 6, 2010 to add: ONLY VALID WHEN PHYSICALLY IN ANGOLA.
* My name is actually spelled withouht an 'h' in the middle. I've been mispelling it all these years. Oops.
**Hebo, my OTHER village name I've recently been privy to. Don't hate.

God really does have a sense of humor

So this morning I wake up to my cousin's voice saying "Elisa, you overslept, it's 6:20 already..." I say "Oh shoot!" and scramble out of bed and bolt to the bathroom, and get ready in a 3 or 4 minute flurry of activity. You see, Luanda traffic is so ridiculously bad that if I don't leave by 6:00 at the latest, I'll be over an hour, perhaps even two hours late to work. Nope I'm not exaggerating:

There are some areas of the city where you literally PARK in the middle of your commute because traffic is JUST NOT MOVING AT ALL...

Anyhow, so there I was, reaching for my backpack to jet out the door when my eye catches my Bible, sitting pretty, on the bedside table. I mutter a quick prayer saying "I'm so sorry Lord, I'll read the Bible when I get to the office (on biblegateway.com, of course :D)" which is what I used to do when I didn't get to do my morning devotion back in my university days...

But today, for some reason, I felt something pulling at me to put my backpack down and do my devotion. Right then. No matter how late I was. I wrestled with the thought for a few seconds, decided to walk out, and then changed my mind and went back to the room and did what I had to do. All the while knowing, just KNOWING I wasn't gonna make it to the office before 10 am since devotion would probably take at least 15 minutes, and that makes a WORLD of a difference in the level of traffic jams at that time of the day.

Fast forward to the end of my devotion, I get up, with less of a spring in my step, to leave. All of a sudden my cousin peeks out of his room and says "Elisa, I'm sorry, I saw the wrong time on my phone. It was actually 5:20 when I woke you up... so you're not running late at all..." and he closes his door and goes back to sleep. I just stood there and blinked. And then it dawned on me, and I started laughing... Good one Lord... Way to test my priorities...

Turns out that in my haste, I didn't even take the time to look at the clock, the phone, my watch, anything... I assumed I hadn't heard the alarm (it happens to me quite often...), but I was actually not late at all. in fact, I still had time to grab some dumplings (yum!) and pineapple juice for breakfast before I left. I reached the bus stop just in time for my bus and made it to work on time.

God was trying to test me to see if I would place Him above my daily concerns. I'm glad I passed this test... but I'm still a little perturbed that I was THISCLOSE to not passing. I ALMOST left. I would've felt pretty bad when I eventually realized that I was really early and had rejected the little voice telling me to stay and pray. But I learned my lesson. May the Lord help us all to ALWAYS put Him in first place.

Here's to new beginnings... or, uh, something...

Today we got a new boss. He seems like a no-nonsense kinda boss. During the mini-meeting in which the top boss introduced him to the department, he have us a nice little speech about how he's ready to learn all the strategies here and he wants to hit the ground running and blah blah blah.

He ended by warning us that sometimes he might be "wordy, loud, and a little emotional"... erm... ooookay. Don't know how to interpret that, but thanks for the fair warning, I guess. lol.

So many changes going on. My favorite coworker is fed up with the politics of this place and has been looking for a job for some time now. She's gotten VERY positive feedback from another company and I think she will soon abandon me to fend for myself against the ugly fates of this freak show we call our office. Ok, just kidding, it's not so bad. But some days it really does seem like a freak show.

Oh the things that happen in this place. I've seen everything from shameless sabotages and backstabbings to all out screaming matches. It actually keeps me pretty entertained.

Ah, such is life. Hope you are all having a great day... I sure am, I only work a half day tomorrow and then I'm off to a 3-day weekend at the beach! The flight has been booked, the backpack will get packed tonight, the cousins will be alerted of my soon arrival, and fun WILL be had!!!!!

*image from http://meiavolta.files.wordpress.com

I love national holidays in Angola :D

Today was such a SLOOOOWWW day at work. Nothing worthy of note happened. I only got like 3 or 4 emails... that never happens.

I guess today is just one of those uneventful days that come along once in a while. There are some days full of stories to tell (like one time, I saw a pregnant lady get morning sickness all over herself and the lady sitting next to her in the bus. Then I saw a little girl get her head stuck in a little space of the turnstile to get into the bus, while her mother panicked and almost choked her from trying unsuccessfully to pull her out. Then I saw a man fall off his motorcycle and break his leg so badly that the bone was sticking out through his shin. This all happened within a 2-hr bus ride from one side of the city to the other... craziness!)

I think the most eventful thing that happened today was an in-depth discussion about my coworker's blouse. There's 4 of us girls in the department, and I guess when we're bored we can just get into these kinda irrelevant conversations. We couldn't decide if it was shocking enough to be classified as fuschia, purple-y enough to be classified as magenta... we knew it was something between pink and red. But we were sitting there having this conversation for a good while before we decided to just keep it as an undecided color, lol. And now for your viewing pleasure, some pics of the deeply insightful participants of this ever-so-important conversation:

There's the wearer of the blouse that spurred such amusement, on the right. And another one of the coworkers. Here's the third participant in the conversation:

And there was also yours truly:

The end!

Ok. So we've CLEARLY established that I'm not good at consistent blogging. I kind of already knew that, since the times in my early life I remotely attempted to keep a diary, my new endeavor would never make it past the 2-week mark... And I think a blog is pretty similar to a diary, so no surprises in the fact that I'm just not good at this sort of stuff. I may have many talents, but blogging ain't one of them... lol. However, I do love the idea of reaching out to all of you, my readers (aka friends and family) through little snippets of my life. So I'm gonna attempt this ONE MORE TIME. I'm not going to delude myself into thinking I can post full-fledged stories or synopses (synopsi?) of my daily adventures anymore. But I think I can just post random events in my day or random thoughts often enough to where my blog isn't the cyber-void that it has been since I started it. lol. So... for my first installation of the new-and-improved nomad girl engineer blog, I have today's random event:

I went to a watchmaker to repair my watch. Yes, I agree with you: How very vintagey of me :) Well the watch Sabrina gave me almost 2 yrs ago was still going strong as far as keeping time is concerned, but the bracelet was falling apart. And by falling apart, I mean, like, I had taped parts of it together just to help it survive... you know how I does. So, as I was reinforcing the tape at my desk, my coworker just starts laughing and says, 'don't you have other watches? You need to throw that one away!' And I was like, 'yes, but this is my favorite one. It has sentimental value' (Sabrina, go ahead, reach for your Kleenex)... so my other coworker says 'Oh, my dad owns a watchmaking shop that's close by, if you wanna go they can put a new bracelet on it for you'. So she writes out a note to the watchmaker that works in her dad's shop, I march my little hiney down there at lunchtime (with a quick stop by the Tadeus' house for a super-quick last minute lunch with the ever-amusing Quito), hand the note to the watchmaker, hand him my watch, watch him work his magic, and about 3 minutes later he hands me my watch... with a total makeover! It was so funny, he had one of those one-eye spectacle/magnifying glass thing (don't now the proper name of the device) as he worked with quick and nimble fingers...

*Image from http://c3.ort.org.il*

I quite enjoyed this little glimpse of a non-mass-producer, non-corporate-tycoon vocation for a change. It was just so quaint, this little itty bitty shop and its experienced operator that gave me back my favorite watch and a glimpse of the simplicity of an almost-lost art.

Rrrroad TRIP!!!

So I took a couple of road trips my first few months here. Back then I didn't know my way around enough to fly by myself anywhere and if I wanted to go outta state to meet relatives, I'd hop in the car with someone headed that way already. My first trip was to Benguela.

It was with my cousin, Nelito. He's crazy. Like, you know, crazy. Driving all kinds of crazy ways at all kinds of crazy speeds at crazy hours. We left on Saturday evening, right after sunset, even though I had to be back in Luanda Monday morning... Benguela is about 7 or 8 hrs away, for normal ppl. At Nelito's pace, it's 6 hrs. Looking back, I know better than to ever do that again.

First of all, the road to Benguela has not yet been reconstructed since the war finished. It's paved and all... but it's very old pavement and cracks and holes pop up unexpectedly all through the journey. What's worse, it's not lit. At all. There are NO street lights the WHOLE way, except at random little towns (there's like 3 of them on the way) we passed through. If I had known back then the amount of fatal accidents that take place on that road... well, maybe I still would've gone, 'cause I'm an optimist like that, but I think I would've at LEAST hesitated... heehee.

Nelito is oodles of fun. He's 26, and he's one of those guys that thinks he knows it all and is invincible (not in an annoying way, more in a oooh look at my muscles/look how fast I can drive/look mommy, no hands! kind of way) and the whole way we kept talking about everything and everyone at the same time. Me, being new in Angola (I think I had been here about a month) asking all about the family, what everyone is like, who's who (our family tree gets VERY confusing) and all of that... all the while he's asking all about what it's like in America, and we both insisted that satisfying our own curiosity is more important than the other's. Although I had only met him less than 24 before, there was nary a lull in our conversation. I think it helps that we're both very talkative... that's how we knew we's fam, lol.
We made it to Benguela around 1 am, and instead of going straight to his dad's house, he gave me a mini tour of the city. It was lovely, from what I could see in the dark...
We made it into the driveway, where the other cousins were waiting to meet me. I got out of the car, and I peered at two ppl peering back at me curiously... I however was more awed than them, for there, before my very eyes, stood Vivaldo and Dina. I broke into a huge smile and said 'Dinha? (I know, even their nicknames are similar) you look just like DINA!!' she just laughed and we hugged a big hug, like long-lost sisters that were only familiar with each other's voice over the phone. Then I hugged Mamito... He looks just like Vivaldo. He's tall, bald, and wears a well-trimmed beard, JUST like him, I kid you not. He even had a more casual version of Viva's style. With the dark wash jeans, pumas, and rolled up well-tailored button up. Dinha doesn't have Dina's face, but she has her body... in the darkness her silhouette looked JUST like my baby sis'. I could not believe it, it felt so weird to recognize familiar features in ppl that were virtually total strangers to me. Within minutes though, we really felt like family. Story after story was told of childhood memories, we laughed at common stories we had heard from our mothers, and they told me that me being there made them feel like a little piece of their mom was with them... Tia Rosa, my mom's favorite sister, who passed away about 15 years ago...

I had to wait until morning to meet my uncle. He is the famous Tio Ze that I've heard so many stories about. And it's true, he does get up at 5 am and loudly bellows his hymns in a beautifully raspy baritone voice as he does his personal worship. I was living my mom's anecdotes of her childhood. What a privilege. Tio Ze and Tia Rosa took my mom in when she was a teenager, a village girl coming to the city full of hopes and dreams. I got to see the old store where she used to work part-time for Tio Ze, where she eventually met my dad and their story started. I got to sleep in the same room where my mom slept when she lived with them. I got to walk barefoot on the old floors that Tia Rosa used to so famously polish until there wasn't ONE SPECK of dirt left upon them. It was surreal. I loved it all.

I don't know if it's because it's such a big part of my mom's history, or because it is genuinely a beautiful city... but Benguela is my favorite place in Angola thus far. I've been to a couple of other cities since that trip, and I have many more lined up for the upcoming holidays (yall know we get a lot of those, lol), but I think I've made up my mind. I know where I'm gonna sit in my rocking chair and watch the hustle and bustle of life around me as I rest my old bones and think of days gone by. I'm gonna retire rested, happy, and fulfilled, in Benguela.

More on this later :) Much love!

Ok, I know. I'm pretty much the worst blogger to ever be allowed into the blogosphere. 2009 it's almost half-way over and I haven't posted anything since 2008. Oops. My bad. Time flies. I don't have regular internet access. I was too busy working. Alright! I'm a lazy bum who never enjoyed writing even when I was in school. I'd much rather be problem-solving or painting or sketching or something more up my alley. But anyways. Hi guys, I'm back. I figured you'd all held your breath long enough, hehehe. So since it's been SO UNBELIEVABLY long since I wrote, my blog doesn't have even a semblance of a sequence anymore. Therefore I can write about any event that happened since I've been in Angola as it strikes my fancy and today, my fancy seems to have been stricken with inspiration to write about church.

Oh church. What can I say about it... There are so many (and I mean SO MANY... and the list seems to be growing as time goes on....) flaws in the church here. I really don't like to focus on them though, because I know that's a tool el enemigo uses to discourage us. There's also a lot of wonderful things about it. What's wrong with it, you might wonder? Well coming from an environment full of young ppl that are excited about the Word of God, it was quite shocking to me to encounter a church that lacked that much enthusiasm for all things sacred. For example, there's a lot of vanity, pride, selfishness amongst the members in the church. I could tell you anecdote after anecdote of shady things that ppl do that makes you think 'He/She's a Christian??' People are also really caught up on being on the spotlight that the message gets lost among the ppl scuttling for the stage. Musicians, preachers, treasurers, you name it, everyone is trying to be the head honcho around here because they act as if it's a popularity contest insted of the Lord's work. I just shake my head in amazement, but I try to remind myself that it's my first time living in an environment that's not mostly SDA, so maybe that's just how it is in the big bad world (:S)
The good things about it, though: the music. Oh man, music here reaches the soul. I think it has to do with the fact that music has always brought consolation to the suffering masses, because there's just something about the way the congregation here sings that just makes the Holy Spirit that much more tangible.
The divine worship music is so cool... my favorite part is after the pause between SS and Culto. The church goes silent as they wait for the next thing on the program... just as the silence starts to become almost awkward (awkward is an awkward word to spell, don'tcha think?) you hear in the distance a beautifully harmonized hymn that barely reaches your ears. As the seconds pass the music gets louder and louder... and you turn around to behold the church choir, in its robed glory, marching to the beat of the hymn from the entrance of the church. It marches, marches, marches, rhythmically swaying from side to side as it slowly advances up the center aisle and towards the stage. At the very front are the sopranos, so as they pass they're the loudest near me and they almost stifle the other voices... but not quite. You can still hear them harmonizing. Then come the altos, and at this point the sopranos are already reaching the stage so their sound is being projected and reverbrating through the whole building, meanwhile the rich sound of the altos become the backbone of the song. Then come the tenors, which mingle beautifully as well with the sweet sounds coming from the front. Then come the bases. Oh man, it's awesome. By the time the rest of the choir is onstage and the bases have reached me I've already learned the song that they've been singing since they entered the sanctuary, and it's all a perfect blend of sounds comparable only to the blend of a perfect amount of sweet and tangy on your tastebuds (if that's your thing. If not, then think of other flavor combinations that mean absolute bliss to you :D). I hum along and sway along and sing along and basically try to make the moment last as long as possible, because it'll be a long week before I get to this point again.

The first time it happened, I was totally amazed because I didn't expect it. But now that I know, and eagerly look forward to it from the moment I step into the church early Sabbath morning, I'm amazed at how captivating it still is to me. There's just nothing like it.

I started out attending the Central church, the biggest church in Luanda, and possibly the country. I think it has like 4000 or 5000 members. It's so big it's actually split up into 3 churches: Children Church, Youth Church, and the regular church service. The church is a 3 story building reminiscent of an office building, because it's just big and square as if it was built purely for function, not for beauty.

I attended there for 3 months and became involved in music as soon as I got the chance. I was placed into the regular rotations for pianists and often played special music at Sabbath School, AY, and week of prayers (we have A LOT of those. Another good thing :D) Special music during divine worship is reserved for the church choir only. It was nice, and I enjoyed it, but the church was just so big! I still don't know most of the ppls names I met there. And I consider myself pretty good at remembering names!

Anyways, by an unexpected turn of events, I ended up moving to another uncle's house during the Christmas holidays which is way outside the city, in a suburb called Viana. Since I don't have a car, if I wanted to keep attending Central church I'd have to catch taxis every Sabbath... and even though here that's a normal part of Adventist culture (many ppl don't have cars and they really want to go to church), I just don't feel right doing it. So I transferred to the Viana church. Turns out, I really like it. It's much smaller (about 500 members) and in the 4 months I've been there I've gotten to be much more involved. First with the music, of course... I was made the official church pianist like my second week here. I replaced an old man that's going blind. He was so happy to find out there was a new pianist he refused to finish playing during service that Sabbath. He made me sit at the piano and pick up were he left off... lol.

Ok. THis post is too long. I shall continue it another time. Soon. Don't worry. OR maybe you should. I'm just tired of typing, lol. But I'm trying to form the habit so no me apedreen!