I Put the Hip in Chipotle

Lately I've been having a hankering for all my favorite foods from U.S. restaurants, or just foods in general that I used to have access to in the U.S. and haven't been able to find here. You know what, scratch that... it's not lately. It's pretty much all the time, lol. But only lately I have decided to just go ahead and make from scratch everything I feel like eating but can't find here. Yesterday, that was a big Ceasar salad (don't know where to find vegetarian Ceasar dressing...) today, a Chipotle-style burrito. It turned out delicious, and I was so excited about finally having a Chipotle burrito after craving it for so long that I ended up taking pictures of myself eating my savory lunch. My coworkers were quite amused... they kept asking, what are you taking pictures of yourself for? heeheehee... anyhow... I figured the only ppl who would share in the joy of my awesome lunch is you, my dear blog readers. So for your enjoyment, a series of photos of me and my burrito!

Babies and More Babies

This weekend was great... I spent Friday night chatting on IM, then a good dose of audioverse, then off to sleep I went. Sabbath was a nice outdoor church service with a good sermon about how we've forgotten to love our neighbor as ourselves, in which the preacher went on to give examples of several instances that are normal in today's society which demonstrate that we do not love one another as our Father has loved us... it's more of an "Every Man for Himself" society, and we as Christians should do away with that kind of mentality. After church we all had a nice picnic right outside, and then we sat around and sang old school African church songs (songs like Onge, and other African Voices favorites :D) with Tio Terencio often taking totally unsolicited solos... he was hilarious and SOOO reminded me of my dad when he used to walk around the house singing like he meant serious business... hahaha
Then I went home, found out water AND electricity were gone on my block, and decided not to rough it out and go spend the night at the Tadeus instead :) It was a good choice, as I got to catch up with Elsa and Chinha and play with baby Edilson, who has become SUCH a little man, he's starting to talk! It seems like just yesterday we were curiously talking about his crusty little bellybutton when he was brought home from the hospital... now he walks and almost talks and constantly wreaks havoc... too cute.
Sunday consisted of music class in the morning, as usual... then a quick trip to the Shoprite, the South African version of Walmart, to check if they had finally re-stocked on veggie meat (which to my delight, they had! YUMMM!) and then off I went to Sonia's to meet baby Adriel. He's already 2 months old and I still hadn't met him so it was about high time I did. Good thing I decided to forego doing laundry (I'll pay for that later... I feel the almost-filled-to-capacity hamper scowling at me from the corner of the room every time I pass by :S) to spend some time with the squirmy little bundle and his hilarious momma instead :) Some pictures of the visit:

Such a cutie-patootie!

My newest little friend :)

He kept taking mini-naps, much to his mother's chagrin

Stay asleep for more than 5 minutes, will ya???

It was fun to catch up with Sonia... she makes the terrors of delivering a baby in the Angolan health system (think more than one patient per bed, understaffed maternity wards, and mean nurses that have become totally desensitized to mothers screaming from the pain...) sound like a scene straight out of a sitcom. It was so funny the way she told it... but really nothing I'd like to experience... or maybe I would just so I could tell yall about it from a first-hand account!

What's Been Going On?

At Home:
Still painting. I changed my mind about a couple of colors I wanted to use so now I gotta take some paint cans back to the store to exchange them for the right colors. It's taking me forever due to the fact that I have very little spare time and I refuse to waste money by hiring somebody else to do it. But we're getting there. Hopefully I'll have some nice pics to upload soon...

At Work:
Recently found out I'm being groomed to take on a Global leadership position. Although it wouldn't happen for a couple of years, I still think it was very cool news. Lots of pros and cons to consider... we'll see what happens as time goes on :)

At Church:
I've officialy turned down the role of Director of Music at my old church because I decided to start attending Central church. Those early Sabbath morning taxi rides accross the city were getting exhausting, and it is after all the day of REST... so yeah, I've attended a couple of Sabbaths already and it's soooo relieving to travel just 30 seconds to get to church instead of 1 hr and 30 minutes, give or take a few...

On Music:
My students are coming along nicely... a couple of them have already performed special music at church on their own and have done wonderfully. I feel like such a proud momma! lol Also, I can't wait to finish buying furniture, because I need to get myself a keyboard... and if I can find myself a cheap guitar I'll buy that too... Time to put more time into my music :) Maybe I'll even try my hand at songwriting! That would be fun. Oh, and another tidbit of news: Belkis and Tang have hired me as their children's private Music teacher. I'm going to have so much fun with those cute munchkins... They've taken up the last little bit of free time that I had: Sunday nights... but what else is time for if not to be taken up???

On Working Out:
Started up a new routine and I'm trying with all my might not to break it no matter what. Usually the trips are what interrupt my momentum and this time I've taken those into consideration when planning how my workouts will go, so hopefully I'll stick to this for years and years...

Other Miscellaneous Tidbits:
Internet signal has really been horrible lately. I don't know WHAT's gotten into my modem but it makes for a very frustrated user every evening when I'm trying to catch up on FB and chat with le boyfriend on MSN. SOOO ANNOYING!

More about my life on subsequent posts :)

Back on Track

Righty-O... where were we?

Ah yes, I believe last time I wrote I was about to head to Nigeria...

I meant to blog about it as soon as I got back and post pics, but I haven't really gotten around to blogging since the trip itself broke my momentum. Yes, it's the trip's fault, lol.

As for the pictures, I had a whole bunch to show... but I accidentally deleted them from my camera :( These are some of the few left:

the guard who graciously escorted us anytime we needed to wander off the premises

Checking out a little Italian place with the coworkers

I kept asking this artisan to let me take a picture of him doing his thing and he adamantly refused... so I walked away disappointed and resorted to taking one from afar... lol