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.