Highs of 2012

Stills of twenty twelve!:

January: Celebrated the beginning of 2012 in San Francisco; Completed The Green Yogi's annual Yoga Challenge. 

February: Visited my sister in Louisiana and survived my first Mardi Gras experience in New Orleans.

March: Hosted a fundraiser to help send me to Tanzania. Thanks to family and friends, I was able to raise enough money to cover my airfare and program fee. So thankful!

April: Coachella Music Festival with the best of friends.  

May-July: Spent two beautiful months living and teaching in a Maasai village in the mountains of Tanzania, Africa with some of the most hardworking and gracious people I've ever met (this experience opened my eyes and empowered me to live a more simple and less superficial life); Turned 25 Maasai-style; Safari at Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater; Danced and played in the Indian Ocean; Saw the sun rise over the Indian Ocean and set over the Indian Ocean in the same day (perks of tiny Zanzibar).

August: Got hired as a fourth grade teacher at Henry F. Kammann Elementary and moved to Santa Cruz! 

November: Survived Trimester 1; Cassidy visits for Thanksgiving :)

Goodbye 2012! Hello 2013:

kiss slowly, 

laugh insanely, 

love truly

and...

forgive quickly

-paulo coelho

Maandazi Recipe

A maandazi is a tennis ball sized gem of lightly fried dough the mamas in our Tanzanian village would cook for us for breakfast most mornings. This East African deliciousness is even better when stuffed with peanut butter, chocolate, jam, cinnamon, and/or banana OR accompanied with chai (tea in Swahili). 

I had to meticulously observe my mama prepare the maandazi dough so as to know the amount of each ingredient because the mamas do not measure things out. The amount for each ingredient is my estimation and will make about 30 maandazi. 

What you'll need:

- 7 cups flour (we used white, but I'm sure whole wheat is good too)

- 2 cups water (room temp)

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Do it!:

1. mix the yeast with a few spoonfuls of the warm water. 

2. Add sugar and salt to the water. 

3. Add the flour and gradually add in the water while kneading into dough. 

4. Knead until a smooth and elastic dough is formed - fifteen to twenty minutes.

5. Cover dough and let rise for one hour.

6. Divide the dough into several pieces.

7. Stuff dough with peanut butter, chocolate, jam, etc... if you like.

8. Heat a few cups of vegetable oil in a skillet or deep pot. Fry the dough in the hot oil, turning a few times, until they are golden brown all over. Fry only as many together as can float in the oil without touching one another. 

9. Let cool a little and EAT!!

My Musa - Monochrome

I'm back from Africa and more inspired than ever! I had the most amazing and empowering experience living and teaching English in Musa, a traditional Maasai village just outside Arusha, Tanzania the past two months. I can't wait to share my photographs and stories. Folks, there are many, so bare with me as most of my future posts will strictly be stills from my adventure. Surprisingly, I found solace and comfort in writing while I was there and therefore poured out every new experience, thought, story, and image into my little 100 paged, red-bound zen journal every single day. It has become a testament of the once in a lifetime adventure I lived. Maybe I'll write a book one day... hmm...

The following stills are some of my favorites, shown to you in black and white because I believe black and white has some artistic and emotional qualities that are just not possible to achieve in color photography. My father is a professional photography and he has told me that black and white also focuses the eye on the emotional center of the piece and that probably the best subject for black and white photography is the human face. A lot of my photographs are of the watoto (children) from my village. Black and white gives these stills a powerful aspect. Some even send chills down my arms and make me wish to return so I can be with them. 

Enjoy. 

[Daudi, Faraja, Neema, Agnes, Eppi; a small handful of my village watoto]

[Eppi singing out in the grass field in the center of our zone]

[Enoshi, Baba Ezekiel, and Faraja watercoloring for the first time inside our home]

[Faraja, Dony, and Daudi singing "Boringo!"]

[Eliyatosha, Asnati, Emmanuel, Luka; tutition kids]

[just playing on a wheel barrel]

[Petro un-shelling beans by whacking them with a stick]

[beautiful face]

[the children here don't play with dolls or barbies. they play with smaller babies.

outside my home]

[Last day of school with my standard 6 students]

[Teacher Alex and I with Wazaino, week 6 participation point winner!]

[Mzee, Mbayani, Mikael, and Eliyatosha; some very intelligent boys]

[My beautiful mama]

[Three of my siblings messing around before dinner]

[village rugrats]

[some alone time kicking the ball around]

[Nakupenda sana na Nitakumissy]

[Petro]

[Anna]

[Lucy] 

[Faraja]

[Yacobo and Eliyatosha solving a pretty advanced math problem]

[Enoshi]

all images by one life in stills 

raffle prizes for my fundraiser event

[thank you to all the businesses and individuals who donated!]

Hey beautiful people!

3 days until my event at Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach! I'm throwing this event to help raise money for my trip to Arusha, Tanzania with humanitarian organization ONE HEART SOURCE. 

While abroad, I'll be volunteering and providing English, community health, and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention education to children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

It has been my dream to volunteer my time in Africa where there are serious needs that demand help. Before I start my professional working life as a full time teacher, I wish to further develop my teaching practice by gaining valuable experience abroad. This is my chance to get out there and broaden my world view! 

You showing up Saturday and making any sort of donation will not only make me SUPER happy because I know I have your support, it will also help further the program's efforts to improve the lives of these children and their local communities.

________________________________

Event highlights!...

Jeff Nisen and Tony Gonella of Sand Section will be playing an acoustic set! Yeee!

During the event, the amazing Alex Curry and I will be walking around selling raffle tickets in which you could win some awesome prizes.

Raffle Prizes include:

*$100 gift cert. to The World Famous Spot Restaurant
*Box of F.I.T. Bars (gf, non GMO)
*Bottle of wine and Bacchus wine tasting cert.
*cupcakes from Cupcakes Couture
*Two Guns Cafe gift cert.
*Pages bookstore gift cert.
*Nutrition Consultation from Holistic Nutrition coach Courtney Hermann
*Bates Chiropractic gift cert.
*One Private Surf Lesson with Jason Napolitano
*The Green Yogi gift cert.
*Teeki swimsuit
*Betinis swimsuit
*Spa package
*Landis Labyrinth toy store gift basket and gift cert.
*Mr. Kate rose gold necklace

....And much more!!!!

Come hungry! Breakfast is 20% off and drinks are $3.25 with a wristband! You can buy a wristband from me for $5 anytime before or at the event. I'll have them on me so you can get one when you see me or you can call me (310) 766-0091 or Amanda (310) 265-3386 for one.

_______________________________

And just so you know, any donation you make Saturday will be put towards the program fee which provides me all the teaching supplies for surrounding schools, training supplies, clean drinking water, and on-site orientation and pre-field orientation.

It's from 11-3pm! Hope to see all your beautiful faces there!

Much love,

Shelby


If you can't attend the event, but would still like to donate you may do so by clicking on the giftiki link below: :D

https://user.giftiki.com/BZmFjZWJvb2sANjcwOTQ4MQ==

And again, thank you for the support. I truly appreciate the generosity.