this and that

this and that of early september: 

[latte art from Blue Bottle Coffee located in the Ferry Building Market Pier on Embarcadero in San Francisco]

[edamame hummus and red pepper spread vegan sammy. yum in my tum!]

[super succulent display. want the key to my heart fellas? gift me a succulent!]

[coconut kale chips i'm totally into making right now. got an oven or toaster oven like me? you're half-way there to enjoying these tasty, healthy treats! do it: 1) wash and dry some kale, 2) add a teaspoon of olive oil over the kale and lather - don't use too much or you'll have soggy kale :'( 3) sprinkle on some coconut butter, 4) bake at 225 degrees for 20 minutes or so - check 15 minutes in for crispness, 5) and ENJOY, doy!]

[rosemary marcona almonds from Bin 38 in the Marina in San Francisco]

[sea fog in the San Francisco Bay - taken from the ferry to Sausalito]

[Giant Dipper fun at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk! Sal, you're a legend...]

[favorite food combination at Cafe Brasil, one of my favorite restaurants in Santa Cruz, is (drum roll please....) the Acai Bowl (top) and the Peixe De Baiana (simmered white fish in tomato sauce)]  

New Beginnings Bringing Me UP!

I am four weeks into my new and improved life as a 4th grade teacher at Kammann Elementary! I find myself significantly overwhelmed the majority of the time, but I have yet to have a panic attack in our staff lounge so all is good in my eyes. I look at it as though I'd be doing something wrong if I wasn't overwhelmed as a first year new teacher...

  

Since my return from Tanzania almost two months ago, my professional working life has made a complete 180 degree turn for the better! Coming home after two months volunteer teaching in Tanzania and learning more than I taught, I found myself in a whirl wind of conflicting feelings. I was a newly, re-inspired educator coming back to the states where the job market for education was a bleak one if not nonexistant. I was stressed financially (I didn't make one cent in Africa but was spending...), exhausted from the journey home, and yearning for some sort of closure from my trip...all while having to look towards the future and find myself a real teaching job that pays the bills and affords benefits. 

How did I handle this, you ask?

Well, luckily for me, my mother raised me to tackle life's problems head-on in order to overcome its adversity and move on to the good. This advice got me my job this year. Without the strength, as well as the endless supply of support and positive thoughts from family and friends the past couple months, I would not have these stills of my very own classroom to share with you. 

With that said, here are some stills. Enjoy!

[in our 4th grade hallway student shields surround the spiffy 3D class tree I made] 

[view when your first enter]

[view of the front of the room]

[my desk. the orchid was a gift from one of my students :)]

[writing wall showcasing Haiku poems our class created the first week of school]

[construction paper self portraits to go along with their I AM poems for Back to School Night]

[view from my desk]

Just Try...

{photo via pinterst}

Pick yourself up and try again...

{Alex and I being upside down goddesses at YogaLoftMB in Manhattan Beach}

Come on... you're stronger then you think...

Good thoughts bread sunbeams!

Lana Del Rey's track "Born to Die"

WHY aren't they playing her music on the radio?!

She's timeless and in my opinion, has one of the best voices of our generation. Take a listen...

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