New Episode of Cooking with Sonya & Friends!!!!

This is me drinking the "Pesto-Lemon Head" tea concoction that is supposed to kill anything bad in your body. It's nature's way of weeding out the virus.
Here's to health and happiness.

ugg.

I had hight hopes of posting a lot of blogs this weekend. Unfortunately i don't seem to have much energy to do that seeing as how I've come down with what feels like the bubonic plague (don't worry it isn't actually). I don't understand how I could go all of last year working at GCA without getting sick once and now I've been sick twice in the last 5 months. The same things wrong, head ache, neck ache, clogged head, sore body, no energy. Maybe it's my tonsils? Whatever it is I am not happy with it.
Last night Tzveta gave me a Russian Steam treatment. I sat on a wooden chair wrapped in a sheet. There were wool blankets all around me that I was tightly wrapped in. I had my feet in a bucket of hot water with a cool cloth on my head. The most intense part of all was the pot of steam underneath me making me sweat. It lasted for about 3o min then Tzveta rubbed my hands and arms with the cool cloth and I had to rest for 30 min before I could get up. I am not sure if it helped because today I feel worse and I might have a small tiny fever. So this morning Tzveta and Tatiana told me I should take a garlic and lemon tea. I pressed about 8 garlic sections and two lemons and put boiling water in a tea pot to drink. It wasn't so bad at first but the novelty soon wore off when I was still having to chew a bit of garlic and the lemon was giving a bit of a kick on it's way down. But like a trooper I have drunken all of it in hopes of getting better. I just can't believe I am actually sick? I made it so long before now.
I was feeling really ug and like I didn't want to go on but then I remembered I have a package coming to me in the mail this week, it gave me the hope and joy to go on. I just hope this passes much faster than the last one did and that I am not down and out for long.

We'll see how things go from here, perhaps I will never get better. . . perhaps I will just waist away. . . perhaps tomorrow when I wake up my head won't hurt and my throat will not be tender. . . only time and garlic and lemon will tell.

true love.

I need to go to bed but I must write this first. I've been reminded of my life back in Africa. The power has gone out and I am writing now to you by light of my lantern [on paper]. Perhaps I am a true romantic at heart or a pioneer spirit but I love this. I often wish it was always like this.
This is my true love. Rustic. Simple. No frills. Just me, the lantern and . . . the lights just came back on. . . boo.

photos from around Skotselv

Garage and leaves
Originally uploaded by dreams with faith

So the other day I went for a photo hunt with my friend Joar. He's a great nature photographer so I went to learn a few things and be inspired. These pictures are what came from it. I hope you enjoy them and the colours they offer, because now all those vine leaves are gone and I miss them terribly.
Love from Skotselv,
La Sonya

Mote, Norwegian fashion

So I’ve always been one to not be afraid of dressing in what makes me happy. If I want to wear bold colours I do, if I want to dress in tights the colour of purple flowers, I do. In fact once in high school I had a sweater that I loved to wear, it was bright yellow and as my best friend put it, it was the colour of playdoh. I decided long ago that it’s okay to dress in my own fashion. Sure sometimes I stand out and feel a bit funny but for the most part I enjoy what I wear. I enjoy adding different styles from people, cultures and other inspirations. I was recently at a fair here in Norway. Something similar to the State Fair of Texas, booths, food, culture, machineary, hand crafts. It was a lot of fun. Erin and I wandered through the stalls looking at everything from homemade knives to Peruvian llama hats. But the best part of this fair was when we were waiting for Bjorn Age (her husband) and Bjorn Aron to finish their rides in the fairway. Oh, the style tips I was able to get! It’s easiest to get ideas from the youth of a place. They are the ones most up to date on style. This is what I learned from them: wear tall socks and tuck your jeans into them. Don’t worry about putting them in nicely so they don’t bunch just get them in there. In fact don’t worry about much else so long as they are in your socks. Your socks don’t have to be anything in particular just tall enough to hold your pants. This was such a great fashion statement apparently that not only were your average adolescents sporting the fashion it but your middle aged mothers were enjoying the idea as well. Perhaps you will see me in the next few months wondering your streets sporting the fashion that I have come to adapt to my life, pants in the socks.

Embrace it, and tonight when you are home go ahead, tuck those pants in, it kinda feels nice.

The weather report via Skotselv, Norway

Snow

For Pete’s sake, October 3, 2009. I can’t believe it’s snowing. I am sitting in my flat listening to a sermons as I eat my breakfast and I look out the window to see something floating around outside. What is that? Great, snow. If it is snowing today only the third day in October, what am I going to do after just one month!! Now it’s coming down more obviously, not so much a mini flutter but more of a salt shaker falling. Happy Sabbath. I’m excited about snow, but I’m just a bit fearful, although I will like the idea of sitting next to my wood stove enjoying the warmth while I look outside at the snow. But really? October 3? My mom is going to the state fair of Texas on Monday. It’s still in the 80’s Fahrenheit /high 20’s Celsius in Texas. Here I woke up yesterday and it was -3 Celsius/26 Fahrenheit. Of all the crazy things. Snow.

In case you were wondering, it’s still snowing outside. Things are beginning to turn white. And I know those of you from the north, west and everywhere else it’s cold and snows must be thinking that she will get used to it, I beg to differ, how can one get used to seeing such a miracle? Yesterday this time I could see all the grass, the gravel, the roof tops. Now I look outside and see white lacing all of that. Will I ever see things the same? Does this just melt off in a few days and look like it rained? What happens next? This is so new to me and forigen. I have no idea how to mental anticipate what happens next. Last year at Christmas time when I was in Washington State for the holidays and I experienced a LOT of snow I learned about the concept of size, texture and good snowman snow. But I wasn’t there to learn what happens when it snows in October. Will it melt and go back to what it was or do I need to wait till spring for the grass and trees?

Now they are big fatty flakes.

Is it to late to take back my prayer for an early snow fall?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(just a late night update on the snow, it fell for about an hour and a bit more this morning. However the snow falling soon turned to rain and all through church and lunch the rain fell melting the snow and making a big muddy mess. The locals tell me that this was a freak incodent and the weather should be nice the next few weeks. [They also said it wouldn’t snow. . .])

Norwegian mushrooms

Norwegian mushrooms
Originally uploaded by dreams with faith

This mushroom I found on a road that loops around back to the school. It makes me think of magic places in fairytales. I don't eat them but lots of the other European's told me some are edible and others are not. Maybe one day I'll try one. . .


just click on the picture to see others on my flikr account.

velkommen

Velkommen Ben to Skotselv!

My friend from university has come to EBS to volunteer for a few months. Boy am I excited! I met Ben at Southern when we were both in Destiny Drama Company. As we both realized yesterday, that was a long time ago. He's here to help with the PR things, he's quite productive as he's already edited a brochure, made me business cards, updated the webpage and is almost finished with the news letter. But really I'm glad he's here because he brought me a few of my scarves and he is company to have in the office during the day. Now when I get the 11:30 munchies I can at least have someone to sympathize with :)
All through college we had crazy adventure with Destiny, the photo lab, and listening to music class, now it will be exciting to see what crazy things happen now!

And we get to listen to Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack, re-live Destiny intro music, talk loud, kill flies, and eat vegan food!

If you know Ben give him a shout out if you know me, give me a shout out!

Tussen Takk!!!!!



Ben and me at practice way back in the day, practicing "Are We There Yet?"

sing a song, sing it loud!

One of my favorite songs in Nandjere, the tribal language in Bere, Tchad. Ka Kang De.

Enjoy!

http://africaaviationministry.org/20090610-20090808-video/mvi_0406.avi