Apples & Oranges with Susan Fang

It’s rather surreal being in Mozambique and imagining the totally different lifestyles of my friends and family back home . So today I’d like to introduce a new series I’m calling Apples & Oranges to offer a little glimpse into the varying ways we lead our lives on different sides of the globe.

To start if off, I asked my friend Susan Fang to give me a few details and sketches depicting her life back on the state side.  Susan is lovely and is a great artists and designer.  We went to undergrad together at UGA and she has since gone to graduate school and moved on up to the Brooklyn, NYC. Funny enough, she’s living with my brother and his wife now (see below for more details).

So without further ado, I offer…

(click on image for larger view)

Happy Jello

Okay, so I think we can all agree that there are few things more frustrating than when modern technology malfunctions. Most of the time I’m a rather calm person, but I swell with anxiety and cuss words when things that are supposed to make life run smoother go haywire. On top of that, when computers or the internet stop working here it’s often hard to figure out what exactly is the root of the issue. Is it something I did? Is it the computer? or is it just the sh**y African network?

Anyway, I’m having some technical blog issues here. So while I struggle to get my pictures to load, I figure I should offer something positive and good to make up for all my grumbling and malcontent. What makes people more happy than… Jello molds!?

Thank you to Lexi for contributing a little more wisdom to the world and Jello-joy to this blog. 

Guest Blogger Alexi: tea time

Any country that was once a colonial state has a rich history of tea-drinking and Mozambique is no different. The varieties offered here aren’t especially extensive, usually the basic Five-Roses variety or if you’re real fancy, then maybe you can splurge on Roibos. If you’re Mozambican, tea drinking involves 4 or 5 spoonfuls of sugar and plenty of condensed milk. By the time you’re done sprucing it up, it’s more like sugar water with a hint of color in it.

Now, coming from the Georgia you’d think that I’d have a real liking for bona fide, porch sittin’, Southern, sweet iced tea, but I never developed that taste. However, recently I decided that iced tea combines so many great factors that I enjoy, so heck – I was gonna give it another try. So this weekend, I made my first batch of peppermint iced tea and don’t you know, it’s delicious and refreshing. How did it take me so long to come around to this drink?!

Tea, be it iced or steaming hot, seems to have been on the mind quite all over the world this weekend. While I was busy brewing my pot over here, Alexi sent me her next guest-post about tea as well:

Did you know?… guest blogger

Big News!!!! I want to introduce my first guest blogger, Alexi Piasecki. You might recognize her name from my recent Visitors posting, since she and Andrea recently came to visit me here in Mozambique.  Alexi is a great artist and a constant source of inspiration and creativity. It’s been years since we actually lived in the same city, but even before we moved to different places we were avid pen pals. Ever since, our mailing tradition has continued.

I’m so pleased that Alexi has offered to contribute a series of illustrated factoids to Okay? Okay. Who doesn’t like a good fact? Her first of hopefully many contributions seems quite appropriate, since it fits in with the past few weeks’ encounter with a variety of creatures that share my cabana with me.

So let me just ask, did you know….