Ramadan Mubarak loves!!

First..balal len ma Aha everlibody!! (no typo) LOL

Sooooo

Im gonna be straight up with yol.. :)

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 I haven't prayed in a looong time but i'm not proud of it :'(

..infact i only started praying again this sunday b4 ramadan..my knees hurt when i sujood<---that's how long i haven't prayed!! I used to be soo pious though..Yalna nu Ya Allah balal rek..smh. Our Oustasses have always taught us that Allah is a merciful God so i'm making the best use of this ramadan to 'right' my wrongs...pray more, fast etc, Hope yol are too :) May Allah strengthen our Imaans.. 

0o0o0k so to all who have wronged me..make una pick ur phones & call me ooo asap!! :)

Architects swim too!!!

Hi Y'all!! Hope u missed me like i missed y'all!!! :) been gone too long huh? work has been kicking my butt lately!! i feel like i don't even have time for myself anymore :( thats why me & the girls at work decided to treat ourselves to some 'therapeutic swimming'.. Posted few pics below. Enjoy!!

My zim zim & i

Getting our 'swim suit' on' haha

We love uuu awa <3

HI! My name is oumie and im addicted to....

head hung :p

ATTAYAAAA!!! shamefully so LOL... I mean i drink this ish even in the office (ok, i've only done it a few times rek, BILLAHI!! incase bossman reads this ) but this just shows you how i have no boundaries when it comes to this bad boy.. Ok, im only trying to scare you here, i DO have limits lol...like on the streets, boys yii d heem?? i'll never drink that...because i've heard scary stories like Tuberculosis (T.B) and some putting drugs in the brew and ish so thats like a no go area for me. Wanna know how i got hooked?? Well... It all started when one of my grandmums came to live with us for some time, im addicted but this woman is ADDICTED, like seriously, i have a boundary, she has none!! Plus if she goes a day without drinking attaya....you see withdrawal symptoms, red eyes, headache, mood swings etc. Thank God i havent reached that stage........yet. Anyway she got me addicted, she gave me my first 'cass', showed me how to 'handle' the barada and 'fural' like a professional... she's gone back to her home, and left me living in blissful addiction!

ps- apart from my grandmum, im the only one addicted to attaya in my family....my mum and sisters hate it with passion. Infact my mum has given me a stern warning, she doesn't wanna see me drinking it..*sigh* They just don't understand....but im sure you guys do!! No?? hehe

xx

My Paulo!! :)

Coelho that is!! Im in love with the gray haired 64 year  old rio de janeiro born author... Not only because of his good looks (i have a thing for salt n pepper haired oldER men,  think Jose Murinho, former chelsea coach) but his mind tooo... Everything he writes just inspires me, mind you, i have only read one book of his, Like the flowing river, and he instantly became one of my favourite authors. Anyway i "stumbled" upon one of his many quotes while surfing the net and i love all of them but the first one is my all time favourite, every time i read it, it just moves me..I later learned that its from his bestseller, The Alchemist, Im on a hunt for this book.

"We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parentheses in eternity."

 I've also added some i really liked and found inspirational...Hope you like 'em too!!

"Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart."

"Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some only to be sipped, but with the others, drink the whole bottle."

 "A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If i fall, may it be from the highest."

"No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally, he doesn't know it." 

"You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that in my view is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?" 

"At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss." 

 "The future belongs to God, and it is only He who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do i guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, that which comes later will also be better. Forget about the future and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children.  Each day itself, brings with it, an eternity"

"I have learned that the search of God is a dark night, that faith is a dark night. And that's hardly a surprise really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might even happen the next minute, and yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have faith."

"But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the soul of the world and you understand why you are here." 

"The Marquis De Sade said that the most important experiences a man can have are those that take him to the very limit, that is the only way we learn, because it requires all our courage. When a boss humiliates an employee, or a man humiliates his wife, he is merely being cowardly or taking his revenge on life, they are people who have never dared to look into the depths of their soul, never attempted to know the origin  of that desire to unleash the wild beast, or to understand that sex, pain and love are all extreme experiences. Only those who know those frontiers know life: everything else is just passing time, repeating the same tasks, growing old and dying without ever having discovered what we are doing here." 

"Playing the part of a charitable soul was only for those who were afraid of taking a stand in life. It is always far easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others and fight for your rights. It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate  than have the courage to fight against someone stronger than yourself; we can always say we are not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it's only at night - when we are alone and our wife or our husband or our school friend is asleep  - that we can silently grieve over our own cowardice."

"We are all a part of the divine spark.  All have a purpose in creation and that purpose is called love. That love, however, shouldn't be concentrated in just one person, it should be scattered throughout the world, waiting to be discovered. Wake up that love. What is gone cannot return. And what is about to arrive needs to be recognised."

"When you are washing up, pray. Be thankful that there are plates to be washed; that means there was food, that you fed someone, that you lavished care on one or more people, that you cooked and laid the table..

There are women who say: "i'm not doing the washing up, let the men do it". Fine, let the men do it if they want to, but that has nothing to do with equality...I'd be accused of working against the feminist cause. Nonsense! As if washing up or wearing a bra or have someone open or close a door  for me could be humiliating to me as a woman. The fact is, i love it when someone opens the door for me.....in my soul it is written: "I'm being treated like a goddess. I'm a queen"."

 

hope u liked!                                         xx 

 

Food!! :) brings back memories of primary school

Hey loves!! So I was in sutusinjang lower basic school (its in the fonis) doing some land surveying work with my boss and colleagues yesterday, 4/05/2011 and guess what I saw when the bell rang for break time..FOOD!!
Dunno if any of y'all were lucky enough to have experienced this during your primary school days but I did!! "Food" as students fondly called it is a meal programme provided for basic cycle schools in The Gambia by the World Health Organisation (W.H.O).. I think it has to do with making sure kids get a balance diet.. and am guessing, in the rural area, it's also a way of encouraging parents to send their kids to school.
Anyway, when i saw the kids lining up, washing their hands with soap and water while been assisted by their teacher, it brought back sooooo many memories LOL!! Cuz i remember how excited I would be especially on wednesdays when they'd cook benechin with "cornbeef" and fridays when they prepared huge pancakes!!  And we'd divide ourselves in groups of 5 or 6 so the "cool kids" would share a bowl and well.. the 'others' would be in their own group LOL!! So childish now that i think about it... I miss my old school, Bakau New town primary truly!! chaaaaa!!! Its a shame now that they've stopped providing "food" for urban government schools really! The kids here are missing out on a great experience!! Check out the pics of the Sutusinjang Lower basic kids :)

Line up!! haha... if i wasn't so busy i would've joined! serious!

I was extra happy that hygiene is a priority!! Bravo sutusinjang lbs!!

And the best part?? Each kid gets a plate of their own...my time?? we were placed in like groups of 5, one bowl!! im jealous lol!

Been to basse and back baby!

BASSE!! we mostly hear about the very 'tanga' inland town from our parents or relatives but most of us have never set foot there...i've been one of those people...until last week lol! And it was an experience you guys, the long journey, the people,the heat, the sights of 'up'..i loved it!! check out the pics

 the view from our apartment...and guys thats river gambia...billahi!!

The 'sarets' in basse have number plates...check just above the left wheel of this one...its A311 LOL!! 

 The road network in some areas of the 'up' is bad!!

 This is the new bridge at mccarthy where is was rumored that a 'jinae' owned the area

 Beautiful river gambia!!

 This is the farm at janjanbureh where prisoners work @

Ballast nedam guys hard at work...constructing the road network of Gambia

awa and the afra

yum!! afraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This is where the afra was afrad!!

A village....(sigh) i dream of living in one someday

LOL!! check the sheep and the goat on top of the vehicle

Basse market is sooo phresh!!

Awa and i looking like refugees!!

Look at the breakfast awa made for us....yum!! thanks awa <3

this is where awa makes her magic

our first meal in basse...domoda foring

ok.....this club wanted to go to badly but awa chained me to bed!! billahi

The river Gambia

awa!!

sunj salle bi!! mrc was awesome!!

Voodoo beach with the nebraska boy, Austin :)

After 5 years of not seeing each other (him in u.s and i, s.d then back to Gambia) u'd think things would be awkward between us after he got back because we hardly talked, him being an aku pikin and having the aku mentality, u know, save money lol and me? im just bad..i cant seem to pick up the phone and call anyone! skype i will though..LOL! guess this puts me n my friend in the same category. Anyways, he gets back n we picked up were we left off like back in high school and this makes me happy because most friendships would've fallen apart...

We do have our moments on the phone,  i'd be 'opal and way too dramatic' as austin would put it and him, calm, will be like 'R u done'?? LOL!! kills me..urgh!

Anyway back to the subject...i decided to voodoo him this sunday 13/3/2011...i mean voodoo beach in kololi my loves lol since the poor boy hasn't been to a beach in like forever and it was awesome!

Too bad we couldn't swim cuz the waves were huge and the red flag was up which apparently is a warning that it isn't ok to swim so austin n i found our 'spot' on the beach, ate a rotten apple LOL! laughed at some guys who were tryna get their kung fu panda on and chilled like old times :) check out the pics

aww...look at the sushi lover!! isn't he a cutie?

Despite the sun, the was quite chilly hence the hoodie :)

Can y'all make out debbie downer aka the red flag in the pic?? LOL

Having a house by the beach is one of my many targets..amen!

Check out austin getting his baywatch on!! u go austin..woohoo!! LOL

Our footprints :)