Where are we up to NOW!

Well, we have certainly a long way since our last post in December 2008.
Life has been taking interesting turnings and soon, very soon we will be writing to you from Ethiopia.

We will post to you the details in a couple of weeks, but for now let me give you some orientiation as to where are we heading:


Africa. We are going to the African continent and especifically to Ethiopia; north east of the continent.

Season Greetings/Saludos de Fin de año!

Season greetings friends and family, enjoy our little present! Spanish follows



en español:

2008! So Far So GOOD!

Dear Friends and Family,
2008 has been a great year so far!
And All started in Chile....

Mariama and I were received amazingly well by the family:
The first day:

VACACIONES!

Estamos de vacaciones!

Saludos de Fin de Año

English - French (further down)

Vayan aquí los saludos más cariñosos a todos los que nos han acompañado este año, a través de correos, llamadas telefónicas, se manera seguida o esporádica.

Sabemos con quienes contamos y los tenemos presente en cada momento.

Ha sido un año lleno de logros y a pesar de los desafíos, no hemos dejado de creer en nuestro proyecto de pareja.

De todo corazón, deseamos que cada uno de ustedes tenga los mejores momentos este nuevo año, y que la sinceridad con sigo mismo permita el encuentro entre los sueños y la realidad.

Después de todos somos constructores de nuestra propia vida, por lo tanto arquitectos de todos los espacios que nos permiten amar, desear y establecer relaciones de afecto y ternuras.

Nosotras, esperamos darles muchas buenas noticias en el nuevo año, que se prepara con lo menos pensado, lo inesperado y lo más profundamente deseado.

Besos, cariños y fuerza!

Cristina y Mariama
Diciembre 2007

Season Greetings

english

Warm greetings for these festive season to all of you
who have acompanied us through this year.

We are happy to know we have you in our life and thank you for being in it.

It has been a year full of achievements, not without challenges but we have stick together and continue to believe in our "couple" project.

From our deepest heart, we wish you ALL the best for this new year coming, and hope that sincerety prevails in all your projects where dreams and reality meets.

After all, we are the builders of our life, therefore the architects of all our life spaces, specially those of love and friendship based in affectiveness and tenderness.

We hope to give you lots of good news for the new year, which already comes full of surprises, some old and some unexpected, but which are only the consecuence of our deepest desires.

kisses, love and lots of good energy!

Cristina & Mariama
December 2007

Bonnes Fêtes

French

Nous souhaitons saluer tous ceux qui nous ont accompagné cette année avec leur présence, ou par courriers, coups de téléphone, de manière suivie ou occasionnellement.

Merci de faire partie de notre vie.

Cette année a été une année réussie, et malgré les défis qui se sont présentés à nous, nous n’avons cessé de croire en notre projet de couple.

De tout notre cœur, nous souhaitons à chacune et chacun d’entre vous de passer d’excellents moments pour cette nouvelle année à venir, et que la sincérité de chacune et chacun vous permette maintes rencontres entre rêves et réalités.


Au bout du compte, chacune et chacun d’entre nous participe à l’édifice de sa propre vie, nous sommes donc toute et tous architectes de tous les espaces qui nous permettent d’aimer, de désirer et d’entretenir des relations d’affection et de tendresse.


Nous espérons vous envoyer beaucoup de bonnes nouvelles cette nouvelle année, qui commence avec l’impensable, l’inespéré et le plus désiré.


Bisous, et force !

Cristina et Mariama
Décembre 2007

Words of Power!

"The ultimate measure of a [wo]man is not where [s]he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where [s]he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -
-- Martin luther king jr.
Dear Mariama,

You have suceeded! Don’t forget that….

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go..."
(T.S Eliot)

Process and timing…it's all about that…

now you have just learnt something new about you…
the test will be your persistence and the ability to keep enthusiastic
and a believer of who you are.

Life is full of surprises! And many miracles..
It is now when the fun starts:
To overcome the challenge within you,
To know those who will understand,
To have the family who will continue side by side with you,
To learn new knowledge,
and the begging of the age of wisdom…the 30’s.

Allez, allez amor!
We are young, and passionate about life…there is only one consequence to that: we will get what we want, sooner or later, time can laugh at us, but it won't defeat us.

Te amo

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better." -
[and you are one of them]
-- Martin luther king jr.

PS friends and family, you can leave an inspiration line for Mariama here!

Always take a compass with you, especially when you turn 30!

Life is full of messages, and this picnic birthday day was not exempted of that.

Mariama was determined to take us on a trip through the amazing Fontainebleau forest in the south of Paris; The challenge for a group of friends, walking together, getting tired, and sharing the experience. Was all to be discovered!

I guess Mariama turning 30th, gave us the confident to trust her guts, so we followed her.

She has learned her lessons of the 20’s: never live home without a compass and a map. PREPARATION is part of success to arrive to your destination. Stop in the middle, and check your compass: Am I in the right track? Is this the right direction?

Mariama also seem to have learnt that there is no need for her to do it ALL ALONE, so she teamed up with Jawed, after all they probably know the LAND better than us.

Both have ancestors who would only know their next door neighbour by walking long, long distances. So we trust them!

There is no arrival, without be

ing lost, or at least “the feeling”

we are lost. We all wondered:

Where are we?

Are we in the right track?

May be is this way? Or may be that…?

Even if it looks confusing, or you are actually in the right way, checking the map, it always reassures you that what you have decided before is what is making you go forward.

At some point you got to let go! let loose! and have some fun too!

Uf! Finally the local arrived. Thanks god for that. It is always good to consult those who have done the road before. Good wise advised, and we were on the right path again.

We have not arrived to the top yet, but it was time for a break.

Here is the celebration, a first class picnic, with some mini birthday cake. Everyone brought something, and we could not let Mariama go, without the ritual of the birthday song…in three languages!! (look at the VIDEO after this post)

Up we go, we continue the trip.

Mariama

was happy

to have lead us

so far, but the real bit was to come yet.

We claim as a team, and we got to the top!

So Mariama received her "getting to the top" graduation map!

CONGRATULATIONS MARIAMA FOR TAKING US WITH YOU TO THE TOP!









PS there is also a little surprise in the last post!

Happy birtday Mariama!

The twins! Mariama and Yacine

by the way, Mariama has a twin sister! so Happy birthday to Yacine too.

Lots of changes!

dear friends and family,

It would be no surprise to you to know that we are going through lots of adjustment.

Time has come and we need to move from the beautiful place we have been living for now, and which we are ready to let go.

We know that there is something much better out there for US! but it has been not easy to find jet...

In the other hand, Mariama still preparing the second part of her exam, which is in November.

This is the oral part, and of course a very important one, since it decides whether Mariama gets in to the School of Law or not. For this reason, if you are planning to come to Paris, we are saying no to family and friends, since we need full focus on the exam. Next year things may be a bit better and we will be happy to have you in our home.

I am also at a challenging stage of finding a full time job, which has prove more than difficult in the French context...however, this is not news for me, so I will just continue sending nice CV's and letters.

We also would like to say thank you to all of those who have been keeping track of Mariama's process and have been sending her good energy. By the way, her and Yacin, her twin sister turn 30 this next 5th of October.

Please leave us a post with a nice message!


PS for posting a message, go to "comments" and choose "anonymous"

Mother / Madre

She is here, and we are enjoying her company!

Aqui Esta y la estamos disfrutando!

Lots of talking, she loves Paris and Mariama.
Only good things can come out of that...

Mucha conversa, le encanta Paris y Mariama!
Solo buenas cosas pueden salir de todo esto...

PS: posdata para la familia. siganle la pista a mi mama en su blog "Mama Tello, Paris 2007"

39. A Rite of Passage for Djenabou Sow

Our condolence to family and friends of Aunty Djenabou Sow

Muslims believe the dead person is not always aware of the transition, so the one giving instructions informs the deceased that he or she has died, is being laid in the grave, and two angels known as Munkar and Nakir will soon come into the grave to ask three questions.

To the first question, "Who is your Lord?," the deceased is instructed to reply, "Allah."
In answer to the second question, "Who is your Prophet?,"
the deceased should say, "Muhammad,"
and the correct response to the third question,
"What is your religion?,"
is "Islam."

On the 11th of June 2007, at 9am in her home village, Djenabou Sow has initiated her journey to meet her prophet Allah.

Djenabou Sow is Mariama's aunty in Guinee, from her father's side, with whom she spent lots of time during every single journey to Guinee. Djenabou received Mariama's family in her own house, shared time, stories and food with them. Staying with her and her family, was like being transported to a time and rythm of its own, where every moment, every activity counts like a milestone in everybody's memory.

Mariama visited her in August last year to farewell. Here some precious photos in her memory.

38. Friends and Holland

Like the Mosquetiers, we have team up with other chicks! This is Sabrina and Carmen, a Chilean/Australian-French couple too!.

In fact this was our first weekend away to Holland in almost a year, and our first really group “getting along” stuff, which is always a challenge for friendship. Everything went well!!!!

We know them from Australia, and we are enjoying to have their friendship close to us again, is fun, and it feels good to have someone to call in the rainy days.

Sabrina when crazy on the Dutch bike!

The Locals

We did not just visited like any tourist, we actually have real friends in the Dutch land.

Theo, Marian, and Mariama 2, three very old and good friends of Mariama 1, received us in their non-typical Dutch house, in the country side where they create and make an interesting life.

Horses, veggie garden, organic bread, garden sculptures, colourful walls, big windows, little technolgy, lots imagination, you can breath it ALL!

This is the colour of their heart,
just like fire the made for us in their backyard!

Photos of the Trip to Holland:

Happy to share this with YOU!

Something to laugh about it!

A labyrinth, just how life it is sometimes!

A voluptuous African Goddess,
an honoring to big and sensual female bodies!

At the local Cafe of Bowen Lewer , where mariama's mother was borne!

Some Kangooroo from Oz was following Mariama!

it was a sunny day!

Bikes are sacred in Holland,
doesn't matter in what state they are!

Don Quijote de la Mancha had some properties in Holland!

Some kind of interesting architecture in Nutmeg? or Numega?...something like that ...in Holland

Twins!

Carmen and Mariama

Carmen and Cristina

Hay EL AMOR!

Three famous actrices!

The sunset of The Hague!

This is some kind of weird ritual we are doing in the Hague,
letting go the old gosts, and welcoming new life!