On Becoming a Womanhttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/en-US2010-03-10T06:02:00ZSquarespace Site Server v5.9.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Happy Love Day & Women for Womenhttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/2010/2/14/happy-love-day-women-for-women.htmlnadia febina2010-02-14T20:39:43ZGiving Giving Women for Women World IssuesSometime ago I posted about Women for Women organization and after that I participated to become a sponsor. Soon after, I was matched by a woman from Afghanistan who is a mother of 2 children and five years younger than me. In Women for Women terminology, the sponsor and the sponsored are called sisters.

What so unique about the program is that you can actually have a personal relationship with your matched sister. It is not only about donating, but you are encouraged to send letters to your sister back and forth. With your donation, your sister is going to be put in the program and be given basic education and skill so that she can rebuild her life after the war.

Three days ago I received a letter from Women for Women and am notified that the sister has just been graduated from the program. In the same letter,  I am now matched with a woman from DRC Congo, a mother of 6 children. Is also said that they are going to send me a letter very soon and will show the interview of my Afghan sister how she is now after she graduated. :)

Reading the letter, I really feel so blessed that I can be part of the program. Who would have thought that the sponsor who should be the one who helps is actually also the one that -in a way, or many ways- is helped. One example is that after participating with the program, I have noticed that I have grown more interest in my day job too as this experience has given more meaning in what I do for living. It is also unbelievably touching experience whenever I receive a letter from my sister, knowing that somebody out there is connected to me and is able to open up about her despite the trauma that she had been through in war. Moreover, I have developed more interest in where she is,- in this case, Afghanistan- its culture, its issues, its problems, etc. I could not avoid buying some books about Afghanistan, and follow all news about the country. So in the end I have more knowledge and have learned about something new just because of my relationship with the sister.

To become a sponsor, what we need to give away is only $27 per month. We might not feel it too much if we lose $27, but it can mean so much for somebody in other parts of the world. So if you have a spare $27 in your monthly budget, maybe you would like to consider to be part of the program and make a difference in somebody's life. 

Happy Valentine's Day. Let's share the love.. :)


]]>Photos from African Cup of Nations 2010 Angolahttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/2010/2/7/photos-from-african-cup-of-nations-2010-angola.htmlnadia febina2010-02-07T16:38:39ZAngola**Click here if you just want to see the photos**

Last week was the end of African Cup of Nations CAN2010 that was held in Angola. I was so lucky to get tickets from a friend who canceled, so i could get to the stadium to watch the final AND the closing ceremony.



Am I a football fan?
Not at all, not a single bit. I did not even know what offside is! It was just one day my husband successfully to convince me to come with him to watch Dutch team playing with ... (see, I even forget now!). Then it changed my mind a bit about this football thingy. Apparently if you are in the stadium watching the game live, it is a whole different experience. I still do not get all the game rules, but I like the screaming part as a football supporter, and this, I do it religiously. :D

But CAN2010 is different. Since 3 years ago when I stepped foot in Luanda for the first time, I knew nothing about Angola, yet I have been hearing that Angola is preparing itself for this event. I heard they are just about to construct the stadiums in four cities. I also then witnessed how some big roads are being constructed and being prepared as well as the airport. Whoever has been to Luanda airport must have agreed that to be in the airport for the first time is quite.. something. It is not like that anymore now, the airport has different face, being hugely renovated and got ready only days before the event was started. Long story short, whether or not somebody likes football, they must have got excited of this event years before it started.

So with very limited experience to be in a football match (which by the way was a good experience), I intended to come to any match where Angola played - provided I could get tickets. One of the many reasons why I was so determined to come to watch was because I would like to be in a stadium where the team who plays i can support wholeheartedly. I could never do this with Indonesian team ("does Indonesia have a football team?", one of my colleague asked), so to direct my blocked patriotism in a football stadium, now that I had a chance, I would like to support Angola, a country where I have been living for 3 years.

First match I went to was Angola vs Malawi in which Angola won 2-0. I went there with my husband and friends. The stadium was surprisingly clean and the crowd was extremely organized. I was very impressed! Everybody was wearing Angola shirts including us non-Angolans, and Angolan party music was played continuously in the speakers. We got the seat far away on the top (the second row), and the crowd over there was very expressive with screaming dancing and all. I loved it, I could express lots of energy too. Haha! This is probably the best match Angola supporters could have, because this is the only match where Angola won.

And then after that there was Angola vs Algeria where we watched in a beach cafe/resto/club nearby. My husband managed to get tickets for this match but we had to give it away to a friend since the traffic was so bad. It was 0-0, not a good game and not a pleasure to watch. And then after that there was Angola vs Ghana. This is the match where the whole country was so much looking forward to, so it was hard to get tickets. I spent watching it in a friend's house. It was a very good game, but a heartbreaking one for Angola supporters as Angola lost 0-1 and that was it for Angola in CAN2010.

And then there is the final match Egypt-Ghana where Egypt established themselves to be the champion of CAN2010. To be honest, at first I was not too excited about going to the stadium, I was not too sure what to expect and who I was going to support. The last part was so confusing I ended up turning up in the stadium with Indonesian shirt belongs to my husband from when he watched a match Indonesia vs Thailand in Jakarta. But after talking to some people, I was convinced to support Ghana, but still with my Indonesian T-shirt. (i know, i know..)

When we actually got there, the stadium was not too full yet. However, just before the 2nd half was about to start, all of a sudden all the seats were occupied. Everybody was wearing Angola T-shirts, and brought anything Angola. It was clear in the beginning they were supporting Ghana. So I was fit with the crowd, yay! Then all of a sudden, Egypt scored a goal in the last minutes before the game ended. And to my surprise, everybody cheered too! :) When the game ended, before the closing ceremony started, everybody cheered again, but this time:  "Angola.. Angola.. Angola.." Haha.. it was fun to be there. I was glad I decided to come!

With all of these going on, I noticed that some people back home has got more interest in knowing about Angola and started to ask me about it. My sister also said that she saw a lot of commercial in cable TV about CAN2010. I was even contacted by BBC radio Indonesia as they would like to know a bit of background about Angola, living here as an Indonesian, and how it is like here before and during the CAN2010. It was only for some very general questions, i made it very clear in the beginning i did not want to talk about socio-economy politic or even worse, about the football. So yes, Angola has received a lot of attention these days. Sadly, the attention to Angola also includes the tragic event that happened to Togo team in Cabinda.

Actually in this posting I wanted to make it short and sweet and did not intend to talk in detail about it as it has passed for a week and you might already see all the news everywhere. I would just like to post some pictures from the whole CAN2010 season, on and off the stadium. So here they are in Gallery.

]]>Anse Source D'Argent, Seychelleshttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/2009/10/21/anse-source-dargent-seychelles.htmlnadia febina2009-10-21T19:30:41ZSeychelles Travel 

The picture was taken in Anse Source D'Argent in La Digue island, Seychelles. In our travel book, this beach was said to be one of world's most beautiful beach by vote. Seychelles is so blessed with natural beauty I have never seen something like that anywhere else before. The beaches with ultra clear turqoise water and white sand are spectacular but what makes them different -in my opinion- is the granite rocks on the beach. Some are with greyish color, some with pinkish color, but all with gradation in color from water erosion along the rock surface, make the view looks like painting.

So I have proven that the postcards and travel brochures on Seychelles are no lie. The view is that stunning, no photoshop help needed. I am even very careful now in trying to describe what I saw without being too cheesy. But this is one of those things that when you look at it you would feel reminded of how lucky and blessed you are to be able to enjoy it, that you can get there in the first place, and that you are equiped with good health and a good pair of eyes. So I posted this picture with me in the middle not for a self publication but just to say: Nadia was there! *talking about being cheesy, haaa!* :D

Four other beaches listed as world's most beautiful beach by vote are also in Seychelles so I am very eager to show the photos from my latest vacation. I am in the process of uploading other pictures but realized that my macbook has trouble with its hard drive due to too many pictures in iPhoto library and music in iTunes library. So I am taking care that technical part first before moving on to posting other pictures. I promise you there will be no photoshop help in those photos.

Be right back! :)

]]>Angola Whale Watchinghttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/2009/9/30/angola-whale-watching.htmlnadia febina2009-09-30T19:53:03ZAngola Travelfrom clube nautico, luandaI did whale watching tour for couple of times before but I never expected that the one I did recently in Angola would be the best one. When a friend asked me and my husband if we would like to come with her in a pre-arranged boat tour, I thought, "hmm why not, I don’t think there would be a whale at all, but at least we can see the sea and feel the fresh air". So we agreed to come.

We started the tour early morning at around 8.30am. The marina where we departed is located in the centre of Luanda city, it only takes 10minutes to get there from my place. So it was not a painful early morning wake up for a weekend despite the cloudy day. When we arrived in the boat there were already our 2 friends, one captain, bunch of sandwiches and bolos (sweet bread), and a coolbox full of drink. I took a bottle of water from the coolbox and swallowed my motion sickness pill. Although the sea looked calm, I know we are going to be in open sea of the Atlantic Ocean, so I did not want to take any risk.

And I was right. After 10 minutes riding to the west, the sea started to get quite choppy… and cold! *hehe, what a complainer I am, eh?* We kept riding for 40 minutes and I noticed the captain started to look from left to right occasionally, aparently this was the area where whales are sometime found. After sometime, one of us saw something and screamed, "Look!". It was a flying fish.. Still nice to see for me as it was my first time to see a fish can fly high, and long, and without any wing! How can they do that?

At one point, my husband saw a fin and screamed "look!". I was so excited, "Dolphins!!". The boat came closer to the fin, but it was a single fin, and not as playful as dolphins. When we reached at a very close distance with the fin, we realized it was a shark. A small one, but nevertheless, it was a shark. What is he doing on the surface? Was he hunting, or was he just playing and swimming around just for sport? After 10minutes, convinced that there would be any dramatic action from the shark that we can take a pic on, we left him behind and let him enjoying himself.

We kept riding, and again bumped into another shark. We stopped. A different one. Again, we waited for some time hoping that he would jump from inside the water to give us a nice show, but it did not happen and so we left him. And we continued riding to the west. And.. Again, another shark. Woohoo!! And 3 metres away from that shark, was another shark.. And again, another shark. We kept moving, we saw more fins patroling on the surface. Goshh, what is this, a shark-infected water?? Cool! :) We then canceled our plan to go swimming on the sea, haha. Everybody, stay on the boat!

After 1.5 hours going around with no sight of whales, we were sure that this is not our lucky day, but then  the captain screamed, "Whale!". Everybody looked at the direction he was pointing. In almost 1km distance, we saw a shape that looked like a tail of a whale. Unfortunately, after 1 minute, the tail was still protruding from the sea, haha. If a whale dives into the deep sea, you would only see the tail for couple of seconds, so it had to be something else."Sorry, it is a boat", the captain said. After another 3 minutes we got closer to that thing, and to our surprise, that protruding something is indeed a tail of a whale!! It was protruding in the air for minutes and minutes. It is almost as if the whale was flagging us his location, and more, let us take a lot of pictures of his tail when we arrived. Not long after we finished with our last picture, the whale dove into the deep sea. We could not believe it, and even the captain who is used to seeing whales was confused, what a weird whale! :)

The captain stopped the machine and the boat was just floating for some time. Aparently there were two whales who playfully swam together around our boat. They dove and got up again to the surface, and dove again and got up again and one point they got up to the surface only around 10 metres distance from our boat. Wow, they are HUGE! There were no other boat around, no tourists whatsoever and the whales kept dancing around our boat, this is like a private show for us. Where in the world you'd get this? And did it not the whale itself that told us where they were? I was so happy! :)

After 30minutes being entertained by the lovely whales, we decided to say goodbye to them and returned to Luanda beach. And of course on our way back the sharks are still there, many of them, just like mosquitos in open air. We said thank you to the captain for the nice trip and the 2 whales, and he replied, "last week there were 15 of the same type." Oh, God bless Angola.

See more pics of this short trip at Gallery.

]]>Eid Mubarak 1430Hhttp://nadiafebina.com/blog/2009/9/20/eid-mubarak-1430h.htmlnadia febina2009-09-19T23:55:11ZSource: www.dreamstime.comTonight marked the last day of Ramadhan 2009 (1430H), and I would like to say Eid Mubarak to all Moslems and anyone else.

May you all have a blessed Eid!

 

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