Jesse and Christine at Vama

Jesse and Davin decided that the four of us should go out for supper. We roped Uncle Jacob and Auntie Kim into watching kids, convinced Christine that eating out was a good idea, and made reservations at a place that none of us had ever been to. Once Jesse was ready to go (the other three of us were out sitting on the lawn) we climbed into the Safari, braved the evening Arusha traffic made far worse by Ramadhan, and drove to the Shoprite plaza to “Vama – The Restaurant.”

Friends of ours have raved about the place and its food, and we were eager to try it out. There was only one other group there as we arrived, and Christine and I took a few moments to feel proud of the papa outside trying to console the newborn while his wife ate. Noble. For the rest of the evening we kept our eye on them coming in with a sleeping baby, sitting down to a screaming baby, and going back outside.

The decor and atmosphere are very nice, the menu is full of options with vegetarian, chicken, beef, mutton, and even seafood selections. Davin and I ordered mutton (of course) and Christine and Jesse ordered vegetarian. After complimentary veggies with sauces we had some chili paneer and some yummy mushrooms as appetizers. Even the main dishes came much faster than the posted “40 minutes”, and they were excellent.

Dinner conversation focused on Davin, his charming ways (including his desire to drink the lemon finger wash which he hadn’t encountered previously), the couple with the newborn, and Christine and my history of life… Including the fact that Christine and I have only *ever* had dinner out together alone three times. What can I say? We live life *with* people.

Good food, good times. We finished up, I had a cup of Masala tea, and we headed home with a doggie bag of food that is probably as much food as we actually ate. I think we’ll be back… when we feel like we need a fourth meal alone.

Dinner at Vama

I’d really like to do it, and perhaps I will. I’ve just installed the WordPress app for my BlackBerry, so now I can theoretically update you on the go. We’ll see. I’ll try.

In the same breath as all that, we are working hard on the ADR for Nipe Jibu (re-recording the spoken lines in studio), we are getting the studio ready for the live instrumentation and mixing activities that will start on the 27th, and we are looking for a pro studio to do our final mix (any takers)? We’re also working on getting US Visas for the 9 Maasai we’re sending on tour in the US this summer, working on the budget for that trip (would you like to contribute something? Let me know!) and thinking about the stage presentation. We are also starting new ISOM training centers, working on translating the next semester into Swahili. Finally, we are days away from sending the Cheza! project (the incredible Sowers Group cd) to the printers to be produced for Africa. But all of that is a story for another day. We’re busy, but the scope of the projects we’re working on baffles me and I’m humbled by the opportunity to be a part of these projects.

Through it all, though, we’re healthy, keeping our peace, and now that we’ve had our Quickbooks file restored (which we were not at all sure of for the entire month of April) we’re pretty sure there’s been nothing significant lost in all of this, except time. When I put it that way, it’s pretty clear that God’s still taking care of us through the messiness of life.