The February News

I think that it’s been quite awhile since my last blog entry. So here is the last month, in summary, although likely not short. Mohammed still hasn’t come back, but we are expecting him almost any time now. As many people have told me, he’ll probably show up just after I’ve lost hope of him ever actually coming back. I got a new kitten, actually I had gotten her just before I posted the last set of blogs, but it was so recent I forgot to put it up. I walked out of my house that morning, bag over my shoulder ready to head to school and the grandmother next door hands me this kitten. Absolutely adorable, and very very small. She tells me she found me a kitten and its 500 francs. So I tell her that I’m going to school and then off to Nati that afternoon, and she puts this kitten in this tiny wire cage and says no problem we’ll keep her in here until you get back. Anyway, the kitten is like I said adorable, I’ve named her Mai Mai, and she is quite the handful. As Kate put it, ‘You’re going to be this kitten’s whole life, that’s a big responsibility.’ She doesn’t eat rice, or tomato sauce or tomoatos, she’ll eat pasta, or pate, but not akassa, she likes yam pile, but not bread, she HATES baths, and every time I give her one she immediately demands to be let outside so she can role around in the dirt and undo the bath. But I think she has survived long enough that I can reasonably assume that she won’t die because she was too young, so that’s positive.In response to losing Mohamed as my official post-mate, Adrienne who is posted in Koulokounde has taken on the job. She comes by every couple weeks to charge all her electronics and we have a cooking/movie marathon. First it was tacos, and chocolate chip cookies, with Jarhead and band of brothers. Then it was chili, white cake, and sugar cookies, with a Law and Order SVU marathon. Next weekend I will be going out to her village to help with her world map, we are hoping to figure out how to make and jar fruit preserves, and maybe come up with a Peace Corps game, like the game of Life. So instead of graduating from college you’ll swear in, and instead of having a block in your progress because you have cancer or something you get amoebas (I haven’t ever actually played Life the whole way through so I’m a little shakey on the finer points of the game, but when there is no electricity other entertainment must be found.)We finished with the first semester finally, and while the grades overall were disappointing, I’m glad that its done. Only 3 more months of teaching to go before summer break! Speaking of summer break, it looks like Mom and Dad will be coming, and then we’ll head off to Athens, Finland and London. A whole 25 days off and away from Africa! The count down has begun! Not that I don’t love it here, I do, but it does get weary not having vacations. Before now, there was always these long vacations, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, all of which were opportunities to go home and relax or just get away from life for awhile. Here I don’t feel like I’ve had a real break since I got here, and its starting to wear on me. I also have IST (in service training) and All volunteer conference to look forward to, IST is probably not going to be anything special, but All-vol is at the nicest hotel in Cotonou, and we get fed awesome food twice a day, hot showers, and wireless internet! So March will be busy busy busy, all that on top of the Baha’i fast, fortunately all-vol is after the fast is finished so I’ll be able to partake in the food fest.