kittens and the mystery machine

The Mystery Machine drove by me today. Yes, the one from Scuby-Doo. An exact replica. And there were foreigners in it. It was a very surreal experience. I was walking toward the main road that goes through Sokone from Kaolack to Banjul, The Gambia, and then I saw it drive by. A bunch of other cars came after it, also painted but nothing I recognized. I got up close enough to the road to see the last car go by. It said “Plymouth to Banjul Challenge” on the side. I’ll have to look it up.

I also got a kitten today. My host brother came by this morning and asked me if I wanted a kitten because there was one right outside the gate. I went out and there was this tiny little thing meowing and looking very bedraggled. I picked him up and figured he is possibly a male. It’s been about 11 years since I had a cat so I think I checked correctly!!! I’ve named him Raja which is king in Hindi/Nepali. Cats that belong to PCVs tend to be in much better condition than most in Senegal so the name should suit him. He is able to lap up milk by himself and will go to the bathroom in the sandbox I made him so hopefully he is old enough to survive without his mother. He is grayish-white and black with grayish-green eyes. He keeps swatting at my fingers as I try to type. He definitely livened up after the milk and a good long nap. Ah, he finally settled down to clean himself instead of playing with my fingers which will make the writing of this post much easier!!

I also bought some plants yesterday to beautify the outside of my house. I bought two hibiscus plants and a frangipani tree. Well the frangipani is only about 10 inches tall so it has a very long way to grow but I was told there will be flowers on it within a year. I’m sure it will grow a lot during the rainy season. The hibiscuses are about 2-3 feet but they have a long way to maturity too. I carried them all about a kilometer yesterday. My arms were so incredibly tired by the end that I could barely do anything. I didn’t even want to cook so had bananas and pretzels for dinner. Yes, I can buy pretzels in Senegal! Not terribly cheap. They are from Germany.

New Years came and went, not terribly eventful. I was with two other PCVs when the year changed. We had this really good hot mint flavored milk. It was so good. Better than egg nogg in my opinion. Only three more weeks until I’m back in Thiès. Time had really gone fast. I left the US four months ago next Saturday, Jan. 12th.