Colette

It is rather surprising to how much has changed in just 5 weeks. For example, there have been many changes around my house here in Bambey. The most noticeable is that of a missing family. There was a family of 6 renting 2 rooms within our family’s compound where they now no longer live. They provided plenty of drama (remember the story of how the mom gave birth ALONE at 3 in the morning?) and I guess my host mom has brought it to the police’s attention that they never paid her. Also, we have a new maid, but this time I really like her! Kolé is great, and all 3 of her precedents were nothing to write home about so that’s why I may have never mentioned them. She is wonderful. Another few changes are the 2 nephews of my host mom living with us. Granted it is just a temporary situation, but we now have a 3 year-old, Khali, and 5 year-old, Papy, here. They are hilarious. My favorite was when Khali went behind the donkey cart and when my host mom became worried, she said, “Khali, where are you, what are you doing?” His response: “I went to Spain”. The boys are very intrigued with the last and biggest change for me. I have adopted a cat.

Colette was my neighbor cat, meaning she was my second- closest- Peace Corps- neighbor’s cat. Lisa has since gone home to America. Colette needed some vaccines so she is here waiting out the time when in November, she will be put on a plane with a volunteer going home for Thanksgiving, who will then send her to Lisa. You may or not realize this about me – I have never had a cat. I sat down with a friend the night before bringing her home and asked the very basics. It is going well so far. She has made herself rather comfortable. I think her favorite spot is on top of my mosquito net. Yes: on top of it. I keep my net off of my bed during the day, but it’s tied at eye-level. This cat has figured out how to get up there and walk around until she gets comfortable. She meows like crazy and people in my car from Dakar were rather annoyed. I like her for her cricket-killing abilities. She fetches, better than most dogs have the patience for. She wakes me up by walking on me and lying down on my chest. I can’t read a book with out her pacing back and forth on the pages. She is a great cat. I don’t know if I am convinced enough to get a Colette-replacement come Thanksgiving, but it has crossed my mind. A lot has also stayed the same in Bambey. I go to appointments and people don’t show. Power outages are ever so frequent. It’s frickin’ hot. The rain still comes in my room, which I need to repair, again. Public transport is slow (150km in 6 hours – new record). But also, I love speaking in Wolof, drinking tea, eating dinner with my hands, riding my bike to Ndem (and sitting on the internet in the tiny village responding to emails and facebook messages), gossiping through text messages to other volunteers, and just hanging out. Senegal is great. It will get better when the rain stops and starts to cool again but I am willing to wait for just that!