Sunday, January 22, 2006
Gato- português for cat
Ok, so we just traded our cute (but obnoxious, loud, not potty trained and flea ridden) dog in for a sweet, cuddly little kitten. The dog, who´s name I won´t even mention, went to our landlord, who I´m sure will be sick to death of him before the week is over but who, also, is wisely keeping the dog outside. He also, sadly for the dog, will probobly not hesitate to chuck a stone at the dog when he´s being annoying.
We got our cat from our neighbor PCVs in Monapo- they didn´t really want the cat, who was left over from the previous PCVs. They brought us the cat (by chapa, and the cat was uncerimoniously kept in a rice sack!) along with 2 flea collars, flea shampoo, and some food. We made the cat a litter box out of a cardboard box and some shredded paper. The cat, like our dog, was never potty trained because he had always been able to go outside to use the toilet. This kitty though, learned to use our homemade litter box on his second try, so we´re quite proud of him (and a little relieved). We still haven´t decided on a name for the cat, we´ve been throwing around Kermit, Dilbert, Cujo, some Greek names that Eli seems to be rooting for (hermes?) and also just plain kitty. Let us know if you think of something good.
I´d also like to report that our water crisis is temporarily solved (although not the cities). We had completely run out a few days ago, and were really suffering- so we went to the street and stopped someone who had a truck loaded down with water barrels. He agreed to fill our water tanks up (we have about 250 liters of water storage in our house) for 300k (about $12). That actually took him several hours to go and get the water and bring it back. The next day our landlord brought us 4 big 20 liter containers, so now we have water, and we have containers so we can send our empregada out on a bus to bring back more water. Should be a sure thing, but Eli is still out there collecting rain water during our (brief) storms.
A lot of people have been wondering when we would start to work- some of you probobly thought that Peace Corps was one long vacation by the Indian Ocean (you went to Pemba and Ilha again??) Well, we´ve been wondering as well. The official word is- we start tomorrow at 8am with our teachers meetings and planning, and classes start on Febuary 2nd. We also just learned, from our landlord, that our school has a new director, and that the old director will be moving on (although still teaching a few classes). So we´re not really sure what to expect from this new director, and I´m curious to see if anything changes. However, I am really looking forward to going out and getting some work done, meeting my colleagues, and finally getting my class schedule. I think I may be teaching in the morning and Eli in the afternoon, if we get the classes we asked for. Also, it would be nice, and we might request this- to have either Fridays or Mondays off.
There´s not a whole lot more to add- our empregada turns out to be a really good cook, and we spent last night on the beach with a friend of ours. The AC in here is a lot colder than anything we´re used to, so we have to get back into the 100 degree weather and warm up. Hope everything is well for folks at home,
Paul and Eli
We got our cat from our neighbor PCVs in Monapo- they didn´t really want the cat, who was left over from the previous PCVs. They brought us the cat (by chapa, and the cat was uncerimoniously kept in a rice sack!) along with 2 flea collars, flea shampoo, and some food. We made the cat a litter box out of a cardboard box and some shredded paper. The cat, like our dog, was never potty trained because he had always been able to go outside to use the toilet. This kitty though, learned to use our homemade litter box on his second try, so we´re quite proud of him (and a little relieved). We still haven´t decided on a name for the cat, we´ve been throwing around Kermit, Dilbert, Cujo, some Greek names that Eli seems to be rooting for (hermes?) and also just plain kitty. Let us know if you think of something good.
I´d also like to report that our water crisis is temporarily solved (although not the cities). We had completely run out a few days ago, and were really suffering- so we went to the street and stopped someone who had a truck loaded down with water barrels. He agreed to fill our water tanks up (we have about 250 liters of water storage in our house) for 300k (about $12). That actually took him several hours to go and get the water and bring it back. The next day our landlord brought us 4 big 20 liter containers, so now we have water, and we have containers so we can send our empregada out on a bus to bring back more water. Should be a sure thing, but Eli is still out there collecting rain water during our (brief) storms.
A lot of people have been wondering when we would start to work- some of you probobly thought that Peace Corps was one long vacation by the Indian Ocean (you went to Pemba and Ilha again??) Well, we´ve been wondering as well. The official word is- we start tomorrow at 8am with our teachers meetings and planning, and classes start on Febuary 2nd. We also just learned, from our landlord, that our school has a new director, and that the old director will be moving on (although still teaching a few classes). So we´re not really sure what to expect from this new director, and I´m curious to see if anything changes. However, I am really looking forward to going out and getting some work done, meeting my colleagues, and finally getting my class schedule. I think I may be teaching in the morning and Eli in the afternoon, if we get the classes we asked for. Also, it would be nice, and we might request this- to have either Fridays or Mondays off.
There´s not a whole lot more to add- our empregada turns out to be a really good cook, and we spent last night on the beach with a friend of ours. The AC in here is a lot colder than anything we´re used to, so we have to get back into the 100 degree weather and warm up. Hope everything is well for folks at home,
Paul and Eli
# posted by Paul and Eli @ 5:47 AM 
