Christmas Kitties

Sophie & Howl

Well, there we go then.

Rehomed big girl kitty and big boy kitty with a friend. She grew up with cats but sadly lost them all during the genocide. Now she has kids of her own, and they were all super excited to get kittens. Hoping to go and visit soon to see how they're doing.

I was utterly distraught when I placed them in the box and said goodbye - holding back a flood of tears. Returned to the house to find the other two playing and purring as though nothing had happened!

Oh, the callousness of cats.

Decided I probably can't cope with that experience again, so named the remaining ones Sophie Cat and Howl Cat, and planning to keep them. Howl is the tiniest boy - the runt - who practically lived in my bra when he first arrived, because he couldn't control his body temperature. He's now growing fast and shrugs me off when I interrupt playtime for cuddles.

A few hours before they were separated, they had a last kitten fest on my lap.

 

 

Still, it does make proofreading a little easier with fewer cats.

Part of my reason for keeping two is that I got my visa renewed! I'm now - fingers crossed - here until January 2019. Very excited about that. If I hadn't got the renewal, I'd have had to leave next month. But I did, so I don't. I can comfortably take care of kittens.

I've also just started working for the country's largest agricultural and pharmaceutical company. I walked into one of their shops the other day and saw these.

First time I'd seen proper animal carry cases here. They've also relaxed the quarantine process for the UK. So long as your pet is microchipped and has its vaccinations (including rabies), you can travel. It's a long way off, but it's nice to know it's an option.

Ironically, now that I have cats, I also have a mouse problem.

At one point I had several, but now I think it's just the one. I really don't mind rodents, but it poos almost as much as the cats, and it's so noisy at night. Real squeak-box. The cats couldn't care less so, after one particularly sleepless night, I went out to explore options.

I can't use poison because of the cats, the only snap trap on sale was broken, and the only other option is a glue trap. The longer I stared at these, the more my stomach turned. Glue traps are truly awful. It says to just put the trap down, then in the morning throw it away - presumably with the live animals stuck to it, starving to death and ripping their own fur off in fear.

If my cats can't kill it, neither can I.

A picture from a local market led to some rather inventive attempts to build a humane trap.

Market Example

My Attempt

I have to admit, the one above was really tough. I had to eat the entire tube of Pringles in order to make it. Unfortunately, neither of these have worked so far.

 

I went to Nakumatt and bought absolutely everything the internet assured me would drive it away: black pepper, peppermint oil, strong chili and cloves. I doused the house in it, but only succeeded in giving myself a runny nose. Mouse wasn't fazed in the least.

Dad's sending me out some properly made humane traps. I still have beautiful daydreams of the back of a rat's arse sailing over the garden wall...

Life is good at the moment, but so busy. I have guests staying for the first time in forever. My lovely friend Tracey and her husband Francis are over from Kenya. They run an excellent tour company called Overland Travel Adventures. They brought a group to Rwanda, then took another group around Akagera, now they're off to Uganda in the morning for a third run. It's been such a pleasure to have them here. Lots of laughter and plenty of good food.

 

Tempura (Deep Fried) Ice-cream

I'll update on less cat-related goings on soon. Just been a lot of work rolling in lately. Nice to be busy. I don't ever remember being this well off at Christmas before.

Massive Catch Up & Sangria

My goodness. It's been almost a month since my last update!

This is going to be epic...

Little hungover. Last night was the grand opening of Casa Keza, the place where I teach fiction. My friend quit her job as country director of a large NGO to turn her home into a café and night school. Check it out on Facebook.

It's a Spanish tapas theme. The food is yummy, and the sangria is deadly. I helped do sangria testing - the trials of friendship. *hic*

 

Finished teaching my first fiction course last week. Went really well. Looking forward to teaching a second round if my visa renewal comes through. Also means I get a teacher's discount on that sangria. *hic*

Had time to catch up with Jo a few times. Went for pizza and a cocktail, but that's about where our social lives end as we're both working hard at the moment. 

Cocktail

Jo's consulting for a young women's NGO and I've become gainfully employed as a proofreader on a DFID-funded project for Rwanda Education Board. Busy getting textbooks ready for schools next January. Entertainingly, there wasn't a single Oxford comma in the entirety of an Oxford University Press publication - go figure.

Happy to see my friend Dominique appears in a section on sport. He's a paralympian volleyball player.

 

Sadly, I've been facing some major computer issues of late. The keyboard on my trusty laptop stopped working. I've bought an external keyboard for it and a second laptop. Then I accidentally misplaced the battery for the old one, so it needs to remain plugged in until I find it. 

Ganesh, Left, New Laptop, Right

The old laptop, Ganesh, has been a loyal servant for the past couple of years. Written a lot of novels on it. So many that I wore out some of the keys. In an unsuccessful attempt to fix the problem, I now have a multi-lingual keyboard. Took me days to find the £ and # keys.

Working through it. Hopefully got a good IT guy who can help with everything. 

Anyway, another nice thing about having a friend who runs a café is that I've been getting involved with helping a mask trader to promote his wares there. He works at Caplaki, a craft bazaar, selling Congolese masks. I'm fascinated by them and have been learning so much. I can now confidently identify several tribes: Luba, Teke, Tetela, Punu, Lega, Bembe, Chokwe and Songye. There are many more that I don't know.

Fondling a Kusu Mask

Caplaki

 

Tetela mask, tribe of the first prime minister
of the DRC, Patrice Lumumba

Right: From the secret male Elanda society of the Bembe.
Left: Pwo, first female ancestor of the Chokwe

Almost all of these are modern replicas. Some tribes, such as the Lulua, destroyed masks after use, others only passed down authentic masks within secret societies. The replicas are usually based on authentic designs, but sometimes, as with the one in the middle, they become a mishmash of many different styles and therefore extremely hard to place.

I found these in Caplaki. I've forgotten the tribe, but they're ancestor jars, just like those I saw in Sierra Leone all those years ago.

Pende mask, probably originally for circumcisions,
later a theatre character

Masks on display at Casa Keza

Top Right: death gathers in mask of the Lega Bwami society.

I'm really enjoying learning about the different masks.There's some really fascinating stories behind the different tribes.

My Kinyarwanda course is drawing to a close, too. Twice a week for eight weeks. Really interactive and fun. I had some language training through VSO years ago, and know some basics, like: cold beer and a brochette, please, but with this course I've certainly retained far more vocabulary. 

Which brings us neatly to the kittens. 

They have come a hell of a long way since my last update. Four healthier kittens you never did see. So healthy that they had their first jabs two days ago. It has been an utter privilege weaning them and cuddling them, but it is now time for rehoming. Some days I wonder whether I could keep one, but they need so much attention. I'm looking to rehome them in pairs, and if I kept one it would mean the other has to go alone. I think my job here is done.

My friends' daughters have really enjoyed playing with them.

 

They are ridiculously gorgeous, but I am suffering for their love. There is poop everywhere - in the litter box, in my shoes, behind the fridge, and my legs are scratched to pieces.

I think that's about all I have room for in this post.

I'll leave off by saying we've had some heavy downpours during the rainy season.

 

Which is helping the vegetables grow in the garden.

And I'll end with a picture of the sunset, and the moon through the canopy at Casa Keza.