Spring Break: Peace Corps Style

At the end of March my training group (all 48 of us) got back together for In-Service Training (IST) in Ngaoundere, which is the regional capital of the Adamawa.  It was a week of training flashback, both good and bad.  We got to see each other and hang out, but we were basically in class all day.  It was kind of rough to have a 8-5 schedule again after not really being too busy for the last four months.  On the bright side, since we are now PCVs instead of PCTs we had a lot more freedom.

The week after IST most volunteers took the opportunity to "do a little tourism" in the Grand North of Cameroon since it takes a while to get up there and we recieved a travel stipend for IST.  You'll have to look this up on a map, but I left Ngaoundere to go to Lake Lagdo, then from there I stopped in Garoua for a few hours, then on to Maroua.  Waza National Park was a day trip from Maroua.  Maroua was my favorite city so far in Cameroon.  It's really nice, well laid out, and there is a lot of stuff to do.  I spent most of my time in Maroua shopping in the Artisinal Market, eating hamburgers and drinking fruit juice, swimming in hotel pools, etc.  It was a great trip, but traveling from place to place is rough, so I was really happy to finally be back in my house and my own bed.  I didn't take too many pictures of the trip (mostly because I was paranoid that I was going to get robbed since I had so much with me), but here are a few shots of the two highlights:

LAKE LAGDO - North

Lake Lagdo on a hazy morning.

The beach with a little bit of the hotel we stayed at.

The little guy on the left is a hippo coming up for air.

WAZA NATIONAL PARK - Far North

Soo excited to see some animals :)

Not sure what this thing was, but it was cool looking and actually really cool feeling inside.

Elephantz wuz here.

We didn't actually see any elephants (they migrate in dry season) or lions (only come out super early), but we did see a lot of other animals.  Most notable were the ostriches, giraffes (saw a bunch, and even a group of about 10), warthogs, and most of the cast of the Lion King.  I'm not going to bother posting the pictures of animals that I took because they didn't come out very well, but it was awesome.

This picture should seriously be on the cover of something to promote Peace Corps.

This is a part of a mural at the entrance to the park.  From what I gather, the man being dragged is a poacher and he will be shot by excited military men.  Pretty effective for people who can't read.

Baby Cats - Part Deux

Some more cute kitten pics.  I swear this will be my last post about only kittens.  I don't even like cats, but kittens are sooo cute.

My kitten/not-so-kittenlike-anymore cat from the previous litter keeps trying to breastfeed with them, but she is almost the same size as the mom. It’s super awkward (see above). I shoe her away whenever I catch her, but she’s crafty.

This one is my favorite. When all the other kittens had already opened their eyes, this one only had one and a half eyes open (left). It is so cute and fluffy, plus I think it’s the smartest one (at least from my observations). Adorbs.  I reeeallllyy don't need to keep one of the babies because two cats is already more than enough, but this one at least makes me double think it.

(<--new one)

(older one in baby form-->)

This one looks just like my kitten from the last litter (only about 6 months or so ago—the mama cat works fast). Look at the resemblance.  In fact, all four of them have near twins in the last litter.  They definitely have the same daddy.

This is the smallest one and it always hisses when I pick it up. It also is very defensive of its food. Not a big fan of this one.

I think this one is the only male, but it's hard to tell.  He's probably the softest.  He used to have eye infections or something crusty that kept his eye shut for a couple of days.  He was also a really heavy sleeper when he was really little. I legit thought he was dead on more than one occasion because I couldn't wake him up.  Basically, there is a reoccuring pattern that I'm scared/convinced the kittens are dead.

Hopefully they will all be out of my house before the end of May when new owners can pick them up.  They are driving me nuts, running all over and making a mess.

Baby Cats

My cat had four little babes on March 6. Here are some photos because they are adorable and this is basically what I do with my time now since I live alone.

This is mama cat a few hours before birth. She doesn’t look very comfortable.

When they were born they didn’t have hair on their legs so they looked like mice.

Cat pile part one (a few days old) and two (about 7 weeks old). Things don’t change much.

Big sis checking in on the kittens in their box.

After about 4 weeks or so the mama will pick them up by their necks and move them places (like my bed) or hide them. When I got home from my training/vacation after being gone for two weeks during which time this new behavior began I noticed they weren’t in the box and I couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m really paranoid that the mom is going to eat the babies (it has happened to other volunteers…) so I was freaking out a little bit. I looked for 15 minutes and then finally called my neighbor who was looking after them. My neighbor ended up finding them almost right away though and they’re still around, so hopefully that’s not going to happen.

Kitten scratching.

I’m pretty sure that they gave me fleas last week, but I haven’t seen any evidence for a couple of days, so hopefully that’s over.

More to come...