Me, Alicia and Natasha in Tchifama, Alicia's village. She lives in the chief's compound with his 19 children and 2 wives (he has a total of 5).

Huge spider I found in my bathroom, stared at it to make sure it didn't move during my bucket shower.

Me and the kids sitting on a mat outside my house New Year's Eve.

Me and the kids at my first funeral in village. Akpedje is to my left and was sucking on a sack.

I meant to post this blog at the beginning of this month. This is not Akpedje because the video clip I wanted to add here is not working, but I will send via e-mail so some of you can see it, k? This is me in my house and those are my brooms behind me.(This is Akpedje, my best friend in village, singing "Kalo Mina!" to me Feb. 1. It means "Good Month" in Greek and it is always said at the beginning of any month. I had told her the day before to say it to me and she remembered the next morning. She is shaking a bottle of "tchouk" as she is singing because this was a gift given to me by my Ewe language teacher and she was delivering it to me.) It has been an interesting month so far. I am back in Lome working with another volunteer, Alicia, on organizing a marathon from my village to my friend Ashley's village in Notse. We are planning it for next December and we want the money raised to go to a scholarship fund created by Peace Corps to pay for boys and girls to go to school. The students are nominated by volunteers and their grades are monitored in order to keep their scholarship. Just an idea so far, but I am hoping that it works out because I want to finally run a marathon! I am also working on having a 3-day training for the women's groups in my village focusing on nutrition and better farming practices (i.e. compost and maybe trying to grow more nutritious vegetables instead of the same manioc, yam and corn...). I also want to start a Health (i.e. sex) Education class for the young girls and possibly boys in my village. I am doing a small talk on Moringa at my dispensaire in my village this Wednesday and Thursday. I am planning vacations...so far Burkina Faso and Ghana. I am feeling a lot more settled here and I think having work has actually helped me feel better living here. I just got my ticket to Greece and I am super pumped. July 2-16, y'all. For anyone who wants to come visit me this summer, do not plan anything for those dates. And please come visit me...just let me know ahead of time so I can plan something, but also so I can make sure I can take off for a little bit of traveling, eh? Alrightee, everybody. Hope all of you are well. Here are some more pictures...

Oh Irlene...

Well, I knew it was going to happen. I just wished she would have waited for me to be there with her. My sweet precious lovebird Irlene passed away January 29, 2008 on her own. I just want to dedicate this blog to the most wonderful sweet best kitty that a mama could ever have (except for Joc of course). Irlene came to me as my first foster mom with her 2 little kittens when I was still working at the animal shelter in Vestal. It was in January 1997 actually. She was found huddling under a porch in the cold with her 2 live kittens and 2 dead kittens. Her other 2 kittens died a week after I started fostering them, and since she got along with Joc so well, I decided to adopt her. I loved her sweet nature and her freakish lobster claw front feet (one of her kittens that died had the same polydactyl mutation...typically seen in Hemingway cats). Irlene loved to do high flips in the air that could have won a gold medal in the extreme sports olympics if only they weren't so racist and exclusive. Right? She also loved to sleep at my feet and curl her claws around my toes and purr to wake me up to feed her. I think this picture of her is funny because the picture in the blog before this one has me almost making the same face. The second picture of her is more flattering and noble. Thank you Lee so much for taking care of her and Joc and I have decided to send a letter to you at Magpies, but wait have you guys moved already and has the address changed. I will send it to Peggy's home address. It's settled. And thank you also goes to Amy for taking such good care of her (best veterinarian in the universe and I hear Mars has some pretty good ones, hee hee). I wish I would have received your e-mails sooner than 2 weeks later, but I knew you would treat her the same way I would have treated her. And of course thank you Alexia for being so awesome in general but also for spanking Irlene the way she liked it so hard and firm and hard. Rest in peace my precious little gentle morsel Irlene.