Cat with Bat

This is not exactly what I thought my life would look like in Uganda, but I now have my own cat!  The first week I was here, my mom and I saw a tiny little kitten in a parking lot next to a busy road and knew that it was abandoned.  Given my mom’s huge heart for animals and the cuteness and helplessness of the kitten, we rescued it.  My mom carried it in her shirt on a motorcycle taxi back to some friends’ house, who watched it for a few weeks until I returned from Gulu and was able to take it in myself.  Last year, I saw a tiny little kitten crossing the same major road and watched it get squished by the taxi that I was in, so this feels a little like I’m doing my part to help rescue one of the gazillion cats running around the streets of Kampala.  

Chloe and Pooh (are not friends because Pooh has now gone into hiding)

Chloe (I started with “Clementine” because we found her in front of the Orange store, but somehow I ended up with “Chloe” [I think all animal names should be 2 syllables max]) is a calico and full of energy (as I suppose any kitten is).  But I’ve had several kittens and she is by far the feisty-est, which is saying a lot (for those of you who are familiar with Doris, the cat my roommates and I got in Boston).  She loves to play-fight with her claws and teeth, which are very sharp (making it annoying instead of cute).  She also loves to snuggle, which is great (I’ve always wanted a cat who wants to sit on my lap), but she almost loves it too much, and is always trying to walk across my laptop and eat my food and play with anything I’m using.  It’s been an interesting few weeks getting used to each other and figuring out how to live with a (very needy/mischievous) kitten. 

Since I’m living in Uganda, I wanted to try to come up with some cheaper form of food for her than store-bought cat food.  What I’m doing right now is boiling corn flour and water and adding in these tiny local dried fish (you can buy a cup for $0.30).  Then I mix in some store-bought cat food to round out the nutrition.  =)

The first night I had her, we had a HUGE wind storm.  Before I could close all the windows, it actually knocked over a corner bookshelf that I have in my living room!  (I think the wind caught the curtain, which pushed the not-super-stable tripod unit over.)  It practically landed on top of Chloe, who was sleeping on the couch, who then flew across the room in fright.  Then I felt bad leaving her out in the living room by herself on her first night, so I took her to bed with me.  She got used to sleeping with me (did I mention she’s very needy/snuggly?), so I let her keep doing it.  One of her favorite places to sleep was on top of my head.  (Not above my head on the pillow, but actually on the back of my head, while I lay on my stomach.)  Eventually I decided sleeping with me is probably not the best habit, so now I have to trick her out of my room every night before I go to bed.  (She’s getting smart and trying to hide in my room when she knows I’m getting ready to go to sleep.)

Chloe with Her First Cat Toy (mouse with fluffy tail)

Monday morning, I saw her carrying around one of her new mouse toys.  I thought it looked a little different but I was half asleep and I just figured she had pulled off the big fluffy tail in the night.  Then I noticed blood on the floor and thought she had somehow started bleeding, but couldn’t find any blood or wounds on her.  Finally it dawned on me that perhaps the funny-looking mouse toy I had seen her with was actually a real mouse, so I started checking under all the furniture.  Finally I noticed some blood on my mosquito net and then found a small bat wrapped up in it on the floor.  (Thank you for the present, Chloe.)  Fortunately it was fully dead, and fortunately I found it, and fortunately she had not left me a present ON my bed!  Still, pretty gross.  Although, it is crazy that there was actually a bat in my apartment AND that my kitten actually caught it!  Anyway, I read Fox in Sox to some kids this weekend, so this whole episode with a cat and a bat reminded me of Dr. Seuss, hence the blog title.  (Unfortunately I couldn't come up with anything more creative.)

[On a tangent note, I read “Green Eggs and Ham” to some kids today, and out of the whole story, the part they loved and laughed at the most was the name “Sam-I-Am.”  Go figure.]

Watoto Restore Tour

Well, the power just went out.  Fortunately, this is only one of the couple times that it’s been out at night in the last couple months.  My computer says it should last another 2.5 hours.  We’ll see.

(Source of photos: Watoto.com)

Last Friday, I got to see the Watoto Restore Tour.  The Watoto Children’s Choir basically NEVER performs in Uganda (so if they come through your town, be sure to see them!), so I was really excited about this opportunity.  The Restore Tour is different than a typical Watoto Children’s Choir performance.  There were a few children, but it was mostly young adults.  And instead of a typical concert, it was more like telling a story through music, dance, song, video, and spoken word.  It was the story of Gulu, which I explained in a previous post.  This was particularly the story of the children who were affected by the war: the boys who were kidnapped and forced to become soldiers and the girls who were either raped and left in their villages or kidnapped to be given as soldiers “wives.”  It was amazingly powerful because the people sharing stories during the performance were the actual people who had lived the stories; all the testimonies were given by their actual subjects.  Since the war started almost 30 years ago, many of those who were children at the time are now in their 20s and 30s.

Another thing that made the performance so powerful was that the whole focus was on forgiveness and hope.  The young adults who had lived through these terrible acts or even committed these terrible acts stood up on stage and pronounced their forgiveness of the perpetrators, of the LRA leaders, and of themselves.  And they pronounced the hope they have for their communities through the forgiveness and healing power of the love of Jesus.  It is only through God’s love for each individual, his forgiveness, and his call to forgive one another that true healing and restoration can be achieved in northern Uganda.

The Restore Tour had just finished traveling around the globe for six months, and their last performance was given at the main Watoto Church for VIPs only.  Many important government workers, including Members of Parliament, “governors,” and mayors were there.  Watoto wanted them to understand the work that they are trying to do in Gulu, that it’s not about Watoto, but it’s about Uganda. 

Because our EMI team had just done a project to design Watoto’s new agriculture/technical college in Gulu, one of the Watoto staff suggested that we ask to be put on the VIP list.  I forgot to follow up on this until a few days before the performance.  Fortunately, at the last minute, we were able to request and be put on the VIP list.  About 24 hours before the performance, we found out we were going and we found out that it was a formal event!  Of course we weren’t going to buy formal gowns (which it turned out would have been overdressed anyway), but we wanted to go for as nice of wedding-type apparel as we could pull off.  So all day Friday was pretty much a clothing/shopping day, and very little work was accomplished.  The 4 male interns went downtown to buy shirts, ties, shoes, etc. in the local shops along the streets.  I and the 2 female interns wanted to avoid going shopping if possible (ironic, huh?), but we managed to come up with some dresses, shoes, and jewelry from what we had with us and what we could borrow from a couple of the staff wives.  We had to leave the office at about 3:30 to change and then take a special hire taxi downtown to have dinner before the performance so that we could beat the crazy rush hour traffic.  (Another part of the day became less than productive due to the fact that one of the intern’s boyfriends showed up in Uganda completely unannounced [with the help of the sneaky intern coordinators] and proposed to her!)  What an exciting day!

Ok, now it’s time to go do my laundry with the help of my headlamp.