Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!
I hope everyone has a great holiday! After days and days of debating on a costume this year I have decided to go as a superhero. This idea came about after being in my village for several weeks and realizing that my villagers seem to think I have the ability to do anything. I had a village meeting the other week where the village government announced to the ENTIRE village that I will be working in the schools, setting up pig raising projects, planting trees, building a dispensary, helping to finish the second primary school, starting a fish keeping project, and also bringing water...from the mountain. I first asked if I would be carrying that water on my head daily, or perhaps I would be provided a mule. Once I had a chance to inform them that I am actually here as a health volunteer and know NOTHING about raising pigs, planting trees, and providing a loving and safe environment for fish we started to talk more about things I can actually do. This really got me thinking though that people really have a lot of faith in my potential abilities. I decided that I'm either a superhero...or Jesus. Not quite having the costume for Jesus this year, I settled on being a superhero instead. There's always next year!
This past week I also discovered that I've been sharing my house with some delightful creatures as well...bats. Last Saturday night I was getting ready for bed and I called for my dog to come. When she didn't run in my room immediately as usual I went into the main room to get her. She was sitting on the ground staring at the wall right next to me. I looked at her confused, then looked at the wall and realized there was a bat just hanging out on the wall. OH MY GOD. I RAN into my room, shut the door, and took 5 to figure out what to do. Having absolutely NO experience with bats, I decided I shouldn't handle this issue by myself but it was too late to call anyone. Instead I opened the door slightly, grabbed my dog, slammed the door shut, put my suitcase and clothes in FRONT of the door (in case he turned into the Count and tried to bust in) and decided to wait it out until morning. As I was laying in bed listening to him fly around my house, banging into pots and pans, it suddenly dawned on me that the 'mice' I thought were living in my ceiling above my bedroom were actually bats. Good. The next day I woke up and ran to my friend's house to tell her what happened. She cracked up and sent her boyfriend back with me to investigate. I told him I thought the bat was gone, but he went to check anyway. He climbed INTO my ceiling and started giggling. There was some commotion and several minutes later told me to wait outside. As I was standing outside clutching my dog 2 bat bodies were thrown from the ceiling out the door.
The picture above is my hero...holding his 'catch'.
Let's see, I mentioned before that I tell everyone I'm going to have the most amazing garden here ever. People point to the dirt on my arms and legs and ask me if I was just working in my garden. I then tell them I haven't actually started my garden yet...I'm just dirty.
At church there is the cutest older gentleman who comes every Sunday wearing a three piece suite. He is one of my favorite people in the church. He's very quiet and usually sits in the back. Last Sunday he stood up and sang a solo. Everyone cheered and clapped! It was great!
Enjoy your candy! I'll be passing out ugali balls this year...mmm...delicious!

Love,

Cat