Hi All,
May has been a month of
life-altering changes. Mostly good, but some very sad.
I’ll begin with the sad, so
we can move on to the positive stuff. Happy Cat passed away May 28, which as
you can imagine, has been really hard. He started experiencing bladder issues a
few months ago. Every couple of weeks, he would be unable to urinate for 12-24
hours. As soon as we recognized the signs, we’d give him cephalexin
(antibiotics) and he’d come around quickly. This last time, the antibiotics
didn’t help, and he continued to get worse and worse. It was a long, drawn-out,
and exhausting ordeal involving many phone calls to and visits from our vet in
Guinguineo (whose child was in the hospital with a bacterial infection), a
small animal vet in Dakar, and various failed plans to get Happy Cat the
emergency surgery he needed. However, one last, honest, conversation with the
Dakar vet confirmed what we suspected: Happy Cat was too far gone. His kidneys
were failing, and the chances of a full recovery after surgery were slim to
none. Surgery would probably just result in prolonged suffering.
In the end, we decided to
put him to sleep in Guinguineo, which was an ordeal that took a lot of
ingenuity, and of course, help from Baay. Our Guinguineo vet wouldn’t do it, because
he said it would be too disturbing for him, but we talked him into
anesthetizing Happy Cat at our house before we brought him to the other town vet,
who agreed to give him the fatal shot (with a syringe, not a gun). Honestly,
the worst part about it all was that once we decided putting him to sleep was
the most humane thing to do, it took almost a full 24 hours of bartering,
haggling, convincing, and follow-up calls to the vets, who were hours late,
through tears, to make it happen. It was humiliating and frustrating to feel so
powerless, and then it made us feel worse for feeling so bad, because we
weren’t the ones dying. It all sounds very dramatic, because it was. But it
ended in the best way possible, and Happy Cat will now forever be the guardian of
our garden, his second-favorite place (after our bed).
Happy Cat obviously played a
very important role in our lives over the past year and a half. He made our
house a home, centered and softened us, and his antics provided levity at all
the right moments. Who knew we’d emerge from Senegal as cat people?!
We’re glad we had the time
with HC that we did, and once we’re settled back in America, in a place that
allows cats, we’ll have space to take in another furry little monster.
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| R.I.P. Happy Cat |
Greta is now queen of the
roost. Her kittens have been delivered to their new homes (with other PCVs),
and she’s now a free woman (except for the fact that she’s in heat again, so
she’s free only inside our apartment, to which she has again been confined)! We went from four cats to just one in
the span of 48 hours. Greta’s a special girl in her own right, but I’ll just
say she doesn’t sleep draped across our pillows at night like her late big
brother. She is, however, the luckiest cat in the world, as she will be going
to live on the Santos family farm in Rhode Island next week!
Yep, we’re unexpectedly
coming home to Rhode Island for 11 days this month, and Greta will be our
carry-on baggage! We just needed some fam time. It’ll be a whirlwind of a trip,
highlights including seeing the Grandparents Gardner, our adorable new niece
Mira MacArthur Jost (!!!!!!!!), all of the Fritsches (and former Fritsches,
Carrie), the Santos cousins, some Boston buds, and Annah, Will, Alex and Jake
in NYC on the way out! Phew! We’ll miss seeing the Hammerheads and Maeders, but
at least we’ll be able to talk on the phone for free, or Skype over a good
connection!
In other exciting news, we
have figured out our plans for the upcoming year! Peter will be starting his
Masters in Civil Engineering at Stanford in September, and I’ll be enrolling in
an Environmental Horticulture and Design technical program at a nearby community
college. Peace Corps has very graciously granted us “early Close of Service,”
meaning that we can leave Senegal in early September with Peace Corps’ blessing
and retain full benefits (we were originally scheduled to finish in November). We are so very grateful for this, and
for the new learning opportunities in the coming year. Both of our programs are
just one year, so we’re thinking we’ll move back east in 2016. Until then,
we’ll be transitioning back to life in America in Palo Alto, in Stanford
student housing (the apartments look like palaces!). Woohoo!
Okay, back to Senegal. Tree
pepineering (or tree nursery-making) season is in full swing! Our days have
been filled with trainings, and check-ins at the various pepineer locations
around town. In Guinguineo, our work partners have created 8 tree pepineers,
and over 600 tree sacks have been filled with sand and compost and seeded. In
Nguick, over 1,200 tree sacks have been filled and seeded.
We’re crossing our fingers and toes that this means this many tree seedlings
will be out-planted in and around Guinguineo and Nguick, but there’s lots that
can go wrong between now and July/August. Goats, chickens, children, insect
pests, and lack or excess of water can all quickly destroy a tree pepineer, so
we try to stress the importance of creating pepineers in areas protected from
the aforementioned offenders, and always encourage covering the area with a mesh
net. This is one of the hottest, dustiest times of the year, but it’s so full
of hope as everyone prepares their fields and tree pepineers for the rains! It
was this week last year when we experienced the insane dust storm and the first
rain of the season. After that first event, it didn’t rain again for over 4
more weeks, but it was still exciting. I find myself wondering often when the
first rain will come this year. Will we be here, or in Rhode Island? With the
rains come so many possibilities for growth and improvement!
We’ll end with an update on
the Diop kiddos. The boys are growing like weeds! For some reason, I have
really noticed in the past month or two how much Fallou and Papa Gorre have
grown up during our time in Guinguineo. Soda and Ouli are certainly taller and
more capable, and we love watching them further develop into themselves- Soda a
creative, and whimsical yet determined girl, and Ouli, a bossy and competent force
to be reckoned with. But their physical growth and personality changes have not
been as noticeable. Fallou, now almost done with his first year at primary
school, is now obsessed with wrestling and physical activity. I still see
glimpses of the snuggly, quiet little boy he was when we arrived in Guinguineo,
but usually I see a big boy figuring out the limits of his strength and
figuring out his interest. Papa Gorre, even a few short months ago, was a
toddler, prone to teary tantrums at the drop of a hat, and constantly toppling
over as a result of his lack of coordination. Oh how that has changed! There
are still occasional tantrums, but usually we can talk him down by asking him
who he is and what he’s done with the big-boy 4 year-old who used to live here.
He can now carry a tune and remember the correct words to a song, as opposed to
the verbal nonsense he used to constantly spout. He’s constantly exploring his
newfound coordination by climbing up on things and jumping off, and running and
skipping and sort of constantly pirouetting around the compound. It’s all so
much fun to watch and be a part of!
Maybe part of it is that we
now, all of the sudden, can see the end of our service looming in the
not-so-distant future, and our life beyond Senegal. It’s a strange, but good,
new feeling….
In May…
1) The biggest challenge we have
faced: The death of Happy Cat, hands down.
2) The most exciting/best experience:
Being granted permission by Peace Corps to leave Senegal and start school in
September.
3) What we are most grateful for: Being
able to come home to the U.S. be with family this month.
4) Language factoid: “Dinanu naan boisson ba maandi.” means
literally, “We’re going to drink soda until we’re drunk.” This is what people
say in anticipation of an exciting holiday or event here in Senegal! This
particular phrase came to mind today, as there are at least 3 major events
happening around town today (we’re talking rented tents and chairs, sound
systems with giant speakers, and hired musicians, mostly drummers). There’s a
marriage ceremony happening 2 doors down, and that event’s music, combined with
the sound of our neighbor’s metal saw, is just divine… It sort of sounds like a
horror concert. There’s a prayer ceremony for deceased ancestors at the Mayor’s
house, and another “fête” at a marabout’s house across town, and I’m sure there
are other celebrations we have not yet heard about. It seems that everybody’s
all of the sudden trying to squeeze their pre-rainy season parties in before
Ramadan. There will be lots of rowdy soda guzzling in Guinguineo this weekend!
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| Have you ever seen a cashew apple? That's what this red fruit is. They're delicious! The cashew is inside the grayish, cashew-shaped shell on the end of the apple. |
In June, we’re looking
forward to:
- Being in America for 11
days!!!!!!!!!!!
- The beginning of Ramadan
- Coming home to Senegal to
see how much the tree seedlings in pepineers across town and in Nguick have
grown in our absence.
- The first rain of the
season.
Jamm Rekk,
Kait
