Back In Time....

Lately we have had a few utility problems. I should have three
utilities at my house, but only one is currently working properly. I
should have water, power, and gas. I do still have propane, but no
reliable power and no water in the house! The power station here has
two broken generators, so the whole town is running on one. Which
means I have power for a few hours a day. I then noticed the
neighbors had tied a pipe into my rain water tanks and had used all of
my water for the house. Luckily I have one extra tank, but it only
has a tap outside, so were back to the days of filling buckets of
water and bringing them in the house to drink, for washing, and
running the toilet.

With all of these inconveniences it makes you appreciate what we
usually take for granted. For instance now to wash dishes I have to
fill up two buckets and bring them to the kitchen, boil some water,
all by light of a kerosene lamp. The most interesting part was when
my room mate saw walking outside in a swimsuit with: a watering can, a
kerosene lamp, and soap; she wanted to know what I was doing. I said
"taking a shower", and then hung the lamp on a tree and washed up.

It is not too bad, kind of relaxing sitting by light of a lamp and
trying to read a book at night. But with petty theft, and no power
for security lights, I don't want to leave the house alone at night.
Unfortunately it easy to spot the ex-pats houses here, and most people
know they have things of value there. So leaving your house blacked
out in a dark jungle is gambling with fate. It has been like this for
about 10 days, but the problem should be resolved with the power in
the next two weeks, as for the water we are praying for a large rain
storm.

Luke

New Kittens

Yesterday I enjoyed a day off. Well kind of enjoyed, first off there
was no power at my house all morning, a common thing here. So while
the power was off I cleaned, I bleached and washed all the walls in my
room and cleaned the floors and windows really well. After I finished
cleaning my room I put everything back, and made sure to zip all of my
bags shut, since I had a pregnant cat and I didn't want her to give
birth in my bag. Later that afternoon I went on a H.A.S.H run with
some other ex pats then returned home and watched a movie.

I noticed that evening that I never saw the cat, but didn't think much
of it until I went to bed. I started to fall asleep when I heard some
meow's and some really little meows! I looked all around the room and
couldn't find them, it is then I discovered one of my bags unzipped a
few inches. I opened it to find my cat Little Ghost with two tiny
kittens, and another on its way out still, how GROSS! I don't think I
will ever look at that bag the same. Well a few hours later, we had 3
live little kittens, and one that didn't make it. I have had a
multitude of cats through the house now, but it is a hard life for
cats here and I have had four not pull through, either they are born
sick, they run away, the mom doesn't like them, or the wild dogs get
them.

My new cats are adorable and fit in your hand they are so small. I
hope you all enjoy your vets back home

Luke