A Stranger Among Us

You know that feeling you get, when you meet someone, and you just KNOW that they are going to be important in your life? Well, I have had that feeling. The other night we (myself, Mikaela, Elias, Steve, Big Papa Ben, and Osmund) were walking back from Chicken Inn. We were on the path behind Akwafo Hall and the track area, almost to Legon, when Elias (lagging behind, smelling roses, and generally doing Elias things) stopped dead and made this little noise. We all came back to look, and guess what we saw in the gutter? Not a huge frog the size of my fist (that was earlier in the evening) or a cicada (also been there), but a little KITTEN! That's right, a kitten. With a tiny tail and big eyes. Mikaela picked it up and I said, "I wonder if we could keep it?" Now, two days later, we have a little ball of fluff living in our room, sleeping in the bottom drawer of Mikaela's desk, and doing her level best to wrap the entire population of EAP kids around her little finger. She is just about there. In honor of Eilas finding her, we christened her Ellie Mae. She is six weeks old, and she looks like a lynx, and she eats CONSTANTLY unless she is sleeping. Seriously cute. Paul is taking us to the vet on Monday to get her shots and all that health stuff, and she is going to live in our room and our balcony. Mikaela is thinking about bringing her back to the states at the end of the semester, which would probably be the best thing for her. Aparently it is totally ok to keep animals in your dorm room as long as you are discreet about it, and as long as they are not 'outside' animals, as Paul said (eg, monkeys). [Paul is one of the student guides who was assigned to help us transition to living here, and he is a wealth of insights into Ghanaian culture]. He was telling us that most Ghanaians dont like cats, though. He keeps them at his house in Kumasi, but that is pretty rare. He was also laughing at us because we kept calling her 'she' and gave her a name. Here, they just call their cats Cat or Kitty or Pussy, not any sort of name. And when I mentioned getting her spayed he just looked at me. Guess that isnt going to happen.

So. We have a cat. I am also registered for classes and I have turned in my special study proposal form. All in all, a productive week. Tomorrow is the orientation for all international students, which is very similar to the orientation we already went through, but in one day instead of two weeks. But hey, they are feeding us, so its not a total loss.

There will be more adventure stories when I have more adventures, which will be soon, as school starts for real on Monday.