PARASITES!

Mel and I took our kitties to the vet to get their first vaccinations, but it turns out they both have parasites, so we have to give them medicine for a week before we can get their shots. Let me say that bringing kitties in their own little boxes on a hiace is apparently quite the sight to see. People were fascinated by the little squealing kittens that two brancas were carrying around like children. They smiled, laughed, or stared, and we sat with our daughters throughout the hour-long bumpy ride. As we got to Praia, a woman got out carrying her squawking chicken by the neck. No big deal. No one looks twice at a live chicken in a hiace, but kittens? Kittens? No way. We are such a freak show. Walking around the Plateau with our kittens in boxes was like, as Mel put it, seeing a man trailing a goat behind him walking around New York City. Just plain out of place.

The second years are all in town for their COS (close of service) conference, as they are all getting ready to leave the country, finished with their two years. Additionally, Kat (a previous PCV who moved back to Cape Verde to be with her boyfriend and is now bring him back to the US with her) stayed at our house last night because she and her man are leaving for the States on Monday. So the last few days (okay months really) were spent talking almost exclusively about all the glory and missed food items of the States. About how much we miss it, how much we want to go there, how much better it is there than here (grass is always greener...). It's a little too much for me, making me homesick as there is already very little keeping me here. But there are also a few PCVs who are extending their service on the Continent, so that gives me hope that after I'm done I can make the switch to a different atmosphere, one I wanted from the beginning.

Thursday we took the girls to the Protected Areas (the natural park Mel works at) on a field trip. We had this trip planned for a couple weeks, but the day before our driver announced he wasn't coming to work--for personal reasons--, so we were out a driver. We borrowed the driver from the Picos Center, and he chose to tell us as we got there that he needed to be back in Assomada at 3:30, two hours before we had planned to go back. So instead of having a full afternoon of environmental fun and all the activities Mel's team had planned, we had a quick hour jaunt through one of the trails to see some endemic plants and the large water collection panels. So frustrating, and poor Mel who had to scramble at the last minute to cram it all in. I'm so sick of doing activities with people from the Center. It just makes me annoyed, and the girls are always the ones who get the shaft. And now Andreia is getting on my nerves because she spends every day complaining and freaking out about work--how much she hates her job, how much she wants to leave, how the girls are little terrors. It's just getting annoying, and it's bringing me down as well. Leave, then! If you hate it so much, go find a job in Portugal. I know it sounds so mean to say that, but goodness. If you're that miserable, it's better for your mental health, and mine.

Anyway, that's the last few days. I'm still going back and forth with my new multiple personality disorder where one minute I'm content and the next I'm wondering why I'm here. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

P.S. I would really like to know how everyone at home is doing, and it's been awhile since I've heard from people--except my mom of course (love you!). So drop me a line and let me know what's up, what's new in your lives. Distract me with tales of America. Send me pictures, something! I miss you all.