New Year’s Report Part 4: Miscellaneous

First, thanks to everyone who sent us boxes to help us celebrate the holidays! We really appreciate the things (read: food!) from home. Awooyo and Elliott von Tusky were very happy with their treats as well, so thanks again!

Second, we finally figured out where Mr. Tusky goes when he jumps over our compound wall every night. Turns out that there’s a little brown and white female cat that lives kind of around the corner from us, and lots of people in the neighborhood have seen the two of them running around together at night. So, he’s got a little girlfriend, who we’ve dubbed Cinnamon, who also, according to her owner, happens to be pregnant. Maybe we should get a gris gris collar made for her and all her babies, too? Seems to be working pretty good so far!

Presidential elections are coming up here in Togo on February 28, and a lot of people are getting things ready around village by setting up voting places. As our cluster’s “contact volunteer,” (volunteer who serves as the organizer and meeting place in the event of some kind of crisis), Joe will be heading off to a Peace Corps conference at the beginning of February to hear more about the election and what kind of local response the administration is expecting. I imagine it will get more interesting as things get closer, so we’ll try to post an update before the big day arrives.

Here are a couple of last pictures, one of Tusky peeking over our back wall in search of his girlfriend, and the other of Awooyo, chilling in her favorite spot under my chair.

Happy 2010 to everyone! Oh, and 2010, is it? We come home this year!!!