Weekly Updates: 12.2.11

• I'll be on a plane in 18 DAYS!!
• The Adventures of Shadow (and my poor floor).  This week I puppy-sat for my closemate Maeghan's new puppy Shadow.  A few things you should know about Shadow: he is a puppy.  He has a teensy little puppy-sized bladder.  His body magically produces about 17 gallons of pee a day.   And he is a Basinji, the second least-trainable breed of dog in the world.
  
  Things we achieved in a week (sublist):  Shadow pees on floor a record 10 times, despite hourly trips outside.  He poos in my bedroom once.  House is now coated in bleach water.  I manage to not commit caninicide.  (That should be a real word.)  We also manage to make my cat royally and hilariously jealous.  After spending the first day stalking and then running from Shadow, who REALLY wants to play, Popsicle spends the rest of the week perched just out of reach on my porch, glaring at the puppy in his house.  He also snuck inside on multiple occasions, only to be surprised and then viciously defensive when Shadow, again, wanted to play.  I rescued him.  He sat on the porch and glared.
• Learned: Owls Are Sorcerers.  Along with spiders, ants, cats, dogs, and fireflies, owls are animals that sorcerers can inhabit to come kill or injure people.  Funny, as the owl is also my college mascot.  During a conversation with my Nigerian friend (6 months younger than me, and she has a 7 month old baby girl), I learned that sorcerers in my village often posess owl bodies to come to people in the night. 
  
  If they come to you and you're the target, the owl will pull the soul out of you, maybe through your mouth or eyes.  Once your soul is gone, your body's dead, and your family will bury you.  It is after your burial that the sorcerers dig your body up, have a child chop up the body into meat, and then they drink your blood, which is "like water to them."  Then, she pointed out the child who is rumored to be the local body-cutter.   All the adults say it's him, and she told me that because he's started so young, he'll be the boss of the sorcerers when he grows up.
  
  Halloween, you've got nothing on Africa.
• Grant Is En Route!  Finally got my grant application reviewed and sent to headquarters, so as soon as that's looked at, it should be online!  Watch out in the next week for a post/email about how you can help me out (hint: donate and advertise!) and the link to the site.  :)
• Bridget's Birthday Weekend.  This Monday is my really good friend Bridget's birthday, so we're celebrating by pampering ourselves all weekend.  We ate delicious food last night with fresh pineapple juice, gave ourselves manicures, and at 1pm, will be going to get massages.  Yes, my friends, there are massages in Benin.  They're hella expensive on our budget (an hour is 7 mille, or about $15), but we're doing it -- we've earned it after the grants we've just written.  Later, we're going to drink hot chocolate and eat cookies that Sam and Alicia made.  We're spoiled, it's okay.
• Next Week... I will go to a church party (free food!), eat real turkey and pate rouge at Kalyn's friend's house, take lots of photos of Pierrette and family with me, get more Christmas presents made, try my hardest to get almost done with my world map.  Because this is getting embarrassing.  Wish me luck, and see you all SO SOON!