Crazy Cat Lady

Jonna is Mac’s wife, who is a workmate with Dominic for Respond project, and has become a really good friend of mine. Jonna and Mac own 3 dogs and 3 cats. While Dom and the rest of the Respond office was in Rwanda for a week for a conference, Jonna was in the U.S., and I stayed in Uganda with no one else I know here, except a few wonderful Uganda friends who were busy working.  I moved to Jonna and Mac’s house (with a backyard and deck) for the week to hang out with their pets.  I went from having no pets to having 6 pets, it was really fun!  It didn’t even bother me that on any given night 5/6 pets slept on the king size bed with me, but every time they let me know they wanted up, I had to raise the mosquito net so they could jump up.  About 10 times in the night.  Luckily all the animals are cute and small, so there was plenty of room on the bed.  Scruffy, the Uganda street dog who Jonna rescued, looks at you with a crooked jaw and a tooth sticking out of his lower lip because when he was beaten, his jaw broke (but it healed really well). And when he wakes from a nap, his tongue hangs sideways out of his mouth, it is so funny, I wish I had a picture! As my friend Anna would say, I was the “crazy cat lady” for a week.

Feeling alone in Uganda for a week was really good for me.  I was able to slow down and reflect on the past 2 months, and I missed Dominic very much!