Malaria

Hey! Long time, yes. Sorry-o.

My week has been lovely. Believe me.

In short?

Typhoid and malaria.

Didn't I tell you it would be lovely? 

Not just that, but I've been in the hospital for the last two days...I just got home today. My welcome home gift--two long scratches from my dog Sam. :P 

So the typhoid wasn't bothering me, but the malaria was giving me a lot of trouble. I'd be fine in the morning, but in the late afternoon towards evening I'd start to shiver as the fever went up, and then I'd be literally unable to stop shaking. (I don't wonder where the malaria 'aches' come from.) For four days, it kept getting worse and worse, and then at one point I had to bathe in cold water from the freezer. >_< Can I just say-- "TORTURE METHOD?!" 

Well, on Friday we couldn't get it down at all, cold bath or not. It made it all the way up to 105.7, where I was promptly whisked off to find a clinic with cold waterbags pressed on my forehead, the back of my neck. We stopped at one clinic; no doctor. We called a friend and found a hospital to go to, and I was admitted (after much confusion on the Liberian side about medicine) and given a shot. They tested me for malaria again to see if the quinine was doing it's work, but instead of bringing the 1+ that I'd been diagnosed with before, I got a nice 3+--very serious malaria. They got me a room and I started treatment, and I immediately started feeling better. Every twelve hours I got a dose of medicine through an IV. 

Well, like I said, a lovely (BORING) two days in the hospital. :) There were very few nice Liberian nurses...and it was weird when they came in to sweep and mop the room while we slept at 6:00 A.M., but all else was good. XD

But I'm back. 

I will haunt you all by way of this blog. 

*BWAHAHAHA*

Bye-bye. ;)

--Vrenith

Fun!

Lots of fun, yes.

First, NaNoWriMo--I finished on the fifteenth/sixteenth (late night), at 50,035 words! :D So I started another one, but I don't know if that one will actually get finished before the end of November...I'd have to write four thousand words a nigh. O_O

Second, I had a little accident. >_> I DIDN'T DIE!! Don't worry. ;) I'm not dead.

Well, we had to carry some things across to our other compound, so I carried a box with things stacked on top. Unfortunately, the bridge broke a few days before (MORE FUN), and they fixed it crookedly. So that they could fix it they drained the lagoon, too. So a good six feet in the air.

Well, I couldn't see over the box and stepped one foot off of the bridge. >_< I hit the bridge hard (and now have a bruised tailbone and achy back) and then flipped and landed on my back in the mud. Definitely had the wind knocked out of me.

First thing I saw was this Liberian girl screaming. She grabbed my hand, crying, trying to pull me up. Next I saw Jake running down, and then I thought, "Now I know what I put my characters through." XD Well, I was not hurt permanently, but I did have mud all over my clothes. In my sister's own words, "I thought you had DIED. I will never be a nurse in traumatic circumstances because I stopped breathing when I saw you fall." Haha. In MY own words, "Then you would have been the next patient!"

Everybody was trying to pull me to my feet, but my hips were really painful at that point. Now, though, I'm fine. Mostly.

Funny things--I managed to leave the box ON the bridge while I fell off. And after the girl stopped crying my sister heard her bragging about how 'she helped the white woman up.' Everyone was more scared than I was, too. XD

My dad and younger sister were coming back from the compound and a dozen different people told them the white woman fell of the bridge. The first time they heard (secondhand from my sister):

Liberian: "The white woman fell of the bridge!"

Dad: "Which one?"

Liberian: "The small one."

Good to know I'm 'the small one.' XD

Well, drawing is going well, but not much else is going on. :P

:D

--Vrenith

Beagle Puppy

I finally finished a drawing--this one only took a couple hours to complete. I finished it this evening, so there are probably plenty of flaws I will have to fix when I have better light...

Also, NaNoWriMo is going well...my wordcount is currently 10,017 words. :)

Bye-bye. ;)

--Vrenith

Scenic Coconut Tree

I've been meaning to post this picture for several weeks, but this is the first time I've gotten around to it. I got this one, again, from my art teacher's book. Many thanks! I enjoyed this one a lot, and it was relatively easy.

 

The lines on the palm branches aren't quite as prominent as I'd like, because I had to use a fingernail, lacking the craft knife my teacher suggested.

Enjoy!

 

--Vrenith

 

The Silent Assassin

Creeping in beneath us--will I survive it this time? Or will I fail? Procrastination is on the prowl...but he is only the Assassin's sidekick. The true villain? NANOWRIMO. Sweet dreams! ^_^

Feathers and Fans

Nice name, isn't it? Well, I must say that's the name of a knitting pattern for a dishcloth...but what I'm going to talk is mostly feathers, pretty much no fans.

There are two girls who have been coming to our house before and after school, and one of the girls, who is nineteen, leaves her son, Theo (pronounced 'Teo'), with us for the day. He's maybe a year and eight months and is hilarious, though he doesn't help me get my schoolwork done...>_>

ANYWAYS, one of the girls told Alex that she would get a chicken that they could keep together. Well, today they brought a small, country chicken who has been named Life Can Change, (Liberians love these expressive names--a favorite one is Let Them See, which we shortened to LTS) but has been dubbed LCC.

The chicken's feathers are ruffled in this picture...I don't know why. But it LOOKS nice. ;)

And those aren't my fingers. ;)

--Vrenith

Here are the pictures I promised. :) Enjoy!

 

            This is the statue horse I did with my teacher's book. However, her colors were slightly different from mine, and she had a much bigger pack of crayons. I have a sixty-two pack, so a pretty nice selection, but she has over one hundred different shades in hers. Thankfully, I only had to improvise once on the mane. I didn't have the color Antique Brass, so I used another, though I can't recall which one I used.

 

9x12 on Multi Media paper

 

 

 

 

This next one is the only one I've done without the book--I graphed the picture, and then drew the outline with pencil. I don't usually use graphs because they mar the paper (I have problems with drawing lightly), but I gave in on this, just to make sure I would do it accurately. :)

 

I used a piece of paper and colored a bit with all my brown tones and a couple yellow ones and labeled them, and laid them on the photo to find which ones matched. So, this is a fairly accurate picture. I hope.

 

9x12 Sketch paper (it doesn't have any other classification)

 

 

 

 

All right, and thus concludes my post. :)

 

--Vrenith

Back in Black

The above phrase is partially true. I'm back in my Liberian house, helping do laundry by hand, doing my school, and talking to a dozen kids at once. :) I missed all the clamor. 

Mreow.

Anyways, we're back, safe and sound. No monkey, of course, but all of our other pets are safe. :) 

However, Ninja was not here when we came back. She hates strangers, and evidently went outside and only came in for meals, and even then not every night. When we came, they hadn't seen her for several days. 

The little kittens, Chai, Cess, and Snitzel, were there, a little bigger, but very scared. The people who stayed at our house said they came out to eat, then went and hid again. They wouldn't come up at first, but when they did, they just purred...and purred...and purred. If we stopped petting them and walked away, they'd wander the hallway and meow. 

There's an old burnt out building outside of our fence, and one of the security (not one of ours) said that he'd see Ninja over there sometimes. So we went to look. Now, this wasn't dangerous, because even though its burned out, its cement, so its not like we're going into an old, rickety, fire-weakened wooden building. :) Some spots have zinc on the roof, but other rooms are just open. 

There were cat pawprints everywhere, but no Ninja. Alex and I went back later that evening and--in one of those open rooms--there was Ninja! She let me pick her up, and we carried her home. She's doesn't like the dogs or the security, so I held her with one hand, and the other was on her scruff, just in case. Thankfully, she doesn't mind being held by the scruff, and knows she can't get away, so she was relatively calm. 

She was skinny, but very happy to see us. :) Once in our bedroom, she calmed down considerable, and we fed her some rice and sauce. Next thing we know, she's purring and we get a painful love-bite on the chin. XD 

Today Jake, my mom, and I helped Isaac do the laundry because there was so much today. My mom splashed me several times and got my new Skillet shirt wet...>_> 

Jolliff rice today--party food for the Liberians, but we like it so much we make it once a week. :) Mreow.

I've been working with crayon lately, with the help of my teacher's book, Realistic Crayon Drawings. I fall short in most of the exercises, but I did draw a successful plum and a pretty good statue horse. Also, I did a drawing WITHOUT the book, and it worked out rather well. ^_^ I have a sixty-two count box of crayons, so I have a pretty wide range of colors. Unfortunately, my teacher has over one hundred different colors, and thus I have to improvise on some points. 

While in the States, my grandma decided to have Grandpa take me out to get an early birthday present, so I got five different sketchbooks--one normal Bristol, and a bunch of others to test crayon on. My mom went crazy, and after I bought the sketchbooks, I didn't have any money left, so she went and bought five extra pencils, a sharpener, the crayons, and a couple other things. I always feels sick when I buy things...especially with other people's money. :P

The night before we left, three of my mom's friends came over to help pack, and one of them brought us a bunch of things to take. Some skirts and tank tops for my mom and sisters, pens for Ry, along with a case, and for me? Art supplies. ^_^ Pastels, a large case of watercolors, watercolor paper, colored pencils (of a much nicer brand).

Man, I didn't spend a cent of the money I don't even have, and I'm completely furnished with art supplies. XD 

A friend of ours had their eleventh baby while we were in America--another thing to be grateful for. :) 

Well, I've exhausted my supply of information. I should get off, or else I'll come up with something else to discuss at length. XD I'll try to post pictures of my crayon art--but don't take that as a promise. ;)

--Vrenith

America

The Pinch is back, and thus your bruise!

Meow.

Sad news, but also good news. Good news first, eh?

Well, we're in America now--Kansas at the moment, but going to Iowa tomorrow morning. Our last two weeks have been PACKED, and only one week left!

We were about to leave the house in Liberia to get the luggage across the monkey bridge and into the other compound we were renting, but there appeared to be a storm approaching. We made it down to the bridge in plenty of time--but then one of our neighbors began to come across from the other side. That wouldn't be so bad, but this man has one paralyzed arm, so imagine the speed with which he traveled. :P The poor guy couldn't hold on very well.

Then, it started to rain. We struggled to get the suitcases across, but by the time I made it to the other compound, the luggage, my backpack, and I were totally drenched. Lovely getting on the plain damp and smelling like mildew. :P All the Kindles were fine, but my brand new Bristol pad of paper was ruined. And I don't have any money to buy a new one. Oh, wait. This is all bad news. XD

Well, I managed to get one of my mom's shirts (way too big) and her African skirt (Even more too big! I tied it with a ponytail) and rode on the plane like that. I liked to plane ride, more or less. Thankfully out of my wet clothes. Once my lappa (correct spelling? 'Tis a length of fabric that can be used for sewing or just a wrap-around skirt) was dry, I wore that since it fit much better. :)

I sat by Ry, but she fell asleep so I didn't have much company on my sleepless plane ride. I don't sleep on planes, and Jake is even worse. I TRIED to sleep and got forty-five minutes to an hour of doze-wake-up routine. I just couldn't sleep. I don't think I ever really FELL asleep, just kind of faded into oblivion...

The plane ride to Ghana was two, two and a half hours, then from there to Atlanta was twelve hours. And from there, two more hours to Wichita, Kansas.

So, a pretty long plane ride. :P

We stayed at my grandma's for two days, then went to Oklahoma for a family reunion (Grandma's nine brothers and sisters and my mom's twenty-four cousins multiplied to fifty due to spouses--and their kids. XD) So pretty much, we have a big extended family. We had a great time and did a bunch of stuff.

We came back to Grandma's for a couple of days, then went to Colorado for two and a half days to see some Liberians who've come to America. :) The daughter called me "Liberian Girl" the whole time. She's really nice. I did my attempt at Liberian English, and they just loved that. When I said something correctly, they'd be like, "Ah! You hear that? She say, ____" It was funny. And then one of the guys' wife has the same name as me, and I never knew if people were talking to me or to her. It was great.

Back at Grandma's now for two days, and from Iowa we're going to KC to see people there, then back here, then...back to Liberia to see my dogs and kittens. :)

We went to my grandpa's farm and saw Beatrice! She's not that much TALLER, but she's really filled out and her coat came in really nicely. Very soft. :) She was so excited to see us! I'd been kind of afraid she wouldn't remember us, but she didn't bark once while we were there. She's the same as ever--rolls over when you touch her, jumps. She's a big sweetie.

And here's the beginning of the sad news.

The monkey has had four fits--strange little seizure-like things, and they got worse each time. We thought they were done after the third (the second and third ones we thought he was going to die). We got a call a couple of days ago that said that Bobby had a fit and died. We have no idea what he had (could be something was wrong with his brain, or maybe epilepsy) but it was horrible. Better this way, though, than having to suffer those fits. :'/

On a happy note, my mom's cheesecake is famous. O_o We searched "___(name inserted)'s cheesecake," and hers was the first that showed up on the list. :) We read a bunch of posts on blogs from people who didn't know my mom but loved her cheesecake. Haha. ;)

I'd post it, but I don't know it.

Well, see you. :P

--Vrenith

Here's a long distance call from West Africa...from a certain assassin known only as the Pinch. O_O :O :O

ANYWAYS, greetings to you all, from all the strange animals here, including our newest addition, Bobby the monkey. He evidently thinks I'm his mother and hangs on like a tick. And screams when he's pulled off. >_> Nights are not easy for him. XD He screeches and hangs on to our shirt, our hair...and while we hold him sleeps like a baby. As my grandfather would say, "He's quite a character."

He teases the dogs, and went so far as to grab Pippin's muzzle and nibble on him like a rabbit. *gasp* He did it to me too. XD And monkeys do NOT go 'ooh ooh ah ah' unless they're angry. XD They chirp kind of like a bird when they're happy, and groan when you pet them when they're sleepy.

CURIOUS GEORGE IS INACCURATE.

Not that I'll tell them that or anything...>_> Just saying.

Monkeys can do zippers, but they can't do knot. Thank goodness.

When he's mad, as I've mentioned, he screams, shows his teeth, jumps up and down, and makes a sound kind of like a mongoose's war cry. :) Quite a character.

As for the kittens, Cess has grown to be the biggest and the fattest. She's twice as wide as the others and her paws are huge! If nobody knew her temperament, she'd be the first to go if we were giving 'em away...she has white paws, a white face, and tabby everywhere else, and fat cheeks. She's very adorable, hates to be held, meows, and has extremely sharp claws with which she likes to dig in...which I know all from experience. She's a glutton and literally growls at the other kittens when they're all eating together, and runs off with her food if anyone comes near her. She tends to rip the bottom of the trashbag in the kitchen to get the old dried fish, so we have to put it out of reach.

One day, she ripped the bag yet again, and I scared them away and put it up. But she kept hacking a little, and pawing at her mouth. I thought maybe she'd eaten a pepper (haha), or gotten a bone lodged in her throat. Upon opening her mouth by force (with great, strangled meows protesting all the way) we saw that there was a hard, flat bone stuck on the roof of her mouth. XD She just couldn't get it off. Alex picked at it, and Cess hacked it out. The little silly kitten.

Chai, the white kitten with spots, is not extremely cute, since she's going through this thin-faced stage, and eats the least. She's long, but not fat at all, even though she eats her share. Her fur is kind of straggly and longer than the others, but not extremely soft. She's sweet, though, and every once in awhile will purr for one of us (something we've been trying to get them to do for months! They really like us, and Chai will even come when I call, but they don't purr that often). Yesterday she jumped on my lap and fell asleep while I was drawing. :)

One night she managed to climb Jake's pant leg, jump onto the table in the kitchen, steal a chunk of dried fish, and run off with it! She is very good at climbing and when I'm getting their food ready at night sometimes climbs and meows at me.

Snitzel, the gray kitten, is actually more of a light tabby...she's darker than Ninja. She's also extremely shy, and runs away from even us this time, though in the last week she's suddenly been coming out a little more and warming up to me. She even climbs on my lap trying to get food. When you try to pet her, she kind of shrinks under it and keeps walking, but when she's sleepy she likes it. I'm glad we didn't give her away, because now we realize she's not extremely strong. She has trouble eating hard or chewy meat, but loves bread and fish and chicken. She also doesn't have a very strong grip when it comes to climbing, even though she WAS the first to figure out how to climb on the bed. :)

Then, only a week ago, I knelt by the bed to get something, and she was there, sleeping on the edge of the mosquito net. She kind of rolled over and let me pet her belly, then rolled back. Then, I realized she was purring. She, the most shy one, actually purred for me! That's the first time she's ever purred for anyone in the family. :) Cess purred for Jake one time, and a couple times when she was really small, and Chai has purred for both me and Alex, but Snitzel, the oh-so scared, shy, sweet kitten never did for anyone. :) She's been getting a lot more friendly and doesn't run away when we walk up quite so often. ^_^

Ninja...the very word describes what news there is of her. Someone told my brother that its common for a very happy cat to lightly nip your cheek when happy (which Ninja does rather often, getting cat hair in my mouth from her constant face-rubbing), but never does a cat who loves their owners bite them on purpose. XD Never met Ninja. She most obviously loves us, by the face-rubbing and purring I mentioned earlier, but then she goes 'Ninja' as we call it--when we wipe of the bed, she scrambles around, chasing your hand, or goes under the sheets or attacks things (such as your hand) moving under the sheets. She even went so far to leap through the air and pounce on my arm--and, of course, bite it. :) Of course.

Merry and Pippin have been going through the usual routine--happy-whining-Merry wants to be petted, likes to jump on people--Pippin gets jealous and bits Merry, and it all ends in growls and play-fighting. XD I love my dogs.

 However, the next dog we get will be my dad's choice, and he wants a big dog. Where will that put Pippin, I wonder? Well, anyways, we went to go look at these South African Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies. They're...oh, maybe seventy-five percent Rhodesian Ridgeback? Well, the father was HUGE. Over one hundred fifty pounds, perhaps, and its paws almost as big as my closed fist. I couldn't tell which one was the mother, since they had several tied up, but the puppies were in a different pen, being four  months. There were only two, though there was a third that was six months old. However, he was smaller than the four month ones and was so out of the question, not to mention he seemed to have a nervous problem. There was one male, and one female of the four month ones. We got Pippin at four months, so I was kind of imagining that size...no, these puppies are bigger than Pippin is now! The male was brown, with a black muzzle, and was wary of you at first, but once warmed up to you was very friendly. Good qualities in a watch dog. Don't know if we'll get one yet, though. :)

One of our Security Guards (he's twenty-four, I think) just graduated highschool! Also, Ezekiel, another of our Security Guards, is bringing his wife, who's visiting from America, to come see us. So, we're kind of having a small celebration...we're eating GB (kind of like fufu, 'cept its a different sauce) and bitterball and fried chicken (Mamie makes it the best!!) and sala, which is kind of like a potato salad.

Yum. I can't wait.

I'm entering into a dragon-drawing contest just for fun. :) Not sure exactly what I'm doing, but hey? I've got nothing else to do. XD

Oh, and here are some pictures... Mwahaha. The scanner (yes, the scanner is now working!) I used bleached them, especially the Arabian horse. Beware; its much darker than it appears. MUCH darker. It was a black horse, after all. >_>

ANNND...my drawing of Matt Smith. The photo, I believe, came from a part when he must choose between two bad alternatives. >_> Cheers!

The scanner bleached his hair, and also made the skin appear to darkly shadowed, and his cheeks too brightly highlighted. I blended it thoroughly, but this makes it appear as if I ended each shadow abruptly. :P 'Tis a leetle better in real life. :) Ooh, ooh, and lookie! My signature in the corner. ;)

G'bye.

--Vrenith

Monkeys, Kittens, Dogs--What Next?

Hey, ya'll. This post'll be pretty much ramblings of the past couple days...Since I'm currently writing this on a LibreOffice, things may not all happen at the same time. :) Blogger is currently not working for me, so I'll just have to write it here for now. (P.S. Obviously it is working now) 

Currently, we have four cats and two dogs—Pippin you know of already. We still have him (he's quite the guard dog—bites the fence savagely and growls, but is as docile as a lamb to people INSIDE the fence, unless you're a Liberian kid. If you're a Liberian kid, don't come in at all. The last one who did nearly had his shoe bit off...>_>). We also have Merry now, too (yes, LOTR all the way!). He's brown with shortish ears that go backwards, but aren't floppy and don't stand up. He has brown eyes, a black muzzle, and is so timid and eager to please people that he whines when you pet him a lot. :) We got him about a month ago, but he's as old as Pippin. He was beat in his old home, and not always fed. They moved and abandoned him, so we took him in. :)

Our cats—well, you all know Ninja. She's taken on a motherly streak since we got these kittens. A friend of ours found them in a school closet, and no mother showed up over night. They were so young they're eyes were still closed. The teachers were pretty much going to throw 'em out the window, but instead a boy took them (four of them) to the family who own Ninja's mother, Stubs. She had some milk left, and half-nursed them. One died, but three survived. Eventually, they gave them to us (Stubs was dried up and about to have more kittens) and we completely bottle-fed them for a long while. That was maybe two months ago. Now, they're almost as big as Ninja when we got her, and are completely weaned. Ninja attacks them sometimes, and we've only been able to have them out at night for the last...oh, three weeks to a month? Anyways, sometimes she'll roughly bite them and then begin to lick them. Thus, the motherly side of Ninja. They all love my sister's carpet and fall asleep on it. :)

The kittens' names are Chai, Cess, and Snitzel. Chai is white with black spots, and kind of has a silly face. She's longer than the others, but thinner. We decided to name them all after cultural symbols or objects. Chai is named after tea from India.

Cess is the sassy one—gets annoyed when people pick her up while she's playing and once bit my sister while she tried to give her a bath. XD She's mostly black (kind of a tabby black) with a white face, paws, and stomach. She's the one who had a lot of problems when we first got them—she didn't have very good digestion, always had a big stomach, and had a hernia on her stomach from her umbilical cord not being cut right. It is completely gone now, but was huge when we got her. :) Unfortunately, the other day the poor kitten had a seizure, just like Ninja...>_> It was short, though, and we think she jumped off something. She's fine now. Anyways, we named her after a river here in Liberia, and when we looked it up, found it is also an Irish word for 'curse.' Haha.

Snitzel (Sh-nits-ull) is gray, like Ninja, and is the smallest be the most well-formed. She's pretty good-tempered, though not as cuddly as Chai. We named her after a German food. ^_^ Though we sometimes call her Shnizzle...

More news? Well, a couple days after my last post, our mongoose died for unknown reasons. We just found her one morning, feet in the air. :'( A very sad day for us all. Now, though, death has stopped its walk through our halls, and all of our animals have survived since then. We're hoping to find another mongoose and possibly a monkey...>_>

Actually, we saw a monkey at the pump the other day! He had a leash around his waist and sat on the guy's shoulders with his hands on the man's head while the guy pumped water. We asked if he was friendly, and got to touch him. He actually tried to shake our hands. XD He was gray, with eyes close together. He had a Liberian name, but I can't remember it. When the man filled the gas can's lid (they use these things to pump water in), the monkey climbed down and literally stuck his face in it and drank. XD The monkey was awesome. ^_^

Liberian English is strange. You not only have to change the way you say things and the words you say, but you have to change the TONE. So that you have the right accent. They can't pronounce the 'th,' and thus can't say my real name, and they've officially named my older sister 'Alice' even though her name is Alex. :)

“Ey, I wanna spea wih you.” vrs. “Hey, I want to speak with you.”

“Wha you eat today?” vrs. “What did you eat today?”

“Can you help us wih a watta bottle?” vrs. “Can we have a waterbottle?”

“My dog is very fine, yeah? You wanna buy my dog?” Haha. You can't stop and admire a puppy because sometimes they'll try to sell it to you. XD

Yeah, you probably get the point. XD Liberian English is hard to type up...I wish I had a recording instead. But I don't. :)

Pippin is called 'Pinpin' by most Liberians, so we've kinda picked up the nickname. They say, “Wha your dog name?” and I say, “This is Merry,” they say, “Oh, Mary a girl dog?” and I say, “No, Merry like 'Merry Christmas!'”

I once tried to spell it out to Jerry, one of the neighborhood kids, but then realized that he'd told us he can't read...smart. Real smart.

Currently doing One Year Adventure Novel. Just started the Novel outline. Glug. We're doing two lessons a day or more at this rate, because we want to write the whole thing in the month of May. :P

I finish school this week...or it could be last week by the time I publish this blogpost. O_o Anyways, I finish on April 26th, 2012. Not allowed to do school on the 27th...Ry's birthday. :) Our very last book of the year is Ender's Game, and I will be finishing it tomorrow...I finished most of my school weeks ago but only have readers left...my only subject left. :P Other than OYAN and French, of course. And Composition, which I'll be doing next month. :P

French...well, let's just say I know maybe ten, twenty words and botch them. Still, its French, right? Yeah. Right.

I know the word for life in French...its riz. Translated, rice. XD That's what life is here in Liberia. Rice. If you're not eating rice, you're not eating, as a Liberian once told my brother. And its true. We eat Liberian food every day here except for Sunday...from palm butter to groundnut stew. All over rice. Want a list?

Jolliff rice
Palm butter
Cassava
Potato greens
Pumpkin (known as squash in America! 'Tis not in the same category as jack o' lanterns!)
Okra
Groundnut stew (they call peanuts groundnuts)
Pepper soup (LITERALLY MADE OF SPICY LIBERIAN PEPPERS!!! Haha. Spicier than jalepenos. Oh yeah)
Beans
Fufu (just guessing at spelling)
Fried cabbage
Collared greens
Eggplant (much smaller than the eggplants in America, and more white than purple)

And more. O_o Liberians like spicy food...a lot. The kids eat pepper soup without flinching. We also get a variety of exotic fruits, depending on the season. Mangoes (or 'plums' as the Liberians call them) are in season right now, and especially good picked right off the tree. ^_^ You can usually find bananas, and recently we've gotten some oranges. You can go on the street and get a coconut if you want one, and there are papaya (methinks they're out of season) and pineapple and watermelon...the watermelons are all dark green, not striped like American ones. We went to visit someone, and they gave us bananas, oranges, butter pear (avocados), a pineapple, a watermelon, cucumbers...lots of good things to eat. They grew it all themselves. You don't usually find tomatoes here though. They don't survive in the heat, methinks.

We've seen a couple of snakes so far, nothing to be scared of...our guards killed most of them, but missed one. :)

More news...

There was a rabid dog a half-mile down the beach. Scary. This happened...oh, a month ago? Several people were bit, and many, many dogs had to be put down. The people we got Stan and Valli from had to put down both of their puppies (the mom died shortly after we got our puppies from snake venom sprayed in her eyes) and the husband was bit trying to help them. He got shots, and he's perfectly fine now. We've been getting the rabies vaccinations—three of 'em. We've gotten two so far, and another in two weeks.

And what do you do when there's been a rabid dog nearby?

You research rabies, of course. XD Lovely, eh? I looked it up briefly in cats, dogs, and a little in humans. I happen to want to be a veterinarian, so I can't help it.

And then our security guards (you have to have them here—that, and a dog. A dog, a fence, and guards are the best choices for security here) began to ask me questions. They know of rabies and know that its dangerous, but they don't know ABOUT it. “Wait—more animals than dog can get rabies?” Thomas asked me. I explained that most warm-blood animals can. Then somehow we got onto the subject of alligators and whether they fight with their tail or their mouth...>_>

We have several security guards—Jonathon, James (he's temporary, but he's a night guard right now), Thomas, Ezekiel, Aloysius (pronounced Eee-lush-us), and Friday. They take shifts—one from early morning to four o'clock in the afternoon, another from four to ten, and two to three people are on the night shift. There are a couple more temporary guards—Dolo being one who is here at night when one of the other guards has a day off.

My art pencil broke...the new one got lost in the mail...I haven't drawn a real drawing for...WEEKS. I'm dying here. >_> Okay, so maybe not dying, but I have nothing to do any more. School? I've only got readers. Read a book? I've read all the ones on my Kindle. Play a game? Nada. I can doodle some, but I'm running out of doodling paper... GRAHH!!!

As you can see, I'm a beast. Its late. Possible reason? Ah.

My One Year Adventure Novel MC is named Brennan Holster...awesome, eh?

Regulations on this novel?

Twelve chapters.

One scene per chapter.

Write only in first person.

Yup. **headdesk**

I'm suffering from lack of sleep. I should go. But I really don't want to.

Meh. This is too long already. Goodnight!

--Vrenith

EDIT: This is a couple days later. We saw a baby monkey! The man who lives at what we call the 'warehouse' got his sons a baby monkey. They brought it over, and we cut up a mango for him to eat. It was hilarious. He'd climb into our laps, but didn't like our hair and batted it away in annoyance. It was great. 

He tried to tease the dog...poor Pippin had his face sticking out of the bars the whole time. He really wanted to get ahold of that monkey. Merry, though, didn't touch the monkey. :) 

We gave him water in a plastic cup, and held it up to his mouth. He actually drank out of it! It was funny. The boys had fashioned a 'diaper' out of a plastic bag. He had a piece of yarn around his waist, with a long line. He was hilarious. :) 

And...HAPPY BIRTHDAY RY!! She got a drum, two 'sassa,' I think they're called (gourds with beads strung around it, you hold the end and move the gourd), and a Liberian painting from me, depicting huts and a canoe on the water. :)  It was painted by a man down the road a bit. 

Nothing else to say. ;)

--Vrenith

Sad Tales and Sad News

Heyo, my fellow bloggers and followers! I’ve been missing for awhile now…rumor has it that a group of renegade African chickens took me captive. O_O

Actually, its been quite busy here. Several pets now, but we’ve had some bad experiences with our pets. Every single pet we’ve gotten so far has had something bad happen to it in the first few weeks or, in one case, months after we get them.

Example! Since we’ve moved into our house: Jax, the first puppy we got, a sweet little thing, got sick, didn’t eat for four days, and then died. A very sad day for us all. :P We now know what he contracted, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Second, our mongoose, on the same day Jax died, fell from some high place and hit her head, causing her eye to swell and her nose to bleed. The swelling went down and she seemed fine—until a few days later she that part of her was paralyzed. We thought it was probably brain damage. But, knowing mongooses, we hoped she’d regain her ability to walk and all that—her former owners once had a mongoose who managed to completely paralyze itself, but in a few days was just fine—and indeed she has. One of her legs is still stiff, but she’s able to climb in and out of her cage by herself now, eat a lot, and all that. Anyways, she’s mostly better.

We then got a puppy who seems part golden retriever (has the big brown liquid eyes and loves people) and named him Pippin. Actually, his story is rather strange. When we were having our tile laid, a tile layer handed us the excitable yellow scruff of a puppy the day Jax died, saying someone sent it. We fell in love with him immediately, but then the tile layer told my mom the dog was fifty dollars US. We got our last for five! We had to send the puppy back, and the owner came back for him. Actually, he gave it to the tile layer to sell for twenty five or thirty, but evidently the tile layer thought he should get twenty dollars in the bargain. The owner apologized and took the dog back with him.

A few days later, we still wanted that poor puppy who’d been so excited to see us. We asked around, and we ended up buying him for fifteen dollars (thirty dollars had been the typical ‘white’ price. If you’re white, you supposedly have a lot of money). We had a vet come and deworm him and give him a rabies shot. He wouldn’t eat for two days, but then began to eat with a large appetite.

 Then, a week or so later, we got two dogs from some Americans we know, some nice German Pointers. Their mother was HUGE, so we ended up getting two; a girl and a boy. The girl was mostly chocolate brown with a white belly and some white markings but a fully brown face. We named her Valli, after someone in America we know. She totally acted like her, too. The boy had a really dark brown face with long whiskers and a white stripe. He was mostly white on his body, except for a dark brown spot and a black spot on his back. His name was Stan, after Valli’s husband. They were both pretty stocky dogs.

Then came the disaster. Five days to a week after we got them, Valli got a round stomach one night after eating. We thought she’d just eaten a lot. Then, the next day, she was throwing up. We knew she probably had worms, because evidently, just after we got our puppies, all the other puppies in the litter got worms. Unfortunately, it was the weekend, so we couldn’t get medicine. Then, Stan got a round stomach and the next day began throwing up. We got medicine that day and gave it to them. They took it fine the first day, but then the next Stan couldn’t hold his down. Valli lasted a couple more days, never able to eat, and then one night started breathing bad. We knew she was going to die.

The next morning, she was breathing so loud we could hear her in the next room. I carried her outside, limp but still alive and breathing really loudly, to the sand in one corner of our yard. She would breath loudly for awhile, and then her breathing would be quiet, and then get louder. I knew what it was—the worms (Roundworm was what she had, and she became skinny because they ate any food we could get to her stomach—not that she would eat) were coming up her throat. They made it hard to breathe. And if the roundworm was too big…well, I won’t say anymore, but I’m sure you know what would happen.

My mom came out with Jake and Manny and prayed that Valli would go quickly. She was quiet through the entire prayer, and then started up again. She died a few moments later.

It was a horrible day, especially for Stan who could still walk around and was faring much better than her. He whined a lot, looking for his sister. He deteriorated rapidly after that day. He became so thin every bone was clear, and his eyes were sunken. We fed him milk with a spoon, and gave him deworming medicine. He couldn’t keep most of it down. We woke up this morning, two days after Valli’s death, thinking he would be dead. He was barely alive, couldn’t even move his head. The next time we checked on him, he was gone. He didn’t die like Vally did—no, he literally starved to death.

And so now we have three graves in our backyard, but still our list of animal mishaps continues. The night before Valli died, a dog came into our yard and attacked Pippin. Since we didn’t know if he had rabies or not, we’ve had to quarantine Pippin. Poor Pippin, he’s so very lonely. (The Liberians can’t really say ‘Pippin,’ and so it sounds like they say ‘Pinpin.’ The Adventures of Pinpin, eh?) We gave him deworming medicine, just in case, and he did have worms, though of a different sort and probably not half as dangerous. We’ll have to deworm him once a month to make sure.

THEN, we also have a little gray kitten that we’ve named Ninja (she’s totally ninja—she darts around the bed and pounces on our feet and books and hands…and pencils as we write). She did a very stupid thing the other day, on the day Valli died, methinks—she jumped off the top bunk, and we think she hit her head. Anyways, she had a seizure and freaked everyone out. She was extremely tired afterwards, but is now back to her mischievous, ninja self.

Ah, pouring out all my sorrows! Ha.

Tomorrow, I’m to teach a Liberian woman (she grew up in Minnesota, actually, so she has perfect American English) and some kids she’s bringing over how to draw. XD We’ll see how that goes.

Anyways, goodnight, my friends! I’d blog about so many more things—all the wonders of Africa, not all these Satanic things that are happening (really, its not normal—even for Africa—to have this many things happen to your pets. I’m sure Satan is involved) if I had time. Hopefully I shall blog more! I only had time to blog the saddest parts of my life right now. XD Next time shall be much better!

Oh, yes, and I’m doing One Year Adventure Novel.

G’bye! ;)

--Vrenith