So the poor kitty is fending for it’s life in the next door neighbor’s roof. Either way, I think the cat will live with us.
Yesterday, I was at school because they were watching a movie.
Beforehand, I went to get pizza with Ilinke, Gabby, Mohammed, and Francois. Then, at about 6:05 we went for the two minute walk (Mohammed rode my bike) to school. Then we watched the Louis Giglioh movie about how big God is.
It was a hot chocolate/blanket night, and both before and afterwards, we were just hanging around drinking hot chocolate.
About 19h50 (7:50pm), Ilinke gets a text from my mom that reads ‘Ilinke, will you tell Madeleine to get cat food? Thanks.’ Ilinke tells me, and I’m like what? And then I realize that means the cat’s back, and my mom is actually really looking into keeping him/her.
Unfortunately, that meant I had to leave, right then, because the Spar (grocery store) closes at 20h00 (8pm). So I left, got some cat food, and went home. The cat had actually been sleeping on my bed (can we have a cooperative ‘awwwww’?), but was now being given raw egg – and I have no clue whose idea that was, but can we have a cooperative ‘eewww’?
The cat slept with me all night, I think, mostly on a pillow/blanket pile next to my bed. Then this morning it finished off the cat food from last night.
This is all good and fine, but the next door neighbors have only had half of their problem solved; the cat doesn’t sleep in their garage at night, but sits in their roof in the day time. While I understand that they wouldn’t want the cat in their roof, I do think they must also patch up the hole, and then deal with the cats and birds living in their roof.
Oh! And I would like to put forward the name ‘Cricket,’ because when the cat purrs, it sounds like (s)he is chirping. *Ahem, Lily and Claire. If you are reading this, note that I just put forth a name. A name with a meaning behind it. Beat posting nominations for the cat’s name of the internet. Ha!*
Signing off, so I can go to Powerhouse,
-MHS
So, yesterday.. and the night before.. and the night before that, I’d get woken up at like 5-6 AM by this meowing. Turns out this beautiful orange cat has been secretly living in our neighbors garage. These said neighbors were planning on catching him/her tonight, and tomorrow giving this cat to the SPCA. But, tonight, the cat was meowing outside my door at about 20h30 to 21h30. I went outside and pet the cat, and he/she was very nice about it, and finally I invited him/her in, the cat ate biltong, drank some milk, sniffed around, and finally decided to leave. But my mom set up a whole bed and entry through the window thing, and then, just 20 minutes ago, the cat came in the window, and ate some biltong. But then, I walked into the bowl of milk I left on the floor for the cat, and scared the cat away. He/she hasn’t come back yet, but given our track record, we’ll see.
Aaack! A cat!!!
(almost)
Today was going to be our terminal dive. We arrived, bright and early, sometime in the morning, all ready to take the preparative quizzes, take the final exam, snack on peanut m’n’m’s, and take that last dive. All this to allow us to say, “We are qualified to dive to a depth of 18 and 15 meters without a guide. We are real divers.”
Of course, given the (almost) preceding this post, you’ve gathered that I’m not qualified. We did take the quizzes. We all passed the quizzes. We took the exam. We got all our gear on, giving them time during our dive to check the exams. We went on the boat, and a one bloody cut and long boat ride later, we arrived at our scuba diving locus.
We all exited the boat, put on our snorkels, swam to the anchor line, and double checked that we agreed on protocol. Finally, we put on our regulators (the thing which gives you air from your tank when you breath in, and allows the air to go out when you exhale), grasped the line and descended, popping our ears every couple of feet. All was skookum.
This dive was mostly testing our navigational abilities, while emending previous exercises. The navigational test required us to us a compass to go in a straight line, then come back. We had to do this whilst using the buddy system. This means Jack had to follow Daddy, when Daddy was doing it, Daddy had to follow Jack, and Daddy had to follow me -the guide couldn’t come, since his back would then be turned toward 2 of us, and he has to keep an eye on us.
Daddy and Jack both successfully navigated, but Daddy’s mask was leaking, so we headed to the surface. On the surface, he and the guide switched masks, and we all headed back down. Unfortunately, one of my ears wouldn’t I equalize, which meant I couldn’t go down, and had to try and go up to get them both equalized. I went up and down a few feet about 3 times, and my right ear wouldn’t equalize, pro rata to my left ear.
This sadly ended our dive, and thus I didn’t get a chance to navigate underwater with the compass, and ipso facto I am not a qualified
•••••
[Edit: This was supposed to have been published the day before yesterday, but the internet failed. Attention, 3rd world countries, we don't appreciate all the lack of internet, electricity and water. Oh, and 1st world countries, it would behoove you to help them fix themselves.]
•°•°•°•*•°•°•°•
I have spent so much time in the ocean that I honestly feel as though I am made of salt. When I was eating a pear this morning for breakfast, I licked my finger, and it tasted like salt.
I was scratching my leg, and I was either coming out with sand or salt; either, viable options.
My mouth is constantly dry, and my body dehydrated, simply because of the amount of salt I am deluged with.
I just took a shower, and still, my hair is in a bad, salty position.
•°•°•°•*•°•°•°•
In other, scuba diving news we took two ocean water dives today. It was awesome; we saw tons of fish -Angel Fish (Scars, as my dad says), Clownfish (Nemos, as my dad says), and regal tang (Dorys, as my dad also says).
Also, later, when I was snorkeling in front of the house, I saw this long, narrow fish with a long pointy tail and nose.
•°•°•°•*•°•°•°•
•°•°•°•*•°•°•°•
Jack, Daddy and I are getting scuba diving certified! It is so cool.
We’re taking a course at a hotel about a 20 minute drive from us. I think they have a small number of attenders, as we’re the only ones, and there were three people with us when we were out on (in?) open water. The course is actually by an American Association, PADI.
Today, we put on our wetsuits, goggles, air tank, weights, and vests which hold our regulator, extra regulator, pressure gauge, air tank, valves to fill our vest up, and the vest itself which acts as a life preserver of sorts.
First off, we went in the pool, and got used to using the equipment; we practiced breathing with the air tank, blowing the water out of our masks, pulling our regulator out of our mouths and putting it back, and getting the hang of swimming. Some of us looked pretty funny at first, with our hair floating like angel halos around our heads, our legs looked crazy bent as we tried to copy our guide and keep them straight, and under water some of us got really seriously blue from the cold.
After they (our guides) had decided that we were sufficiently prepared for open water, we took for said open water.
That was awesome. First, we got on a motor boat, and they drove us around the edge of the beach. About some distance from the beach, we got out, the driver anchored the boat, and the first instructor sat on the edge of the boat, facing in, then just fell over.
Subsequently, Daddy fell in. Jack, sat on the edge, but has never been one to fall backwards into things -if you know us from Austin, he wouldn’t be the one doing the eggplant dive. Because of this, I fell off backwards first, then Jack, and then the 2nd guide (the third was the driver of the boat and had to stay on to make sure the boat didn’t float away.
Falling off backwards was fine. I was a little worried as I sat and the guide counted down from three, but I ‘just did it’ and it was nice, even fun.
As we descended, we grasped the rope connecting the boat to the buoy to the ground. We kept having to pop our ears, by holding onto our noses, from outside the masks, and blowing out of our noses. I guess I might need to perfect this talent, as half the time I blew air out of my nose, instead of just blowing without allowing air out. This caused me to get air in my mask once or twice. Then I had to go through the whole process of getting the air out. *sigh*
By the time we neared the bottom, we could clearly see the fish. It was so awesome. I got to swim mere feet (less than one meter) from the reef. I could have reached out and touched tons of fish – if only they’d held still. There was great diversity down there, which really made it scads better.
Tomorrow, we’ll just do pool work (simple exercises and such), and then Sunday we’ll take a break. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we go out in the ocean. I assume it’ll be on Wednesday that we take the final exam, after a couple smaller tests, which will certify us to scuba dive on our own up to 15 meters (18 meters for Daddy) without a guide.
I’m pretty sure we’ll continue on for the last couple of days we’re here and get the advanced certification, which means we’ll be able to go deeper (30 meters for Daddy).
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Other than that, we’ve gone swimming, swimsuit shopping, Indian clothing shopping, bought indian food from street vendors, much as one would buy hotdogs or pretzels from NYC, gone for walks along beaches at sunset, mid-afternoon, and night, and discussed the stock market, and the impact of classical music versus pop music upon wine buying decisions.
It’s also pretty funny (and admiration causing) to see my mom speaking French to the people here. She took French in high-school, and went to France for a summer when she was 14.
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Oh! And Happy 4th of July!
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Tired, Salty, Sandy, Being Attacked By Mosquitos, and Signing off,
-Madeleine Sullivan
In answer to Paul’s question, we’re in Mauritius. We left our house at 6:30, left JNB at 9:30am. We arrived in Mauritius at 3:30pm; Mauritius is 2 hours ahead of Gauteng. Yesterday we drove – a one hour drive, I might add – to the town/rental house we’re at, which is in Grand Baie.
(Mostly) Everyone here’s main language is Creole, which sounds like French. (Mostly) Everyone’s second language is French. But quite a few people also speak English.
Our house is pretty nice, with four rooms; I’m the only person to get their own. We’re on the beach which is pretty much awesome. Biggest problems are the mosquitos, and it’s really humid, and we expected it to be cold at night – it isn’t – so we don’t have as many warm weather clothing as we would like. Minor difficulties though.
Jack, Daddy and I are going to get scuba diving certified. Unfortunately, I drank a half glass of the tap water this morning, and the tap water can make you feel sick. I didn’t know that until later, and just thought I was car sick, but I definitely felt (and still feel) sick.
This might impede our ability to go scuba diving, but I’m hoping I’ll be better.
My iPod is acting up, and says it’s locked for 14months (measured in minutes). It won’t even restore. And we leave tomorrow at 6:30am.
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