The animals in my life

OK, so for the last 6 or 7 weeks I've been living with the offspring of my cat, Kali. I originally gave her this name due to the alarming number of scratches I carried on my arms and legs courtesy of her claws. Since having kittens, she is like a completely different cat, and that is a good thing. Motherhood has mellowed her out like time does for a good cheese (which is something that doesn't exist here). I've found homes for two of the three kittens, but I can't bear to part with all three little rascals, so I am keeping the third one. I was struggling to come up with a good name for mine for awhile, almost accidentally choosing "Oliver" like that old Disney movie. Eventually, I found that in problems on naming kittens, it always best to consult one's niece. I mentioned my trouble to Grace, and she immediately gave me the name "Princess" for all three. I told her that wouldn't quite work, seeing as A) they can't all have the same name, and B) they are all fellas. She took it in stride and came right back at me with "Taco", "Nacho", and "Burrito". I was stunned. I doubt I could outdo those names even given 100 monkeys with 100 typewriters and 100 bottles of rum. So my little scamp is now official named Taco. The hilarious part of this is that the word "tako" in Swahili means buttock (yes, its singular). Everyone will think I am calling my cat "Buttock", but that's a price I'm willing to pay.

Over these few weeks, I've also been dealing with the polar opposite of the animal kingdom from kittens- safari ants. At least, I think that's what they are... I remember stories I used to hear about killer ants, possibly from Tanzania, that would swarm up a person and devour him in 2 seconds if he stumbled across their hill. Perhaps those stories were exaggerated, or perhaps I was watching a movie, but whatever the case, those very ants are laying seige to my house. I first took notice one day when I was walking along the road to my house and saw this big black line lying across the road. The way these ants travel is frightening, they form what looks like a solid river, comprised of thousands upon thousands of these centimeter-sized (Davis- that's a little more that 1/3 of an inch) beasts. Roughly half of their total length is their enormous jaws, which they have no hesitancies in using to chomp on one's toes. I have made the mistake of not watching where I step around these little devils, and I will tell you that tevas are minimal protection. I wasn't too concerned that day, I just stepped over their ant-river and continued walking. That night I went to the kitchen for a late night banana, and was instantly sad that I went barefoot. The ant-river had somehow snaked its way into my kitchen, and I had stepped right on it. The next few moments involved my cats being freaked out by the spastic jumping, stomping, and twitching that their master engaged in trying to rid his feet of the little biters. The crazy thing is that half an hour later, they were gone and had cleaned my floor of bread crumbs and various other bits of food. When I went to bathe the following day, I was chagrined to see that they had takin up residency in my bathtub. While I bathed, I constantly was alternating feet so that they wouldn't get me, and due to my tall-man lack of coordination I nearly fell many times. That would have been lovely... The new guy in my house, Mr. O'Malley, got pretty freaked out when I told him they'd been assaulting my castle (I found out that Tanzanians are very scared by these ants...). His solution? Burn them. To give him credit, it worked. We grabbed some old leaves and newspaper and roasted these ants but good. This was about a week ago, and so far they haven't returned en masse. I'm crossing my fingers, these little dudes are fierce. I don't want to scrap with them any more. But in all honesty, I prefer ants than what some other volunteers have to deal with. One girl has had mouse-sized spiders terrorizing her since she arrived. I think we all know that I would have cried and ran home (home being America and its lack of mouse-sized spiders).
PS- I'm dressed like a cowboy (hat and pink shirt and all) right now.