Está Panzona!! (Ay, Dios Mío!)

So it seems that while giving countless charlas about avoiding early pregnancies, I forgot to take my own advice. Bahahaha I just realized what kind of reaction that probably got out of my poor unsuspecting family!

Noooo I'm not pregnant!! But I think the extremely young cat that's taken to living in my house is. I knew I should've taken time out of my busy schedule to look for, buy, and administer the birth control injection they give to animals here, but it was just one of those “it can wait until tomorrow” errands; plus she's not technically my cat!  There I was, assuming I was in the clear because she's nowhere near fully grown yet, and much to my dismay, she went into heat.  She and my beloved departed Nico enjoyed every minute of what became the worst night of my existence. Take any knowledge you have of cats in heat, and imagine how horribly those screams and cries echo in a house with a zinc roof. Then imagine yourself kicking them out of the house and realizing that the next best place was apparently on top of that zinc roof.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink, and I'm pretty sure no one on my block did either. (Sad aside: For those of you who didn't find out from my Facebook, my cat, Nico, died a few weeks ago from eating food that my neighbors left out with rat poison in it. It was devastating. ='( May he rest in peace. The girl cat is technically my neighbor's, but may as well be mine, considering she spends 23 hours a day in my house.)

So here we are a little over a month later, and it seems that the only part of her tiny little body that's growing is her belly. Looks like I might have a pregnancy, bloody birth, and a litter of runts to deal with in the coming months. My horrified friends have all suggested “losing” her for a little while until she has them and finds her way home...but I feel like I'd be the equivalent of a mother kicking her pregnant teenager to the curb if I did that. Ahhh open to any and all suggestions/advice/etc considering I know absolutely nothing about caring for pregnant cats or preparing for kittens!! (Let's all cross our fingers and hope she's just getting fat!)

I guess while I'm writing, I'll give some other quick updates...

Summer vacation is unfortunately coming to a close. It's been a great two months though, first with a trip out to the Island of Ometepe with my closest Nicaraguan friends...then a trip HOME to see my family and amazing friends...then some day trips to the beaches here in my department...visits from other volunteer friends and their friends/family from the States...Mid-Service Training with Peace Corps...and there's still a little more to go!

From February 3^rd – 6^th, I'll be working as a counselor at a Leadership Camp that Peace Corps is sponsoring. I'll be in charge of 10 of the 95 high school kids from all over the country, and I can't wait to see how it all pans out. We have some great charlas about self-esteem, goal setting, being pro-active, serving your community etc, and we're even going to get some team-building rope courses in! To make things even better, we'll be up in the mountains of Northern Nicaragua and we've been told to pack sweatshirts, jackets and blankets!!!! (Expect a blog afterwards!)

School matriculation starts tomorrow, and classes start on February 13^th. I've scheduled meetings with my school directors and co-teachers this week to plan out schedules and to map out projects for the year. I've learned a lot from last year's trials and setbacks and plan to use them to make this year as productive and "exitoso" as possible. I'm hoping to kick off the school year with a teacher's workshop on routine setting and classroom preparation, since the first day of school is crucial in terms of laying out clear expectations and guidelines for a productive classroom environment.

Everything else is pretty normal here. Not too much to report, other than the fact that I'm really sad to see the end of my last “summer vacation” here in Nicaragua. It's been absolutely amazing!!

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOOMS!!