home life

I would love to tell you about the dogs here, and you know I am an avid dog lover.  Dogs here are not your gentle domesticated house pets.  They are either protective guard dogs or aggressive wild creatures who roam.  There is a run that I do occasionally in the morning and each time I go my biggest fear is running into dogs.  They are unpredictable, growl, bark, they are accustomed to being shooed by people either hitting them or throwing rocks so they are unpredictable and generally not amenable.  We pass by this one house on our way to school each day.  There are three aggressive guard dogs, unleashed, no fence, who charge us growling and baring teeth. It's always scary and we have developed a system in how we bike to get past them.  But it remains a fretful part of our day.  One day, on a walk with Rikki, we happened on a stray.  She was sweet and followed us with little encouragement all the way home.  We named her Benga, gave her food and she has been with us ever since.  On another day I was out with the kids and we found Fanta.  So now we have two dogs.  They are skittish is you move too fast, but they are gentle and friendly and have gotten protective of our house.  So now we are the people with the barking defensive dogs with no fence.  Funny.  

Many of you know that Jonah came down with a bad illness.  He had a high fever, up to 105, that ran for 6 days.  He was lifeless, getting nose bleeds, sore throat, rash all over his body... maybe at home it wouldn't have been so scary but it feels different here.  I was nervously watching his symptoms, wondering if he'd gotten some exotic tropical disease. There is a recent increase in Dengue Fever and worry got the best of me for sure.  I finally took a taxi to the hospital and it turned out to be a bad case of tonsillitis and scabbies.  Which, happily, was treated with antibiotics and other medications.  I am happy to report he is healthy and lively again.