Kittens, airlines, and keeping our cool

We bought our plane tickets for Kilimanjaro. Online ticket purchases from Ouaga hasn't arrived yet for all of the airlines so we had to buy them from the actual airline office here in town. Buying our tickets was really funny. We arrived on transport with the expectation that we would drop off our things and shower before heading to buy the tickets. However, we ended up with a cab driver who was keen to give us the Ouaga city tour, so we ended up just getting out and going straight to the airline since we were in the area.

Let me pause and say we get really dirty on the buses. I've never really figured out how it is that we get so filthy; everyone else seems to manage the journey without looking like they've been rolling in the dirt for the last hour.

So here we are at the office for Ethiopian Airlines: dirty, and sweaty, with all of our dirty bags. This place is immaculate. The people are equally immaculate. I feel certain that we fulfilled any and all of their expectations for loud, messy Americans. They refused to answer any questions while one of us was standing, and they refused to talk above a whisper. This would have been easily understood and appreciated except that we were the only customers in there! At one point, our agent had a question for the guy 2 desks away, easily in talking distance, and he called the guy so that they could whisper to each other over the phone instead. It was great.

We are now getting into the hot season (as everyone in our village loves to remind us). Some tips we've found for staying cool:
1. avoid direct sunlight like the plague; I've taken to using a bizarre series of windy paths in order to stay out of the sun at all times.
2. before bed, take a shower and don't dry off
3. between the hours of 1pm and 4pm, find a nice spot in the shade and try not to move
4. when drinking water, feel free to miss your mouth every time

Other news from the homefront, we have three new kittens. Our last remaining cat from the first group had kittens a few weeks ago. It actually took us a while to confirm that she'd had them. We saw her one night and realized she was skinny again and went on a mad search for the kittens but couldn't find them. Finally the next day we found them in a pile of Aaron's clothes (of course). These kittens are much cuter than the first bunch and I think they have staying power. They're spending the week at Uncle Bernard's while we're on vacation, so maybe he'll decide he wants to keep one.

Also, we want to say hi to the 7th graders from Appleton Village School and the 5th graders from Rio Vista. Thanks so much for your letters. We'll be sure to write back and post some new pictures.