I realize as I sit here feeding my blog a few updates that my comfort level with all things dirty has changed significantly. How did this happen? I literally just reached down and scratched my ankle and my entire hand is now dirty! It is like a magnetic attraction or something. My friend have just laughed at this and so I thought I should share the moment.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not OCD or anything, but I like to wash and be clean. Well, after 10 months of walking in the sand and charcoal mixed roads, that turn to muddy lakes whenever it rains, I guess I just accept the fact my feet are never going to be clean again. I paint my toenails to hide the dirt and if I walk on certain streets then the dirt looks more like a nice tan on my lower legs. I have house shoes that I change into at the door...I try at least.
Then there is the ever present sand in my sandals, on the floor of my house, and even in my sheets! I loathed the sand so I dusted and changed my sheets so frequently the first half of my stay here that it was funny. Now I just lay in the sand and think, what harm is it anyway? It will come back tomorrow. I'll sleep on smooth clean sheets in America for a few weeks.
I do realize that the majority of the sand in my house is due to the cutest monster dog in Africa. I hope our next house will maybe have some kind of ground cover with the sand so that the sand stays put in the yard more readily.
23 June, 2010
Monster Dog
When I first got Roxy 8 months ago she was this tiny thing, not even 6 inches high. I knew right away she was special after eating an enormous amount of sand (where my roommate spilled some coffee creamer) and almost died the first week I got her. But like we all know I bond with the special kids and animals very well. She is incredibly loving and needy, yet her playfulness and stubborn streak is enough to drive me crazy. I think she skipped all developmental stages and is permanently stuck on “challenge mom”. She is so clever and knows things I only taught her once or twice, yet the basics like “sit” and “come” she refuses to do unless she feels moved to oblige you. None of my Togolese friends understand this so they don’t follow through with any command…well that is if they can remember the right English word for the command that they want. This may also play into why she isn’t trained….hmmmm. Then there are those Togolese who are mortally afraid of her to begin with. They also marvel at the way I just talk to her like she understands me. I know she does most of the time, like just a few moments ago she brought in some huge stick and I told her to take it outside or I’d throw it over the wall and she can’t play with it anymore. She thought it over and I went back to typing and she took the huge dirty branch just over the doorway and laid it on the steps gnawing at it.
Even though she can be a silly mess she lightens most days, I guess even the days I spend filling in trenches she has dug in hopes of building me a swimming pool. We play games like fetch the palm branch, or tug of war with anything resembling a rope, or clothesline, or clothes hanging from the clothesline. I also found when she was still small that if she was begging to be pet and I could blow in her nose causing her to get so excited that she would run circles around the room and yard, pausing for me to blow in her nose again and again. This was cute until she grew to abnormal proportions and now it’s the bull in a china shop effect in the living room as she knocks chairs and the table out of sorts running and flailing in joyous play. I have to give her a little credit for her ability to play independently with tin cans, random branches or her bones. She can toss them up in the air several feet and then she runs after them as if I had just thrown them in a game of fetch.
Have I mentioned any change in her life, such as a visitor, rain, or my absence causes her to just run huge laps around the yard, but she has a special happy run that is to be noted. She leaps and runs like a gazelle bounding all over. This is another special quality that she possesses in her wealth of entertaining traits.
She loves to stalk the lizards, geckos, and birds and I fear she is only getting better as she has maimed one and even killed a few. She is also a master as killing ants, flies, roaches, moths and spiders in the house. Mice are still a little too swift but she gives it a go anyway. I pray she never sees one of the scorpions that have been making uninvited appearances in the bathroom. Then there is her love for green beans, mango pits, and carrots that will cause her to leave her food bowl and wait patiently at the kitchen door for a small bit. She really posses as a vegetarian at times, but I do make sure she gets bones and the occasional raw chicken leg that help immensely with her oral fixation and leave her with the appearance of being intoxicated.
She is one special dog who is treated better than most Togolese children. No one can understand why on earth I could take her to America with me and not them. There are only a few who tries to share my love and understanding for her, but I know that it is hard now that she is so big.
Even though she can be a silly mess she lightens most days, I guess even the days I spend filling in trenches she has dug in hopes of building me a swimming pool. We play games like fetch the palm branch, or tug of war with anything resembling a rope, or clothesline, or clothes hanging from the clothesline. I also found when she was still small that if she was begging to be pet and I could blow in her nose causing her to get so excited that she would run circles around the room and yard, pausing for me to blow in her nose again and again. This was cute until she grew to abnormal proportions and now it’s the bull in a china shop effect in the living room as she knocks chairs and the table out of sorts running and flailing in joyous play. I have to give her a little credit for her ability to play independently with tin cans, random branches or her bones. She can toss them up in the air several feet and then she runs after them as if I had just thrown them in a game of fetch.
Have I mentioned any change in her life, such as a visitor, rain, or my absence causes her to just run huge laps around the yard, but she has a special happy run that is to be noted. She leaps and runs like a gazelle bounding all over. This is another special quality that she possesses in her wealth of entertaining traits.
She loves to stalk the lizards, geckos, and birds and I fear she is only getting better as she has maimed one and even killed a few. She is also a master as killing ants, flies, roaches, moths and spiders in the house. Mice are still a little too swift but she gives it a go anyway. I pray she never sees one of the scorpions that have been making uninvited appearances in the bathroom. Then there is her love for green beans, mango pits, and carrots that will cause her to leave her food bowl and wait patiently at the kitchen door for a small bit. She really posses as a vegetarian at times, but I do make sure she gets bones and the occasional raw chicken leg that help immensely with her oral fixation and leave her with the appearance of being intoxicated.
She is one special dog who is treated better than most Togolese children. No one can understand why on earth I could take her to America with me and not them. There are only a few who tries to share my love and understanding for her, but I know that it is hard now that she is so big.
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