Eway, Mwane, Sana, Jambo, Kaze and Fred

When we first arrived in Meheba I was so excited to see that the FORGE house had cats!! Jeremy was decidedly less excited (and in fact somewhat upset) at this discovery, but came around to the idea when he heard that the cats were there to keep the rats and mice and bats under control. As well, Sherie and Sabah ensured us that the cats would become the single greatest source of entertainment around the compound. We didn’t believe them at first, but over time the truth of that statement has been proven again and again (and again by way of the length of this post).

When we first arrived there were four cats. One cat, whose name is Eway (pronounced EE-Way, meaning “Hey you” in Luvalle and is a popular name for Muzungus to name their animals) has been here since the first FORGE project manager four years ago. He was brought to the compound with his brother and both lived here for awhile until one day a stray female cat wondered over. She was promptly given the name Mwane, which means...well technically “respect” in Luvalle, but is probably the most commonly used word in the entire language. I have heard entire conversations last for over a minute using almost exclusively the word mwane.

With the arrival of Mwane, it wasn’t long before Eway’s wild animal instinct took over and he chased away his brother (or the competition as it was) and Mwane became pregnant. Mwane had a litter of two kittens, one of whom was named Sana, the Swahili word for “very” or “much” and the other was named Pedro (as apparently he had a little patch of black over his lip that made a very convincing mustache. I wasn’t involved in the naming). Apparently just as Sherie and Sabah arrived Mwane had another litter but they didn’t make it. A few weeks into their stay in Meheba the bat population was getting a little out of control so they put bat poison out. The following morning Pedro was found dead, and thus I have vowed that during our time here bat poisoning will no longer take place.

A little while later Mwane again became pregnant (seriously, Eway is a haas) and she gave birth to one kitten who was named Jambo (the Swahili word for “hello”). And so it was that we found Eway, Mwane, Sana and Jambo upon our arrival at FORGE. We hadn’t been here long before it became apparent that Mwane was, yet again, pregnant. Only this time, it appeared that she wasn’t the only one. We happened to be the first group of PM’s to have the luck of two female adult cats in the compound, and even though Sana was technically his daughter, apparently Eway had no qualms about getting her pregnant as well.

And thus, we find ourselves with 10 cats. That’s right: 10. Mwane gave birth to a litter of 4, and Sana gave birth to three, though one of them died within the first couple of days. The little rugrats are about 7 weeks old now and are just about the cutest little animals you’ve ever seen. But seriously, 10 cats. Even if most of them are pint sized at the moment, there is just no way we can keep them. We found several peace corps volunteers who will take four of them (we’re definitely giving away incest kitties) but we just can’t bring ourselves to give away all six. As such, Jeremy and I have each chosen one to spoil rotten and bring up to be “our cats.”

Mine is Fred. He’ all black and I’ve always wanted a black cat, and in my opinion, he is clearly the best cat that ever lived. Jeremy’s cat is Kaze (a KenyaRwandan name meaning “come here” because our Rwandan staff complained that we only had Swahili and Luvalle names) and he is white with black patches all over him.

The other two kittens from Mwane were named Gili and Gili after (like the classy folks we are) the alcohol packets that are prevalent in the camp and all of Zambia really. They’re little plastic pouches of some of the most vile and strongest alcohol you’ve ever had. Its about 2 shots worth per pouch, and they sell for the whopping price of $0.20 a packet. There are tons of flavors, but I think the funniest has to be “Rambo” which is pineapple flavor and comes with a fabulous picture of Sylvester Stilone on it. I wonder if he’s getting royalties from that...probably not. GiliGili is horrible, ridiculous and amazing all at the same time, and I can’t for the life of me think of why they aren’t being sold in the United States. Imagine if you could bring tons of tiny little plastic sachets full of alcohol into ball games and get completely wasted on $2. Ok, on second thought, I can think of exactly why they are not sold in the United States…in fact, they were banned here for a short time because someone was dared to drink 17 (!!!!) in one sitting, and it ended up killing him. The rumors are that the beer makers in Zambia are up in arms about these sachets because no one wants to pay $1.50 for a beer anymore. Although really, I don’t think I can accurately describe the vileness of the alcohol in these things…But it would be a serious blow to the culture if they were discontinued, and so a report was put out that warned people to dilute them and drink responsibly, and they were promptly un-banned. And How!

But I digress. The other two cats, incest kitties, are named Pole (pronounced pole-lay, the Swahili word for “sorry” because really, he’s an incest kitty) and Chairman Meow. I know, its brilliant :) And I can’t claim it. That was 100% Kirk (the volunteer) who had the naming rights to Chairman Meow, and I think it was a solid effort.

And thus, the entire lineage and genealogy of the Meheba cat family, which currently totals 10 but will be reduced to the respectable six within a couple of weeks. That’s still respectable right?