Why I'm thankful for mud slides and flying kittens

The weather has been funky lately. We’ve had thick, foggy mornings (makes it extremely difficult to see but it’s kind of cool in a creepy sort of way), and it’s been raining several times a day and throughout the night (for some strange, unexplainable reason, day showers are typically unheard of in my hood) which has caused the dirt paths of Makapanstad to flood excessively. The mud reaches up to half a foot deep in softer areas and makes it a big pain to go anywhere.

At first I wore flip flops to overcome this SOB of a problem. The rationale behind this was that my feet are going to sink regardless so I might as well wear shoes I can easily clean afterward. I learned shortly this was not the way to go. Not only did they splash mud all over my calves and clothes every time I took a step, but in the less shallow pools my body would literally lower into the ground and I would come out barefoot upon re-emergence. The kids got a kick out of it while the grannies helped me look for my shoes.

After day after day of this nonsense, you don’t get used to it, you get sick of it, and irritated. I have contemplated calling in sick several times just because it is such a chore to leave my house. And it isn’t just me, the teachers at my schools ask why I bother coming in with the hellish road conditions when I don’t have a car. I suppose calling in annoyed is just as justified as calling in sick?

Anyway, today I was over being frustrated so I decided I was going to sing songs on the way to school to pacify myself. While doing so, I was able to enjoy the walk and I noticed things I never noticed before. Like everyone else’s suffering. I looked ahead of me and all around, and I saw kids, parents, and others sliding around the mud and sinking and slipping just like me. There were goats with mud all over their butts too.

Imagine an ice skating rink packed with first-time skaters. Now replace the ice with patches of grass, puddles of water, an occasional farm animal, and mud everywhere. Multiply the ridiculousness by your choice double digit number, and there you have it, a blessing in disguise. I realized my negative attitude was causing me to miss out on the hilarity that is my walk to school this whole time.


I was teaching at one of my schools today, when all of a sudden I heard screams coming from outside. I left the class to see what it was and saw 30+ children running out the door for their lives. I followed the sound of continuing screams into the classroom. There were three teachers inside who had discovered a nook behind one of the desks a family of kittens had overtaken. They grabbed each kitten by the legs, would scream, do a little arm flail action, and then chuck it across the room until the kitten ran out the door.

I felt really bad for the kittens but I couldn’t help but watch and laugh, at the grown adults who legitimately feared the kittens, at the terrified 5-year olds screaming and running around aimlessly in the courtyard unsupervised, and at all the airborne kittens flying in every which direction.