A Bony Trio
I saw my first street cat today, and I'm now fairly certain why there are so few street animals living in the capital. The cat I saw was depressingly female with two horrendously dirty mouths suckling on her emaciated teats. I was surprised her dwarfed body had maintained the strength to endure a pregnancy and the live birth of two kittens. The trio was weaving through diners' legs at a small snack shop while I was dodging trash scattered along a major highway. I was on my way to shop at the Total Market- a street market overflowing with toxic black exhaust fumes; photocopy shops; wobbly stacks of not-so-orange oranges; and painfully poor people discussing the day's gossip when I realized that nearly everything in this city appears to my eyes as unfinished, broken, half-dead, never enough and lacking. As much as I try to put a positive spin on the place, and I do consider myself an optimist, it's ugly to my eyes. In addition, I am slightly terrified of how the city will transform into a giant muddy sponge during the rainy season when the temperatures and humidity numbers spike to even more sweat-soaked levels.
Cocktail Hour in Brazza!
I attended an educational fair at the French Cultural Center this afternoon and was surprised at the tightly packed bodies pressing against each other forcing everyone closer to the two counters where liquor and food were being served during cocktail hour. Students are commonly lacking funds and often hungry, but a group of students waiting for lunchtime finger food and wine filled the overheated room in the cultural center with the never enough hum of deprivation echoing through life in sub-Saharan Africa. When I looked down at my feet, I saw empty Coke cans and soiled napkins littering the floor.
I know that all emotions pass, and that tomorrow I will hit the restart button. It's okay to have a blue day as life moves forward.
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