Call for kitty names-- all reasonable suggestions considered!

OK, so the most exciting thing happening on this blog today is the naming of the new member of our household, our little kitty. I chronicled a bit of his first day with us in yesterday's blog post, but as you can see at left, there were a few things I chose to leave out. Most notable is the fabulous bath adventure. The pictures are worth a million words, so I'll just leave it at that.

So, Deliwe and I are now faced with a dilemma, as we don't know what to name our new kitty. Of course, as we were trying to think of a name, I remembered my throngs of faithful 'Malawi'n me' blog readers, and thought it might be fun to have a little naming contest this week! He's too young to really know or respond to his name (well, he's a cat, so he's not likely to EVER respond to his name, anyway...), so I figured we would make a decision at the end of the week, which I'll announce on the blog on Sunday. The reason I'm choosing Sunday is because I'm almost certain we'll be making another attempt at our trip to the lake this Friday afternoon, so I'm trying to make that day as free as possible (which likely means no blog entry that day-- I'll keep you posted, though!) I also want to give the contest a full 7 days, so that those who 'tune into' the blog only once or twice weekly will get a shot at the naming contest extravaganza.

Will there be a prize, you ask? Hmmm... Maybe! I'll have to think about that one, but it's likely that there might be a little token of appreciation sent to the creative person who can conjure up an original name that captures the very essence of our little kitty, inside and out. What that prize will be, of course, will remain a surprise until it is sent and received (as was the case with my sis Heather's prize for the bug-guessing contest).

So, without further ado, here are the things I can tell you about our new kitty, which might help you to come up with a good name for him. First of all, he's a boy (obviously). We don't know how old he is, but he's REALLY little, so probably no more than a month old, I'm guessing. Any cat age experts out there? Please enlighten me if you wish... We picked him up yesterday, which was a Saturday, Nov. 17. He is black (maybe dark grey to be exact) and white, and I think he may be long-haired, though it may also be too early to tell for sure. He has very cute little grey eyes as well. He follows me and/or Deliwe everywhere, he loves chambo fish, milk, and also beans (though I heard it's not good to feed him beans... any thoughts?... the local neighbor girls say that beans can make cats lose their hair... hmmm... I gave him some beans today... I'll let you know the results...) and I think he misses his mother, because he always tries to 'suckle' my fingers, toes, and sometimes my nose, especially at night (AAHH!). Unfortunately, when he does this he tends to bite, so I usually have to put him into another room and shut the door after too much of that. He's very playful like most kittens, and loves to play with cloth strings, or anything dangling. He seems to be especially interested in feet and toes, though, which he tends to 'attack' by scratching or biting... ya, we love that... As I mentioned yesterday, he alternately meowed and slept on my left shoulder as I drove home last night. The trip was about two hours long, so that was quite impressive to me.

OK, so that information should be more than enough to come up with some good names. We have decided to give him a Chichewa name, since after all, he's a Malawian cat, and he will stay here with Deliwe and her Mother after I leave. I'd hate for him to be shunned by the other cats by having some strange Mzungu English name ;-) However, if it is an English name with no Chichewa translation, and it's just too perfect to pass up, we will consider it as well. Otherwise, all English name candidates will be considered, but translated into Chichewa for the final naming. In addition, the final decision will be made with equal consideration by both Deliwe and myself.

So, in order to enter a name suggestion for our new kitty, please use the "comments" section of this blog, or e-mail me directly at jbeilke@yahoo.com. I look forward to seeing your ideas!

In other news, as I mentioned awhile back, we also have a small family living on our property now--our gardener Harold, his wife Dorothy, and two of his children, Pacharo and Miracle (his oldest is staying with his aunt until he finishes school at the end of Nov.), who are living in the small servants' quarters behind our house. Harold was having some difficulty with his housing situation, so had asked me if he could stay with us until things were worked out, so I agreed. I finally got some pictures of them last week Thursday evening when we had them over for dinner.

As you can see, they're a very lovely family, and Deliwe and I are really enjoying having a couple of kids around! It's really good for her, since she really would like to have her own family someday, but wants to wait a few more years and finish her education first. So, this allows her to be around the kids without feeling the need to have her own right away. As you may know, in Malawi, it is common for women to have children at very young ages (like Harold's wife, who became pregnant as a teenager), especially in small villages like those in Domasi, so Deliwe is a minority amongst her friends due to the fact that she is both single and does not yet have children. As I've mentioned before, Deliwe is only 20 years old.

In any case, we're enjoying all of our new household additions, both human and animal. In my case, it's wonderful, as I've been feeling rather homesick and lonely these days (a usual occurrance for me about 2 months into a long-term overseas stay--right on schedule). So, having a few more people and a furry friend around definitely is a welcome development!

With that, I'll sign off for now... Tiwonana mawa!