Today I go to AA to take Jonas, Dante, and the two wildest cats to the Swiss vet, Dr Rea. She'll give Jonas his Lupron shot, check Dante's heart, and givethe cats so their deworming pills. Interesting, dismaying, and should not be surprising -- yesterday some things happened that are a continuation of much of the old bad stuff. I'd just been telling someone that I was happy these days, and that things have been running smoothly and securely for a couple of months, though I knew it could disintegrate again. And, yes, indeed. Not so much an actual disintegration -- things are really as they have been -- it's just my illusory peace that has disintegrated. So, again, if you can help me get my animals out of here .... http://www.gofundme.com/1l8da0 A thief phoned me last week, claiming to be someone he was not. He's probably associated with one of the previous thieves. He said he wanted to come to see what I had to sell. But now I am quite sure he wanted to come to see how my security is here and to get Dante and the other dogs familiar with him so they, as part of the security, would not work. At the time, though, I cheerily made an appointment with him to come over. It was to have been yesterday at lunch time. I happened to mention it to Abrahame as he was leaving for his lunch break, and he was horrified, saying I should never let anyone unknown in. Of course he was right. So I asked Abrahame to call him. The guy'd told me his name was Girmachu, but Abrahame recognized his voice and confronted him -- his real name is Mesfin, and he is not a good guy. Mesfin then said he was not coming for the appointment but would reschedule later, and they hung up. After Abrahame and I talked, I asked him to call M back, tell him to not come at all, and to say I was not selling anything, and was not leaving. But M had switched his phone off. My donkey vet has foreseen some of the thefts and betrayals I've gone though over the years, and each time I thought he was wrong and overly suspicious. Now he says that I should also be careful about my own safety and should not tell any one that I am leaving. The second thing yesterday was that Balcha showed incontrovertibly that is not to be trusted. Usually he works here an hour in the evening, preparing and giving food to the animals. When I was in AA, he was using my bathroom -- in other words, not asking if it was ok, and deliberately deceiving instead. Since some more thefts had happened, I began to keep that door locked as well as all the others in the place -- except the kitchen, where B must go to do his work. Yesterday he was here when I was going out to get my hair washed (no water has come into my place for 3? months, so we have to bring water in ourselves, and I conserve it a well as I can). B asked where I was going, and I told him. But abt 10 min after I left, I had to come back for something, and I found Balcha stark naked, crouching in my wash tub bathing. I know the reason, but having this deceit in my own place is horrid. Abrahame doesn't want me to fire Balcha, considering him a known quantity. Already A has too much work and can't keep up since I fired Balcha's wife (endangering he animals, and almost certainly stealing) a couple of months ago, but he doesn't want me to hire a newcomer because of the risk of introducing another thief to the household. The third thing was seeing yet another sad sad and shocking instance of animal abuse. Not that that affects me directly, but you know what I mean. Some of you can see attached photos of this poor horse ridden by a drunk man, his mouth full of blood, tongue cut (I think it must be an old chronic wound) by the bit and bleeding. And here are the keys. Each day I have to unlock, lock, relock and unlock again, all day long, all my doors and the cupboards that contain important things. People are worried and surprised that I do not have working locks on my kitchen, fabric, and animal-supply cabinets. Again -- another matter-of-fact indication that it is NORMAL for people to steal anything that is not secured, and the fault is the OWNER's. And, again, those people are right. So I have to ramp up my preparatory activities. I had slowed down a little over the past 10 days -- usually, I work hard at it for a week, get worn out in AA, and then take a week's break. I don't know if I can do much better than that, but keeping the resting to 7 vs 10 will work. Oh damn. I just realized Balcha seriously stinted the dogs on their meat this morning. Abrahame is at driver's-ed school. I'm going to pickup a lactated ringer for Jonas' Lupron. I hate to leave the house -- what a way to live. When I go to the vet te house will really be untended since I am taking Dante, but Balcha is going with me (!). Here's a good thing -- Abrahame has cut a deal with Berhanu (the crazy man who spat in my left eye and nostril), and B no longer bothers me -- in fact, he disappears if he sees me or my car coming. The gov't aspect as well is acting up -- the woman who was/is going to buy my sewing equipment just called: a potential government barricade against her new business -- which she finally -- just! -- got established. It means she might have to start all the paperwork again, putting her Ethiopian boyfriend legally in charge, rather than their being partners in the business. The good news is that that would satisfy the gv't -- they don't have the same restrictions on their own citizens as against foreigners. Also things usually move faster for Ethiopians -- though I'm not sure they do if foreign capital's involved -- still, hopefully there wont be many more months of bureaucracy. About the horse again -- one of the saddest things of all is that noone nearby seemed to think it was unusual -- neither the other people on the street nor his friends. In fact one of the friends got up on the horse himself a few minutes later. He did not damage the horse's mouth further, though. Well, I'm awfully tired. Not thinking too clearly either. I woke up at dawn, realizing the seriousness of all that had happened yesterday. At the time I just let it go by. Got to take a rest before setting off for the lactated ringer. [Posted in FML 7680]