Chad likes to keep me on my toes. It’s very nice of him not to let things get dull...especially now that thoughts of leaving Moundou and thoughts of home are confusing my typically stable emotional center.
Throughout the course of this year my room has seen its share of natural disasters. They started small. First there were the ants. One day I opened my door to find a line of ants, five ants deep, trailing from the door to the corner of my closet where they were building a nest. I fought them off with my broom.
Then there were the floods. When my water filter is empty, the water stops coming out of the tap. This is obvious. Unfortunately, when there is no water coming out of the tap, I sometimes forget to close it. Then I refill the thing, leave it in my room, and as it filters, water starts coming out of the tap. I’ve flooded my room three times this way. There was also the time that the whole tap broke and nine liters of water started pouring out of a whole the size of a quarter. This was the great flood.
This past week the spiders were born. There has been a spider (not Grandpa Chad) in the corner of my closet since I can remember. It keeps to its corner and causes me no problems. Last week it had babies. About a hundred. I saw the tiny black dots in its web out of the corner of my eye and was shocked and appalled when my cellphone flashlight confirmed them as offspring and not unfortunate mosquitoes. Being in a high corner of my closet, this time the broom wouldn’t cut it. So I tried to fight them off with my bottle of deet...which didn’t really work. I’ve decided to ignore them. I think Mom might be eating them anyway. Their numbers seem to be lessening.
Electrical Shock. Ok. This isn’t really a “natural” disaster, but I’ll count it anyway. Our generator has been acting up. And since the power’s been out in Moundou for the past three and a half months, this is a problem. We only run the generator one or two hours every night (if there is gas) ...just long enough to charge our phones. One night it started grilling all the electronics. That night my lightbulb and phone charger fell victim to the surge. And the next night I discovered that the charger, although fried, still puts out some juice. I was rummaging around my room in the dark trying to plug in my phone (because I’m used to the dark and it didn’t dawn on me that I could turn on the light since the generator was running) and mistook my old charger for my new charger. I plugged it in and was attempting to plug it into my phone when the thing shocked me. Not too bad, just enough to make my arm tingly for the rest of the night.
Sunday night was the fire. Let me begin by saying that the generator was repaired. I am not that stupid. After the phone charger incident I double checked with my host dad to be sure the generator was stable. He assured me that it was, and that night we both charged our computers sans problem. A few nights later my battery was dead again and the generator at school was broken. So I plugged in at home. Bad idea. About forty-five minutes later the generator made a terrible noise. My host dad ran for it and I ran for my room. When I opened the door, through the cloud of smoke, I saw flames shooting out of my computer charger. Not just smoke. Not just sparks. Flames. Fortunately when my host dad stopped the generator the fire went out. Obviously, my charger is no more. It’s melted and has a charred black hole in the box between the cables. Miraculously, my phone charger and phone, that were plugged in on the same power strip, survived. And even more miraculously, so did my computer. All I have to show for the fire is a seriously charred charger, a black spot on the floor of my room, and the lingering smell of burning electronics.
Aside from natural disasters, things are calming down and coming to a close. Last night I gave my Beginner II class their final exam. The last part is a writing section to test the students’ use of the past tense, “What did you do yesterday?” Usually I get a few very basic sentences like, “I went to work” or “I ate chicken” or “I pounded millet,” but one of my favorite students, Moon, outdid himself...and I entertained. Here is his (uncorrected) response:
Yesterday when I woke up I made the toilet and I took the breakfast. After the breakfast I left to the office. At half past one that was the pause. After having finished with the work I was at the land of basketball to distract me. At half past six I followed a broadcast titled question for a champion in the TVs. After this broadcast the sleep carried away me.
Disclaimer: If you didn’t follow this paragraph you might not understand me when I get home. My Frenglish has taken a turn in this direction.
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