Back in Timbi

I got back to Timbi on Sunday and stayed until today, when I biked in to Labe to pick up some flip chart paper and markers for my compositions next week.

It's good to be back. I had to have a war with the mice that got bold and invaded my house while I was on vacation! Stupid mice - I found a ton of mouse crap under my night table and then there was one running around my bathroom at 11pm. I freaked out. Seriously, freaked out. I know that it's Peace Corps and I'm supposed to be hard core, but I'm just not. It ran under my bathtub, so I blocked it in with a 20 liter water jug and some cardboard. I was actually shaking. Then I took all my stuff out of the bathroom and shut and locked the door, putting duct tape in the space between the door and the floor. The next day I went to town and got steel wool pads and completely took care of all the spaces in my house. They haven't been back and I've been using my other bathroom. I'm a huge baby. Huge. It will probably die under my bathtub and stink up my house, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

School is going well, I taught comparisons in class this week and found out that I am one of the fatter people in class...Guineans are so skinny! But my students did tell me I was "more attractive" than another student, which I appreciated. I brought a gift back for my vice-principal and he loved it, it was a $5 statue of the Sphinx. My principal is back too, so I'm interested to see how that changes the dynamic at school. He'd had surgery over the summer and had been living in a nearby town while he recuperated. Even though school starts at 8am I am one of the only people there at that hour. We don't really start class until 8:30. I would love to change that but have had no luck so far. Hopefully the semi-scary principal will regulate. In the meantime I'll continue to show up on time in the hopes that my good example will rub off. It's not likely, but it makes me feel better about myself.

Next week compositions start, they are like end of semester exams. No one seems concerned that there have only been 9 weeks of classes. That means that I have nothing to do next week and no tests until a week from Monday! It will be nice to hang out in my house and to lesson plan more than a week in advance. I have my two classes of Terminale at the same time, which means that I can't be at both exams, which means that the kids who don't have me will cheat up a storm if I don't do something to stop it, so I'm thinking of writing 3 separate exams and paying to have them photocopied here in Labe. I think that if I hand them out and put the kids who are friends far from each other and put all the smart kids together and the idiots together I might be able to prevent most of the cheating. Ugh - so much work!!

I have some really great news from Timbi - there's cell reception! I have to switch phone numbers and use a different provider, but you can reach me anytime!! It's 5 bars of service, which is practically unheard of. It was definitely the most exciting news of my return. Unfortunately, I can't find out my number because the call won't go through and they don't tell you your number when you buy the SIM card. Oh, and there's power in my neighborhood again! But not at my house. It's so bittersweet - I'm glad it's back and everything but it's a little sad to be sitting in my house with my candles when my neighbors have electricity! I found out that there's an outstanding debt of about $40 from before, so I paid it today and am assured that I'll be repaid by the owners of the house. While I have my doubts about that, my host dad (who pays my rent) promised that he would take the money out of the rent to repay me if it didn't happen sooner). My rent is $12 a month. Yes, you read that right. And my neighbors have been bitching up a storm to all the officials in my town about how I came here to teach and I should have power, so that's been really cute of them. I brought a jewelry case back from Egypt for my favorite neighbor and she now loves me even more than before. The other day I went to say hi and she was in the process of showing it off to her friends. It made me happy that she liked it so much and it also makes me happy to know that she'll always look out for me and my house, even when I'm on vacation.

Camilo and I talked to our boss about 3rd year options and we are hopeful that it will all work out. We think our first choice is to work for an NGO in Labe, where it's colder and there are lots of NGOs to choose from, but we'll have to see how it all pans out. Worst case scenario is that we finish our service in September and meet my mom and aunt in Morocco before applying to grad school.

It's dinnertime, so I'll update again next week. Miss you all!