(written September 20, 2011)
Sorry for the break between posts. Life has continued well since the last posting, well other than my difficulties with electronics. Earlier last week, I accidentally dropped our new power strip. All of a sudden, I heard a loud popping noise. Carolyn looked up at me in shock: “What was that!?” I didn’t really think too much was wrong until I looked down at the power strip and noticed that it was smoking! I confess; I’m pretty sure I screamed. I scared A and Elizabeth who hadn’t been paying attention. They were convinced I had seen a snake or some other creature. Then I started yelling, “Unplug the computers; unplug the computers!” I realized that I should then probably unplug the power strip from the wall. I quickly, carefully unplugged the cord from the wall … and I’m still living to tell the story. No, I did not get shocked. Apparently when I dropped the power strip, the cord came detached from the rest of the power strip.
We have continued to have various power problems at school charging our computers. I finally decided that something must actually be wrong with the plugs; I usually don’t cause that many electrical problems. So yesterday an electrician came by to check on our plugs. Sure enough, there really was a problem. I was very pleased to learn that it wasn’t just me going crazy.
Sunday brought Samantha, our other home school teacher, safely to Foumban. She’ll be teaching 6th grade this year. They will definitely have a great time together in that class! Up to this point, the 4th graders have been watching the home school videos at the Barillas’ with Emily. We went ahead and brought the girls up to the school so that they can get used to being with everyone again. In order to give Sam a few days of adjustment before she begins teaching, one of the moms and I have been covering all three classes (4th grade, 6th grade, and high school). I was able to teach 4th grade most of their subjects yesterday and today while just popping in on the high school to check on them at certain times (like when I heard them yelling at each other). I actually really enjoyed the 4th graders, and I realized that it wouldn’t be all that difficult to teach them. But, I’m thankful for my high school girls. I’m loving them!
Last night, I saw the largest insect I’ve ever seen in Africa (and I mean ever). I was sitting in a chair in my room, helping Eddie with his English paper. Samantha was sitting across the room on her bed. All of a sudden, Carolyn (who was in the hall outside my room) yelled for Eddie to come kill a cockroach. What we thought was a cockroach scurried into my room and headed straight for the chair I was sitting in. I added my screams to Carolyn’s and quickly pulled my feet up onto my chair. The creature was two inches long, about one inch wide, and ¾ of an inch high. It was huge!! Eddie told me to get on my bed so that he could find the bug. I didn’t listen at first, so then he started yelling at me: “Get on your bed!” I basically jumped from the chair to my bed, screaming all the while at Eddie to kill the bug. Elizabeth, hearing all the commotion, wandered into the room. When she saw the bug, she started screaming and jumped up beside me on my bed. Finally, Eddie located the cockroach and realized that it was actually a cricket. In retrospect, it’s a very, very good thing that Eddie did not squash the cricket. That creature would have splat in about a foot wide radius. Instead, he captured the cricket in a jar and then we proceeded to take pictures of it. Later that night, we actually ended up seeing another one of those crickets. And no, it was not the same one!
