Phase One: Complete

Total decontamination of bedroom was completed yesterday. This involved fumigation of room, fumigation of bedding, buying new bed, and washing all said items in boiling water. My room now feels a little less like a bedroom and a little more like camping.

As I was settling in for my first night of sleep on new miniature Jenny-sized bed, I heard the comforting sounds of a crazy man outside my window. He had set up camp across the street from my house and was yelling repeatedly, "Come on, get down!" "Get down" "Get down" and sometimes he'd throw in a "Salam 3alikum" which means hello. Then, he would throw a rock at the dumpster and hunker down near a wall. He kicked the wall a few times too. He finally staggered off after half an hour or so.

In other news, no bites from last night, so this decontamination thing may have worked.

In other news, attendance at Dar Chebab has gone up from zero to ten. I have a special group of boys now that play ping pong with me. I'm happy to report that I actually beat one of them yesterday. They play very competitively. We have a really slick arrangement, too. If ever they want to come to Dar Chebab and I'm not there, they just come to my house and get me. Now, I don't have to bother with all of that waiting around, alone, watching cats routine. They asked me if we could start a comic club, so that should be fun! (anybody who wants to send me a comic book, I'd appreciate it! Spiderman? What else is out there?)

Students from my beginners English class also returned yesterday. So, we held an impromptu class that went quite well. I told them from now on, we will only speak English in class, using Arabic only when clarification is needed. So, I taught them some helpful phrases like, "I don't understand" and "What does that mean?" The highlight of the class was when I acted like a robot, or "robo" in Arabic.

Today I will continue with Phase Two of Decontamination. Just to be safe, I am sanitizing my salon as well. I'm not taking any chances here. Then in the afternoon I have work at the Women's Center and the Dar Taliba (House of Girls).