money pit
September 2010
now that camp has come and gone, it was back to work – at the office but especially at home. there have been so many problems with my new house that i’m beginning to think its haunted or cursed by witchcraft.
the biggest problem is the rats. at first they were just running around the ceiling, but then, just as i predicted…it was just a matter of time before they found their way inside and to my food. they started to run around my house at night in my kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. not ok. so i complained to the Malawian Housing Corporation (who owns my building). they laughed at me and told me i should “just catch them and cook them for dinner.” seriously, malawi?! seriously?!?! yes malawians do cook and eat rats but hell if i’m gonna.
so i bought rat poison and put it out. they ate it up like candy. then a carpenter came to patch up the entry points with cement. silence for a few days. then my house started to smell like death. carpenter came back and had to extract 3 big fat stinky dead rats from my walls. gross. they no longer enter my house and eat my food but still run around the ceiling. and they sound like a species of hippopotamus rats, which makes me think its another creature. or a ghost. or malawi is making me psychotic.
the second biggest problem is the college students that i live next to. there is a brand new college dorm built for the very prestigious Chancellor College down the road from me. well…let me put it this way…its like living next to the worst frat house ever. except here in malawi they don’t have any noise policies or enforcement, so these freaks blast their music til sometimes 5am. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. i have to sleep with ear plugs every night! and it still doesn’t help! SUCKS since that is the LAST thing i ever imagined having to put up with in malawi. i’m too old for this shit.
then i had some other plumbing and electrical problems. not to mention the swarm of bees that is outside my window – only have been stung twice so far. seems like every time i think put out one fire, 10 others ignite. so frustrating! my malawian boss has told me he could just move me. to which i said…the next move i’m making is home to america!
hopefully sooner than later too. we are in the home stretch now. and rumor has it they may be releasing us early due to some changes in the intake calendar. so pray that they let me come home early, God knows i’ve been thru enough!
