I'm all moved in!!!

I'm all moved in!!!
Best news ever!!!

My house is very nice, but very, very empty. I currently own a mattress and a shelf for furniture. Oh yeah; and a plastic floor mat thing, if that counts!? However, my landlady gave me 3 dining room chairs to use, although I almost like sitting on the floor better and using the chair as a table.

One thing I have learned incredibly quickly...my house is an insect paradise. Bug stories always come first on this blog! In the 3 days I've been there I've gained a new pet spider at least every hour. I don’t like to kill them, they are too big to be smashed and besides, they eat all the evil mosquitoes, so we are currently coexisting just fine! Then, I opened my trunk, which I had moved into my house a week prior to my installment, and holy man, I was dumb, I put a bunch of food in there: nuts, dried fruit, etc. Double plastic bagged AND sealed in my water filter...but alas; when I opened the trunk, what do I find but 3 cockroaches (who had pooped all over everything---necessary detail) and thousands of little tiny ants. The ants thankfully didn't get into anything that was still in its original package, but I had a whole bunch of nuts I was saving and let me just say, ants enjoy almonds. They were eating them from the inside out...which was kind of cool to see, but made me really mad and I went on an ant killing spree. THEN...something even more ridiculous. This morning I was in my room reading and I hear my counterpart yelling about something outside my door...I go outside and the porch, roof, ground EVERYWHERE is covered in these big ants, which I stupidly step into while not paying attention; and get bitten on the feet, and one crawled into my dress and bit me on the thigh...evil. It was one of the most incredible things I have seen, honestly...rivers of ants, literally, everywhere. My counterpart found some gas (I'm not sure how, since there is a shortage still here) and sprinkled it all over the outside of my house...it kind of worked.... more or less, I'm just going to smell like gas for several days :^)

Although I was initially a little irritated with my landlord for being so putzy with my house. I've realized that they are excellent people. I mean, they provided me with curtain rods, screens in the windows, and light bulbs...which in this country is pretty much unheard of! My land lords sons get me water...way more than I can actually use in fact. And I just met my landlady for the first time last night and she gave me a big pot (which I think I’m supposed to use for a bathtub) and a TON of peanuts from her farm. She told me they were my new family (people here really like to say that I think) and I have a good feeling anything I need will be taken care of. The other family that lives (pretty much in my front yard) has 9 kids, which can be a curse at times, like when they come looking in my windows when I'm trying to change, but also a blessing, like when they help me light matches (because matches here are ridiculous and I swear created for only Cameroonian use). The flower/landscaper guy I mentioned before really came through...he is in the process of filling my front porch with plants...I think when I left this morning there were about 8!

Lastly, I had to mention cleaning my house...talk about easy! The floors of my house are slanted towards the front, so I filled a big bucket with detergent and water, threw it all over the house, and then took a big squeegee and push it all out the front door...it was fun, and I think my floors would make an excellent slip and slide. Ill have to repeat this process to get rid of all the dead ants. :^).
Love, Kate