It’s so hot.  I looked at the weather forcast and it’s in the high 90s.  It’s supposed to get up to 105 three days in a row.  I’m going to die.  I stayed at Tip’s house last night.  I came home around 9:30 am and went into my house to get a few things.  Within 10 minutes I was completely soaked.  All the rat poison I left out was gone except in my bedroom.  However something ripped the window screen off one of my bedroom windows.  What on earth is strong enough to do that and where is it now?

I went into school and worked on lesson plans.  Pat had said she’d help me with lesson plans, but when I go there, I got “up to you”.  I’m beginning to hate that phrase.  It basically means there is a right answer, but I’m not going to tell you what it is.  I’m almost done with the first month of lesson plans.  I should be done tomorrow so that will make me feel better.  There is a room at the school that is always open.  Pat said if my house gets too hot, I can use that room to hang out in and turn on the fans.  It’s not air conditioned, but way cooler than my house.  I’ll probably hang out there tomorrow.

The janitor came over and boarded up some of the holes – the ones between my house and Q’s house.  He has to finish the others tomorrow.  I’m glad he started with those as I noticed Q’s windows were open and he has no screens – this might be one of of the ways the critters get in.  I assume he’s home and opened them or someone is airing out his place before he gets home.  But now I don’t know which side of the wall the critters ended up on.  Are they stuck in my house or his?  I sprayed bug spray into all the dark places and put out more rat poison just for good measure.  I have seen two tokays tonight on the outside of my screens, but I’m still not happy because I’m thinking they might be big enough to have broken the screen upstairs and they might do it again.  One is staring into my bedroom as I write this.

It rained.  I went outside and just stood in it.  One of the other teachers and I were talking and she kept trying to get me to stand under cover, but I wouldn’t.  The rain isn’t hot.  Then I sat on the front “porch” and listened.  So many things started making noise after the rain stopped.  It was almost deafening.  There is a lot going on in the woods.  It’s great when it’s going on “over there” and not in my house.  I took video of it so you could here all the noises, but I don’t think it picked up the noises so now you just get a video of what it looks like from my front porch.

It’s been like a ghost town around here.  I haven’t seen another teacher or student in the housing area and no cars or motorbikes parked out front.  The teacher I mentioned above was the first.  She just got back today.  I heard some other people talking a little later in the evening.  I bet more will arrive tomorrow too.  I imagine they are going through what I just went through, cleaning out the disaster that moved into their houses.  The only difference is they are probably use to it and it doesn’t make them want to run away.

I was going to go to the pool with Tip, but she had to cancel.  I came home and washed all the dishes instead.  I also made dinner.  It was no where near as fun as the pool, but I felt a lot better after knowing the dishes were clean.  I think just getting back into a routine will help with the culture shock a lot.  I feel quite a bit better after doing the dishes.

Now I’m sitting inside the semi safety of my bug net.  I’m marveling at the amount of bugs that are not kept out by the bug net.  I’m thinking it’s time to turn off the light and attempt sleeping.  I think I’m going to go turn the light on in the other bedroom so maybe the tokays will hang out on those window screens instead of my bedroom.  Seems logical.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore