rolling in the deep

I'm sitting on a bench in town, chatting occassionally with the people around me. But for the most part my attention is focused on my Kakuro math puzzle (thanks Remus!). I love math puzzles. As I'm figuring out all the ways to add the numbers 1-9 to make 27 without using the same number twice, I'm pulled out of my math bubb
le of concentration when I notice three sets of four very long, large, tan-colored hairy legs. I look up and there they be.

My first camel sighting in Bouroum-Bouroum. The camels stand right in front of me and stare me down. When they get bored with me they start to nose through the treasures (aka garbage and excrement) littering the ground. The camels return to staring at me, chewing in that slow sideways motion characterisitic of cows and people who never learned to chew with their mouths closed. Did your mothers not teach you manners? I prefer this type of chewing when animals are doing it. They're much cuter.

One camel starts to chew on the cord to his harness and his owner scolds him. The camel stops gnawing on the cord, but when his owner turns away he takes it in his mouth again. Defiant camel.

These three camels are about eight feet tall. They're not too smelly and none of them spit in my presence. They were carrying a lot of cargo, not to mention each had to carry one man on its back. I asked if I could touch one of them, and one of the men obligingly lowered the camel into a sitting position so that I could scratch his head. I wish I could say that the camel purred like a cat when I scratched his ears, but he seemed uninterested in all of it. The man who lowered the camel wasn't though--I received another marriage proposal. Though I almost accepted (I mean, the man travels around on a camel. That's pretty sweet.), I had to decline because he wore socks with sandals. Deal breaker. Especially to someone like me who's a slave to fashion.

In other news, school has started back up, hooray! The school year will end in June instead of May because of all the lost time due to the strikes in February and March. So now I'm back to teaching, giving tests, grading, tutoring, coaching soccer. Brenda and I are putting on an end-of-the-school-year girls soccer game. The first ever in my village. We had to push hard to allow the girls to play 90 minutes, instead of the measly 30 minutes everyone else wanted to give them. They're also going to wear the boys' uniforms for their game! The game is scheduled for May 26, so Brenda and I are going to start writing the invitations.

Yesterday I walked into my latrine and I was greeted by a very surprised snake. He was long and thin, kind of brownish with a darker head. He freaked out when I opened the latrine door and then he slithered away into a hole. I was hoping he was gone for good, and I actually thought he was. When I went back to my latrine later in the day I didn't see him, and so I happily went about my business as usual. But then he popped out, and he wasn't expecting me (or I him). He jumped slightly in the air, and I responded by screaming and hitting my head on the doorframe in my attempt to escape. One of my neighbors heard the commotion and came over to investigate; I told her my tale and her response was, "Oh. That's it?" And then she walked away. That's all I need is for a snake to come upon me unawares and bite me in the butt. It's bad enough that my bathroom consists of a hole in a ground. Add one snake. Fortunately I haven't run into the thing today, and I'm really hoping he's slithered elsewhere.

I also had a huge cockroach crawl on me today while I was eating my lunch (the ususal--rice with tomato sauce and cabbage). He met his end. And he didn't ruin my appetite.

My COS (Close of Service) date has been approved. My last official day as a Peace Corps Volunteer is August 3. A European trip is in the works before my return to the glorious U.S. of A.

The countdown is on...