In which Khady strictly follows through on an agreement

The bathroom in my house has been the source of many challenges the past few months. The first challenge was the lack of a toilet. There are two small rooms next to each other. The door to one is kept closed with a small slab of marble on the floor. Behind door number one, there is a porcelain hole with two raised platforms for one's feet. Next to that is a large bucket underneath a spigot. Behind door number two we find a sink and a shower-head; no shower curtain, though. Early on this semester I discovered that between two and three cockroaches roamed the shower after dark. At first, this was horrifying, as each cockroach is at least an inch and a half long. And let me tell you, they move rather fast. However, I soon realized that they preferred to remain around the shower, which is the opposite wall from the sink where I brush my teeth in the evening.

After a week or so, the cockroaches and I reached an agreement: they controlled the kingdom (as it were) of the shower in the evenings, and I was allowed access to the sink without problem. During the day, especially in the mornings between 6 and 10AM, I had full and uninterrupted access to the shower. Also, and this was an important clause which I discussed with them at length, under no circumstances were they to cross the boundaries and invade the room with the toilet.

Now, I admit I violated our agreement once and showered after dark. By way of a reminder, my cockroach friends (I had decided we were friends -- this made our agreement, and their existence, much easier to cope with) climbed out of the drain as I shampooed my hair, and crawled over my toes. Needless to say, I never made that mistake again. 

However, this evening marked the third time they violated the second clause of our agreement. The first time I found two cockroaches crawling around the toilet hole at 3AM when I desperately needed to relieve my bladder. A long and uncomfortable standoff ensued, in which one roach crawled into the hole (at which point I must have poured over two gallons of water down the hole) and the other left the room after much coaxing. The second time I didn't notice until too late that someone creepy, crawly, and cockroach-y was sitting on the wall next to the spigot, wiggling his (or her) antennae, as though aware of his blatant violation of our agreement. Needless to say, I was incensed, but, after some hearty chastisement, I decided to give my friends another chance. 

So we come to this evening, around 9PM. I take a brief break from writing a paper to use the facilities, if you will. Upon opening door number one, to my chagrin, I find two of my (former) friends scurrying around, willy-nilly, as though they had completely forgotten our arrangement. I was incensed. Now, on the first day with my host family, my host mother handed me a large green spray can with frightening pictures of insects all over it, with the order to use it whenever I saw an "insecte" in the house. You can guess what happened next. Though I felt a twinge of remorse slaughtering my friends of the last nearly three months, it was necessary to follow through on the terms of our agreement. I couldn't just let them crawl all over me (literally); I need to make a statement, especially because I have just seen a mouse crawl out from underneath my backpack. The vermin of Chez Ndoye must be made aware of my authority. 

So ends an unlikely roach-human friendship.

Additionally, my apologies for the significant lack of posts during March. Its been a busy month, but be assured I have vowed to fully update, especially when my new computer charger arrives in the next few days, inshallah. :)