All in a day's work

Since the school year has started back up and all the kids are back, I've also seen a return of the crazy, unpredictable, strange little happenings that are just part of day-to-day life around here, either from living with so many teenagers or just from living in Africa. Here are a few examples:

1. One teenager got a huge, ugly bite on her foot, apparently from a spider that crawled in her sock while she was studying.
2. Another teenager fell on the basketball court and was afraid he broke his arm (he didn't, thankfully!)
3. Some weird short in the electrical circuit caused the power to go out in half of the dorm every 10-20 minutes every night for two weeks, creating a hilariously frustrating need for either Keturah or I to come out of our rooms every few minutes to reset the breaker. (It was finally fixed last night!)
4. We accidentally left the windows open after sunset one night (huge mistake!) and after about 30 minutes found that our bathroom floor had turned black from the millions of little black stinkbugs that flew in.
5. 32 boys + 32 girls = lots of flirtation and the need for us "relationship cops" to patrol the scene and break up the little pairing-offs as they happen (there is a "no-relationship" rule in boarding, to which there is a long and very understandable explanation for).
6. And finally, today's big event happened during lunch. As we leisurely enjoyed our chicken and rice, we heard frantic children screaming not too far away. As I rushed out to see what was wrong, I heard "Snake! Snake!" I followed the crowd, wondering what in the world I could possibly do to help this situation. Before the thought was even complete in my mind, though, three or four teenage boys appeared and quickly (and pretty brutally if I may say so) put an end to the snake threat within two minutes. Afterwards, all the kids simply returned to eating lunch as if nothing had happened. To this I only had one response, "TIA...This is Africa!" :)

3 comments:

Leah said...

I bet you were relieved that you didn't have to take care of that snake!!

Amber said...

Ha! Well girl, your weeks are definitely not boring! ;) How did you get rid of ALL those stinkbugs?! And do they really stink?

Andrea said...

Leah, um yes.
Amber, we used brooms and swept most of them out. It was funny, though, because some of them would start flying while we were sweeping them out, making it quite the laborious task. We learned our lesson, though, and now make sure the windows are closed every evening! :)