Home Improvement Sunday

October 30^th, 2011

I woke up today with no intentions of doing anything productive.  I was coming out of homesickness funk and felt like wasting the day away being unproductive, but by 2pm I had somehow channeled Tim Allen and completed three home improvement jobs.

What sparked the productivity was the much-needed prevention of bugs getting into my hut.  With the recent rainstorms we have also gotten a fresh batch of creepy crawlers and flyers that like finding refuge in my house.  I decided to finish an already started project of putting screen up on my windows so the bugs don’t get in.  PC gave us old mosquito nets to cut up and use as screens.  I bought some Velcro in town and super glued one side of it to my window frame and then the other side to the net.  Takes a while, but now I have one window that I can have open and not have to worry about what may be getting in.

I needed something to stand on to finish the window project so my host sisi (Nosipho) and I went to borrow the ladder from a neighbor.  On the walked I discovered what               are.  They are biting ants.  Of course no one warned me until I found myself hopping as my feet began to burn.  I looked down to find them covered in ants.  I was instructed to stomp to shake them off, not to kill them.  You cant kill them because once one gets killed the rest freak out and attack even more.  It was awful.  I really almost cried and vowed never to leave my hut again.  Since I was half way to the ladder I sucked it up and marched like a continental soldier the rest of the way.  Oh but you better believe I gave those ants the death stare all the way.

I somehow managed to still be productive after the ant battle and once finished with the window I moved onto the unfinished paint job.  With the ladder I was able to get my last wall painted with just enough paint, not a drop to spare.  Once the wall was dry and I had cooked lunch for Nosipho and I, she decided to hang around and help me construct a closet.  I have a spare broom that I disconnected the handle to use as a closet poll.  Nosipho climbed up to the rafters in my hut to suspend the pole with rope and boom I had a closet.  I then, finally after almost 5 months, unpacked my suitcases!!  You could say I have officially moved in to Swaziland and it feels great!  I am almost ready for my hut warming party.

Enjoying my new closet!