Something is in my Room

I’m still sick, which is quite unfortunate for my last week in Kigali. I even took my cold with me to Butare to do a cover letter training for my eager students. I’m exhausted and ill, but I’m taking the time out of my Nyquil trance to tell you a little story . I really did just cough then.

I have a HUGE fear of a certain insect. And there is currently one somewhere in my room. I came home exhausted the other night, open my door, a gecko thing sprung out at me, and I jumped. But they’re everywhere. They’re fine, except when I find them in my bed, but they just are so fast they scare me. So anyway – that was just the beginning. I turn on my light, look to my left and I saw it. Probably the size of my hand. I cringed, whimpered, cursed myself for living here and then texted all of my roommates, who, on a Friday night, were all out. Just me and the beast. I tried to kill it, but just couldn’t. And then, wanting more action, the gecko came back. How? Well as I walked to the bathroom he jumped down almost landing on my head and scurried back into my room and into a pair of jeans I had on the floor. I’m considering burning them.

Anyway. So then I decided to wait up for one of my roommate’s to get home. It was 12:30am, but I had drugged myself with unisom (as I do every single night, because I have to for various reasons). The fatigue washed over me, so I decided to make one more attempt. But he was gone. I assumed behind my dresser, but, not taking any chances, I locked myself into my mosquito net and passed out.

I woke up the next morning and just waited. Waited for the sound of one of my hungover roommates to wake up. The second I heard it I ran across the house – HI GET IN HERE HE’S STILL ALIVE. My very tired roommate (who we can all pretend is a girl if you all want) sauntered into my room to kill the mammoth that lurked there. Getting behind the dresser with my flashlight as I squealed from the corner, he couldn’t find it! Understanding my intense (and understandable) fear, he looked under my bed, on top of the dresser and in every corner of the room. But nope, nowhere to be seen. Now if I was in DC I would sleep in one of my roommate’s rooms or in Buffalo I’d make my mom or dad scour the room before insisting on sleeping in their room. Wait, how old are you again? A very mature 23. But I feel like that’s a little weird here, and I’m not sure I’m on that level with anyone – not to mention two of my roommates are engaged (to each other) so I’m not sure they’d appreciate me insisting on sleeping between them. Not that I’m above it in this situation. So now I’m locked in my mosquito net, just waiting.

In the middle of writing this my mosquito net fell on me for the 100^th time, causing me to scream and whimper again because I’m sick . You may think I’m a huge baby or not rough enough, but I don’t care. You’re not living alone in Rwanda with a monster under your bed (or somewhere, maybe in my clothes). I’ve created a “safe zone” which is my mosquito net. I supplied it with water, my computer, phone, etc. I keep talking to myself about my “safe zone”. Like Saturday night, Nora don’t forget to put pajamas in the safe zone. I only go in and out of the safe zone now while in my room. But you know what? I only have one more week, so I can live on an island in the middle of my room…and I’ll try to stop talking to myself before I get back.