Monday, May 18, 2009

Beware the roaches...

Cockroaches.

Yes, this is a story about a cockroach. I didn't give him a name in real life, but perhaps we can call him Roachie.

Cockroaches, while not any sort of threat to life here in Ixtlan, do exist. Ask Jodi. One interrupted our Skype-chat conversation one night when it went crawling across my desk and I had to wage an impromptu war. I won that one. Raid spray is my favorite, then I don't have to deal with crunching exoskeletons and just sweep up the roach a couple of days later.

Anyway. Roachie.

Today I went to plug my iPod into the speakers I have in the classroom. The textbooks we have use quite a bit of audio and so I use my iPod during class. Well, I had a problem. The speakers weren't getting any juice. No matter how many times I pushed in the power button, nothing happened. No power light. No sound. Nothing. This can be frustrating, especially when you need sound. Thankfully I didn't need it today, although it came close.

Anyway. Speakers.

So I had class and went back to trying to figure out what was wrong. After trying different electric outlets and being generally confused, I shook the speaker to see if any parts were loose.

It sounded like a small etch-a-sketch. This made sense. It's been windy lately and dry. I just didn't think that much dust and sand could have gotten in the speaker while being in the school.

'Ah, well' I thought, 'Time to do surgury.' Of course I didn't have the screwdrive that I needed in the house so after borrowing one from Marshall and Jan, I proceeded to commence operations on my speaker. The operation was pretty typical. They put the screws in the deepest holes so you can never really tell what you are doing. You just have to have a long skinny screwdriver. I think the electonics companies are working with Craftsman.

Well, I got the speaker open and the 'sand' started to fall out. It looked familiar. It looked like the aftermath of a roach. By aftermath, I mean fecal matter. Not cool. So, with greater caution and over the trash can, I continue opening the speaker and, there, scared to death (with good reason I would think), staring back at me was Roachie. Roachie had made home amongst all the wires of my speakers. Considering that we haven't had classes for three weeks. I have no clue how long he had been living there.

I proceeded to do the only logical thing. I knocked Roachie out of the speaker and into the trash can and went for the Raid can.

That took care of Roachie, but what about the speakers. Allowing for the fact that I know nothing about the inter workings of electronics, I feel like I gave things a pretty good looking over, but I don't think Roachie like the way things were organized and had done his damage. Thankfully we didn't pay much for those things.

so I swept things up and and am ready to move on now. Excitement for the day is now over. I think, who knows what else may happen.



Here is Roachie on his way out. Poor guy. Wrong place at the wrong time.


Prayer:

1. We started classes again today. We have six more weeks. Pray that these weeks would be productive academically and in relationships. Pray that God would use this year for His glory and that He would do His work. Pray that we could finish strong leave these kids thinking about more than just English.

*By the way, I'm coming home June 29th and will be home until the 20th of July. Woohoo!

**Oh, it rained last Thursday and Friday night. Yea!!

2 comments:

mark and angie said...

What drama!!! I must admit, I feel no sympathy for Roachie.
Glad you finally got your rain. Can't wait to see you in July - it'll be here before we know it (and yikes...we'll have a baby!!!)

Zeltwangers said...

Oh, you make me laugh! Thanks! Drama as Ang says! I only wish I could have witnessed the whole experience or seen it on Skype. Love you & can't wait for July too!