Ants at War & Killing Fields

This has been a hard week for me.  I am trying to secure a classroom at the Russian school for conversation clubs and FLEX, and TEA programs.   And Of course I need a letter from the Peace Corps office in order for it to be approved... no problem? yea right. I spoke with my program manager at PC and they drafted a letter to the Education Department in Zaqatala.  I then gave a copy to the Director, simple right... Wrong!!! (you think I would learn!) He needed to received an okay from the Education Department.  I proceeded to the Education Department and he wanted approval from the Regional department of Education.  I then called my PM and she spoke with the Regional Department and now they need approval and letter from the Ministry of Education in Baku!!  It just so happened that the TEFL managers had a meeting to discuss this very problem (I had to do this for conversation club at the Institute as well) and they were discussing one letter for all PCV's for all regions for any extra activities that the volunteers want to do.  It was approved but...... now to get it through the chain of commands...hmmm that will take weeks and weeks....  Needless to say, I am fuming over this and who is suffering are the students who have requested my help.  I have one student that comes to my apartment a couple times a week, but there are a lot more students out there and I just don't have the room here.

After that problem, I came to home to a zillion ants coming through the open window.  I don't have anything they would want as everything is either in the frig, or in zip lock bags or containers.  I have had problems in the past so I thought I was one step ahead... again WRONG (I never learn)...  Well, I can't go out and buy RAID so I checked on line and vinegar is suppose to work, so I got a bottle full strength and just started to spray but there was too many, I got a bucket of bleach water and just started scooping them in, still coming, thousands, I went to my friends at the wedding palace and told them of my dilemma .  Of course Azad told me no problem Annette, he will get some stuff at the bazaar that works for me. He bought some spray and a chalk stick, he told me to mark this around the window after I used the spray.  I moved everything to the balcony and started spraying, I don't know what that stuff was, but it even killed the cockroaches.  For the last week, ants are still dying and I am still sweeping them up but at least that problem is solved!!   I chalked the window so they won't come back, I hope!!! 

I mentioned in my last blog about my cat Mint is teaching her little ones the art of the hunt, well I am changing her name from sweet Mint, to "KILLER"!!!! She keeps bringing these live critters in for "training sessions" (which by the way is awful) but the other night was the worst, she brought in a live bird around 3 am and proceeding to give it to Snickers (he is a little slow and not very strong) but he was determine to kill that bird UNDER my bed, so I wake up to growling and the poor bird crying in pain, and when I saw what was happening, I went out, closed the door behind me and lay on the couch (the other two kittens were on my bed, did not want anything to do with it) until it was over.  Mint aka Killer watch and helped when it was needed, after it was quiet, I went back in and the poor bird had no head or heart, pretty gruesome, I clean up as much as I could and then went back to bed.  I made the decision that I will close the window at night so Mint can't bring any more critters in at least during the night.  In the morning, I mopped the floor with bleach and scrub the rug... Yuck....Like I said a rough week!!!

Oh, I did have one highlight, my site friend's family came to visit and we went to Car (pronounced Jar) for a hike.  It was absolutely beautiful but very over grown. I put cairn (trail markers) down and good thing, we would have been lost coming back.  Just as we hiked out, it started to sprinkle, good timing and after they all came over for bean burgers, vegetarian chili and salad.  And since Kaylee's mom is a hairdresser, she cut my hair.  This certainly made up for the problems of bureaucracy, invasion of ants and killing fields!!!




The start of the Hike



Public Outhouse Awful Smell

Life Challenge: One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.... William Shakespeare