Heat, selfishness, and luck

The heat is oppressive here. As I write this it is finally raining, for the first time in about a week and a half. As such, prior to this exact moment it has been really hot and sticky. And sunny – which makes the temperature seem even higher. And of course at this time when I most need my fan at night, my host mom launches on this schpeal about how she should get the fan. This is how it happened:
I didn’t sleep at home last Saturday because I was in Toubab Diallo. As such, I left the fan out in the living room, and I guess my mom slept with it that night. So, the next night when I get back and go to take the fan, she starts guilt-tripping me about how she is old and can’t sleep well in this oppressive heat and that she thinks that she and I are going to rotate nights with the fan. Theoretically, this is a fine idea, but it bothered me for 2 reasons: 1) she has grown up in Africa, and is much more used to the heat that I could ever be (the one night I didn’t sleep with the fan, because there was another guest in the house, I literally paced around the house with a fan ALL night long), and 2) one of the few rules CIEE tells the host families is they must provide their student with a fan. As such, I am entitled to that fan. If my mom wanted to keep it for herself, all she had to do was go out and buy me one. A good chunk of my semester’s tuition is going to paying the families a monthly stipend!!!
This brings me to another issue. My host mom is really cheap, and sometimes I wonder if she accepted to host a student so that she could make a little money. She always tries to buy the cheapest food (we don’t EVER get salad, while some of my other friends have them on an almost-daily basis). And almost every night my mom mentions the fact that “it’s really cool out so I don’t need to turn my fan on, right??”. She even says it when it’s oppressively hot. Argh. And, she borrowed 3000 cfas from me (without asking) and still hasn’t paid me back yet. Nor will she, I’m sure of it…
Anyway, on to a more interesting topic. I’m really thankful that I grew up speaking French. I have the language innately within me, and can get myself through so many situations relying on my natural ability to speak French. I think that no matter how fluently a person can speak a foreign language, if it is not learned as a child, it will never EVER be perfect. One will never be able to claim that the language is a part of them, because there will always be some sort of misunderstanding, some kind of divide. So, yeah, I’m lucky.