My bug.

Since we returned from Christmas, we're pretty sure our house is bugged. No, not beetles or roaches or ants, though any of those would be better. Bugged as in "are you freaking kidding me someone's listening to our conversations??" bugged. Wire taps. Not having any of the required electronic detection equipment to check for said bugs, I have thoroughly inspected my bedroom and the living room with my headlamp and have found nothing. I've considered screaming at the top of my lungs continuously for a few hours in the hopes of either breaking the devices or driving the listener to the hospital with a busted eardrum. I'll do it. But wait, there's more.

A few weeks ago, Community Cop (of Comm Cop for short) showed up telling us that we hadn't registered our students as guests in our homes in a timely enough fashion and that the fine was roughly $300. Uh huh. The fine for people not registering their guests in a third world country is $300 - everyone can pay that, right? Interestingly, two months prior he had told us that he needed $300 to buy a laptop. We weren't really sure what to do and though $300 is a lot of money, $1200 is a whole lot more. ($300 x 4 students) We asked our friends, then did as they suggested and went to the main neighborhood station and registered with Big Dawg. Comm Cop was not pleased - we got him in trouble. While on our last trip, I received an email from our friend Teacher Man saying that he had been called into the police station four times in two weeks. He was first questioned as to our jobs, agendas, and motivations for being here and then questioned about his own job and other personal information. A few others have been questioned as well. And we've been told our rental agreement is void. And Shifty Motorbike Man was sitting outside our house this morning for an hour, not moving...just waiting. Waiting for what, you ask? I'm not sure but I don't like it.

We've heard stories from several foreigner friends of calls being monitored. Scottish Bloke was speaking to someone at the phone company and heard something in the background. When he stopped speaking, he realized that the voice he was hearing was his own - a conversation he had with the same office the week before. It had been recorded and accidentally played back. Perhaps Phone Call Monitor hit play instead of record? But one of our students complained today about the weird voices she could hear when she made a call earlier. Perhaps something similar?

I knew prior to moving here that the chances were good that I would be "monitored" but I'm sure in the back of my head I believed it wouldn't be true. Surely there are much more interesting people to monitor. Surely there are much bigger things going on than what happens in my house. But groups gathering "in private" (meaning anywhere) are assumed government conspirators. We gather daily in my house. All foreigners, particularly those of my nationality, are monitored, watched, followed, tracked, kept under surveillance. I wonder if I need to constantly be watching over my shoulder.

Though we believe that Comm Cop is doing all of this out of spite, it's possible they were on to us all along. Perhaps our days are numbered, perhaps we'll be around for years. Who knows. What I do know is that anyone with any kind of wiretap detection device should board a plane immediately, bound for Southeast Asia. But please, make sure you wrap it in socks, duct tap and plastic before shoving it to the bottom of your incredibly large hiking pack.