The termite story

When we arrived here, this house was half eaten by termites. Ever since, we are trying to get them out. A painstaking battle that may not be finished by the time we leave here, but we won't give up!
The room that is most under attack is the one soon to be Aini's (however... soon?), so you can imagine I want that problem solved. Even more so, because both parties (by that, I mean Aini on the one hand and my husband and me on the other) are getting ready for her to move to her own bedroom (who would have thought that would ever happen??? And so soon!).
So we called in the carpenters. They came over to test the wood to see exactly how much needed to be removed.
Quick sketch of the situation: The airco unit is fitted into a wooden box, which is so rotten and eaten by the termites, they left it, making their way up to the ceiling.
So the carpenter guy chucks off a ceiling board, looks around and says: "Il ne sont pas dans le bois madame".
I answer that it's quite strange, seeing that they have left the airco unit and you see the traces move right up to the ceiling... and furthermore, there's dust falling off the ceiling boards, which suggests they are in the ceiling.
Now, it's his colleague who answers: "Non madame, ils ne sont pas dans le bois! Ils sont sortie la, parce que ils ont tout mange, et puis ils sont sorties dehors."
I was stunned! "ils sont sorties dehors? Comment-ca?"
"Par le mur, madame!"
At that point I gave up. Luckily Mariam came to the rescue and pointed out yet again that dust was coming out of the ceiling, so they shoold at least replace those boards. Stubborn, the carpenter took a piece of wood and started knocking against the ceiling: "Tu vois, c'est solide."
Mariam took matters (being the piece of wood) into her own hands and showed where the dust came out. She knocked the board once and went straight through!!!
As a result, they're redoing all off the woodwork in Aini's room.
Poor carpenters, they must be suffering ever since there are three white women on the plantation again. I think they haven't worked this hard in years!