Lesson 7: Consider the Rats of the Kitchen

There is a rat in our kitchen.

It’s been hanging around for a while now.  One night I even heard it rustling around in my room, which resulted in the worst night of sleep EVER.  The next day, we didn’t have any poison on hand, so we made some of our own by crushing up some acetaminophen and mixing it with peanut butter, in hopes that the rat would consume enough of the drug to induce liver failure.  This was to no avail, as it’s still around as of this morning.



One night after an especially harrowing rat sighting, we decided to call in our askari (guard) Benard and ask him to catch it and kill it.  So Benard grabbed a pointy stick and proceeded to poke around in the kitchen, moving things around and searching for our unwelcome guest so he could impale it.  While Jennifer and Emily helped Benard search for the unwelcome rodent, I camped out in the living room, not really keen on watching what was going on.  After a few minutes of poking around, Benard gave up, saying that he was “failing the duty.” (I love Ugandan English.) We thanked him for trying, and expressed our desire that the stupid thing would just die.  This is when Benard gave a little impromptu sermon that went something like this:

You know in the Bible, it says “consider the lilies of the field” and “consider the birds of the air.”  These things, they do not work, but God, He provides for them.  Even this rat, it is not working, but you are to provide for it.

Although we appreciated his take on the situation and all had a good laugh together, we later replaced the acetaminophen-peanut butter mixture with actual rat poison.

The next morning, I traveled to Kitale, Kenya to visit the children’s home.  This was my first time crossing the border into Kenya.  If Jennifer and Linda hadn’t been there to tell me exactly what to do, I probably would have just drive right through it.  My favorite part of the border was standing in line with a bunch of Africans to get my Kenya visa.  Next to the window for the Department of Immigration was a box that read, “Suggestions, Compliments and Anti-Corruption Box.” 

Everyone else on the trip was going to do actual work; I was just along for the ride so I could play with the kids.  This made for a pretty enjoyable trip.  I even got a souvenir sunburn from Kenya to take home with me!  The kids were so sweet.  Eleven-year-old Josephine took my by the hand and gave me a grand tour of the 5+ acre compound, including a game of volleyball, basketball, and teaching me a few songs.  After a long day of work for everyone else, we had a fabulous dinner at Karibuni Lodge, which was concluded by some absolutely fabulous tiramisu.  A great time was had by all, and the peaceful election in Uganda allowed us to travel home safely on Sunday as planned.

    This is a picture of me and some of the girls at the children's home.  They did a great job of styling my hair, didn't they?