Year of the Panya?
Well, actually no it's not the Year of the Rat (2007 is Year of the Pig), but in our area rats have been the latest topic of discussion.
The day we were to leave for Morogoro (it takes 2 days to get from our site to Arusha so we stop in Moro for the night), three new health and environmental volunteers in our area were installed at their sites. The previous day they opened their bank accounts (after 5 hours) and went shopping for everything under the moon as their houses literally had nothing in them - except (we would find this out later) rats. As they were being driven to their sites, Russ, James, and I waited at our house. As I walked into the kitchen to get something to drink I heard the plastic bags crinkle. I looked over to them and saw a brownish rodent scurry away and I screamed, "rat!" It kept going behind things running out into the open then behind the cabinet then up the water filter then behind the buckets. I screamed whenever it ran towards me, not because I was scared really, but because it so was darn fast it kept surprising me! James came into the kitchen to help find the rat, but he seemed to have disappeared. Russ was still in bed so he got up and said, "well, I'm going to put on slippers in case I step on it." Just as he finished saying that he looked down and the rat was at his feet and he gave a girlish screech and the rat continued into the next room, a guest bedroom. We closed the door so it was trapped in there, then came up with a battle plan.
We didn't want to just leave the rat in there because we'd be gone for a week so we had to catch it. We didn't want to kill it either so Russ and James got a broom and a bucket and entered the room as I stood in the hallway on the other side of the door, listening. They screamed and screeched like school girls and I could hear them say things like "get the bucket!" "over here! "he's climbing up the bedpost!" "he jumped!" "oh, oh, oh, no! he got away!" I was laughing hard but were very thankful that the boys were the ones getting the rat. After 20 unsuccessful minutes they came out into the hallway, needing a break. Russ then came up with the idea of tricking the rat into going into the hallway, which would be enclosed if we closed all the doors. The last bedroom door does not close so one person would have to stand behind it and press it closed. I jumped on that opportunity and stood in the room applying as much pressure as I could to make the door as flush to the frame as possible. I could still see some light coming from where it wouldn't close all the way. The boys went into the room were the rat was and convinced him to go into the hallway. They then shut the door and the rat found himself trapped in the long hallway. He kept running up and down the hallway trying desperately to get away. I heard the same things from the boys in the hallway as I did in the room. Then they said, "he's coming your way, Lis!" and I braced myself as the rat came to my door and tried to dig his way into the room through the cracks where the door didn't close completely. Then he started to climb up the crack in the door and the guys tried to make him fall into the bucket but he got away. Russ and James eventually got the rat in the bucket and put the lid on and took him outside, a little ways away from the house, and let him go.
In Morogoro we met up with other PCVs and ate pizza, then the next day we took a long bus ride (ended up being 10 hours) to Arusha. The bus trip was pretty normal and uneventful until we passed Moshi. With an hour or so left until we reached our destination, a woman standing in the aisle next to Russ and I fainted. She could not pull herself back up after collapsing. People got her up and Russ helped her onto the seat behind us, next to Anna, another PCV. She leaned on Anna and Anna tried to help her stay conscious. Other Tanzanians around us were trying to talk to the woman who did not really respond. They found about 150,000/= ($150, or 5 months' salary for some people) on her and she mumbled she had just come from the market, from selling her goods. She mumbled that she lived not too far from Moshi and when we got to her stop, people said someone should physically take her home, but nobody volunteered. They all had families and it was already starting to get dark. They didn't just want to leave her by herself with all that money as the sun was setting. Then someone noticed blood dripping down her leg and covering the seat she was sitting on. At this point we knew she needed medical attention. The bus kept on going then the next few things that happened got lost in translation. A man, claiming to be her husband, tried to approach the woman. At this point everyone on the bus were yelling things like "he's not the husband, he's a thief!" and thought that if they let him take her off the bus she would be robbed. For some reason the woman couldn't identify the man as her husband. Then, people were saying we needed to get her to a hospital. But others on the bus were saying they needed to get to Arusha. The bus turned off the road in the direction of a hospital as people were yelling at the bus driver to keep going to Arusha. When we arrived at the hospital a few nurses came onto the bus and helped the woman out. Her money was handed over to a nurse and the man claiming to be her husband also got out with the woman, still being pushed around by people who didn't believe him. Anyway, then we were on our way to Arusha, arriving after sunset. That incident got me thinking, in America we can dial 911 to get help in an emergency but here, I wouldn't know who to call, except Peace Corps, in an emergency, assuming you have a phone and service.
So after our adventurous bus ride we ate a little dinner and went straight to bed. The next day we were taken to a lodge in the middle of Arusha National Park for our (COS) Close of Service conference. The lodge was situated so that Mount Kilimanjaro was on one side and Mount Meru on the other. It was also really, really cold there. The conference itself was informative and I was glad to see everyone together for the last time. We were given a few examples of DOSes (Description of Service) that we need to write up as an official Peace Corps document on what we've been doing here for the past two years. We also received reverse culture shock strategies as some people have a hard time adjusting life back in the land of abundance and waste. The food was great - we had bacon every day! We watched movies at night and the final night we watched a slide show in which everyone put up their pictures from over the last two years. There were some pictures of us in the Amsterdam airport on our way to Tanzania...so long ago.
One of the movies we watched was "The Departed," which we had actually seen twice before but Russ loved it so much we watched it for the third time. It was a really good movie, lots of shooting, but its main theme dealt with "rats" in both sides of the storyline.
We made it home safe and sound and have been at site for the past week. After talking to the newly installed volunteers they said their houses are full of rats. They've caught and killed a bunch already but the battle isn't over. Reminds me of our battle with the roaches when we first got to site - we eventually won that war.
We leave again soon as we are going to help plan the training for the new education group who arrive in country in less than two weeks! We'll be with them for a week or so, answering all their burning questions, getting them situated into their host families, and giving them a little information about teaching in Tanzania.
The day we were to leave for Morogoro (it takes 2 days to get from our site to Arusha so we stop in Moro for the night), three new health and environmental volunteers in our area were installed at their sites. The previous day they opened their bank accounts (after 5 hours) and went shopping for everything under the moon as their houses literally had nothing in them - except (we would find this out later) rats. As they were being driven to their sites, Russ, James, and I waited at our house. As I walked into the kitchen to get something to drink I heard the plastic bags crinkle. I looked over to them and saw a brownish rodent scurry away and I screamed, "rat!" It kept going behind things running out into the open then behind the cabinet then up the water filter then behind the buckets. I screamed whenever it ran towards me, not because I was scared really, but because it so was darn fast it kept surprising me! James came into the kitchen to help find the rat, but he seemed to have disappeared. Russ was still in bed so he got up and said, "well, I'm going to put on slippers in case I step on it." Just as he finished saying that he looked down and the rat was at his feet and he gave a girlish screech and the rat continued into the next room, a guest bedroom. We closed the door so it was trapped in there, then came up with a battle plan.
We didn't want to just leave the rat in there because we'd be gone for a week so we had to catch it. We didn't want to kill it either so Russ and James got a broom and a bucket and entered the room as I stood in the hallway on the other side of the door, listening. They screamed and screeched like school girls and I could hear them say things like "get the bucket!" "over here! "he's climbing up the bedpost!" "he jumped!" "oh, oh, oh, no! he got away!" I was laughing hard but were very thankful that the boys were the ones getting the rat. After 20 unsuccessful minutes they came out into the hallway, needing a break. Russ then came up with the idea of tricking the rat into going into the hallway, which would be enclosed if we closed all the doors. The last bedroom door does not close so one person would have to stand behind it and press it closed. I jumped on that opportunity and stood in the room applying as much pressure as I could to make the door as flush to the frame as possible. I could still see some light coming from where it wouldn't close all the way. The boys went into the room were the rat was and convinced him to go into the hallway. They then shut the door and the rat found himself trapped in the long hallway. He kept running up and down the hallway trying desperately to get away. I heard the same things from the boys in the hallway as I did in the room. Then they said, "he's coming your way, Lis!" and I braced myself as the rat came to my door and tried to dig his way into the room through the cracks where the door didn't close completely. Then he started to climb up the crack in the door and the guys tried to make him fall into the bucket but he got away. Russ and James eventually got the rat in the bucket and put the lid on and took him outside, a little ways away from the house, and let him go.
In Morogoro we met up with other PCVs and ate pizza, then the next day we took a long bus ride (ended up being 10 hours) to Arusha. The bus trip was pretty normal and uneventful until we passed Moshi. With an hour or so left until we reached our destination, a woman standing in the aisle next to Russ and I fainted. She could not pull herself back up after collapsing. People got her up and Russ helped her onto the seat behind us, next to Anna, another PCV. She leaned on Anna and Anna tried to help her stay conscious. Other Tanzanians around us were trying to talk to the woman who did not really respond. They found about 150,000/= ($150, or 5 months' salary for some people) on her and she mumbled she had just come from the market, from selling her goods. She mumbled that she lived not too far from Moshi and when we got to her stop, people said someone should physically take her home, but nobody volunteered. They all had families and it was already starting to get dark. They didn't just want to leave her by herself with all that money as the sun was setting. Then someone noticed blood dripping down her leg and covering the seat she was sitting on. At this point we knew she needed medical attention. The bus kept on going then the next few things that happened got lost in translation. A man, claiming to be her husband, tried to approach the woman. At this point everyone on the bus were yelling things like "he's not the husband, he's a thief!" and thought that if they let him take her off the bus she would be robbed. For some reason the woman couldn't identify the man as her husband. Then, people were saying we needed to get her to a hospital. But others on the bus were saying they needed to get to Arusha. The bus turned off the road in the direction of a hospital as people were yelling at the bus driver to keep going to Arusha. When we arrived at the hospital a few nurses came onto the bus and helped the woman out. Her money was handed over to a nurse and the man claiming to be her husband also got out with the woman, still being pushed around by people who didn't believe him. Anyway, then we were on our way to Arusha, arriving after sunset. That incident got me thinking, in America we can dial 911 to get help in an emergency but here, I wouldn't know who to call, except Peace Corps, in an emergency, assuming you have a phone and service.
So after our adventurous bus ride we ate a little dinner and went straight to bed. The next day we were taken to a lodge in the middle of Arusha National Park for our (COS) Close of Service conference. The lodge was situated so that Mount Kilimanjaro was on one side and Mount Meru on the other. It was also really, really cold there. The conference itself was informative and I was glad to see everyone together for the last time. We were given a few examples of DOSes (Description of Service) that we need to write up as an official Peace Corps document on what we've been doing here for the past two years. We also received reverse culture shock strategies as some people have a hard time adjusting life back in the land of abundance and waste. The food was great - we had bacon every day! We watched movies at night and the final night we watched a slide show in which everyone put up their pictures from over the last two years. There were some pictures of us in the Amsterdam airport on our way to Tanzania...so long ago.
One of the movies we watched was "The Departed," which we had actually seen twice before but Russ loved it so much we watched it for the third time. It was a really good movie, lots of shooting, but its main theme dealt with "rats" in both sides of the storyline.
We made it home safe and sound and have been at site for the past week. After talking to the newly installed volunteers they said their houses are full of rats. They've caught and killed a bunch already but the battle isn't over. Reminds me of our battle with the roaches when we first got to site - we eventually won that war.
We leave again soon as we are going to help plan the training for the new education group who arrive in country in less than two weeks! We'll be with them for a week or so, answering all their burning questions, getting them situated into their host families, and giving them a little information about teaching in Tanzania.
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