Well hey all! So I am feeling better, I believe I had a touch of, let’s call it “Moshoeshoe’s Revenge” due to some spotty Mexican food. However Moshoeshoe wrought his revenge, and it has passed, thank God. Which is just as well, not much happened last week other than food poisoning and, if I’m guessing right, nobody wants me to recount that online. This week has been slightly more eventful due to an unexpected guest at my house on Tuesday night and well what I have been up to in order to keep myself busy or at least to keep myself from going stark raving mad.
So, in relation to my title, my fun little guest on Tuesday was none other than a barn mouse. Before this I was always hearing about other volunteers and about they have mice or rats in their houses and I’m always thinking in the back of my head how lucky and thankful I was (and how great it was that my during our review for site placement I made it pretty clear that I don’t like bugs or rodents) that I got my nice home and don’t have to worry about such nuisances like mice. After my shower and dinner on Tuesday I had sat down to enjoy some relaxation time by watching “The Office.” While I was watching I noticed some sounds but thought to myself, “Oh, that’s just the birds on the tin roof.“ As I was being humored by Michael Scott’s endless ignorance I noticed a worm-like tail preceded by a furry brown bottom out of the corner of my eye. I instantly got up only to confirm my worst thought, there indeed was a mouse in my house. How it penetrated my 2 foot thick cement walls, I don’t know but I think it is more due to the fact that I fell asleep in my house in the afternoon and forgot to close my door. Anyways, regardless of how it got in the house, now that it was there, I naturally yelled “Shit!” and stared down the little guy for a solid 2 minutes while I tried to figure out my next step.
My next step became obvious. I have to go find M’e Sponghile (one of the people that works at the clinic who lives right next to the clinic). However I had two big obstacles. The first obstacle was that the damn mouse plopped its big bottom right in front of the door, great. The second was, even if the mouse moved I need to trap it so that when M’e gets here she can easily dispose of it. Well while I went to get a box to trap the mouse with, it naturally fled to a hiding spot, resolving of one of the obstacles but leaving the other. I was now free to run out of the house to go get M’e Sponghile. In doing so I also roused the nurse who stays over night at the clinic, Tebello. In talking to Sponghile we decide it is best to also employ the help of the security guard, Ntate Amen (and yes he is a preacher). So Sponghile and Amen ransack my house to find the mouse, to no avail and they convince me that it probably left through the front door while they were looking for it. So feeling only mildly comforted by this I go back to Michael Scott and his antics at the office.
About half way into the episode “Gay Witch Hunt,” I hear an all to familiar noise in my bedroom. So I shut my bedroom door and run to get Ntate Amen. I can’t find him so I call Sponghile and she comes back to the clinic. I feel terrible now because she was probably relaxing and the last thing she wants to do at 8pm is search for a mouse in some scared white woman’s house. Well along the path to my house she meets up with M’e Mpho, another woman that works at the clinic, and her family. So, now I have Sponghile, Tebello, Mpho and her family all looking for this accursed mouse. Still we don’t find it but I KNOW it is in my house. So we decide that that night I will stay in Tebello’s house and in the morning we can search for it again and get rid of it. Well, as I go to get my pillow and blanket out of my bedroom, I see that little bugger and run out of my bedroom yelling “E Teng! E Teng!” Right now I’m not too sure if I’m more surprised that I saw the mouse or that I remember in Sesotho to say “It’s here! It’s here!” So we basically barricade the mouse in my bedroom and me and Tebello have a little slumber party.
The next day I wake up and grudgingly go into my house all in the name of a cup of coffee. So when 7:30am rolls around I start rallying the troops to get rid of the mouse. I think about 10 Basotho were in my house at one time to capture the mouse. I however, knowing the part I want to play I this, take my computer and go check my email. I’m not gone five minutes and Ntate Fusi starts strutting out of my house, sharpened stick in one hand and dead mouse in the other. I did a little dance to show them how happy I was and then thanked them all profusely. I don’t know if my life has gotten so dull here that this whole fiasco with the mouse has become a big deal or if coming in contact with a mouse, sans poision is just a significant part of my stay here. Regardless, I dealt with it, maybe not directly, but as of now I have gotten enough of my share of direct contact with mice and find they are best in cartoon form singing on a tugboat. One good thing that came of this is that I’m much less scared of the spiders. Mice definitely trump spiders, but I’m now hearing of snakes, and snakes I think trump all.
Anyways other than the mice and spiders that keep me entertained I think I’m reaching that point where I start to do kind of outlandish things to keep myself entertained. Right now I’m in full throws of a Lord Of The Rings obsession. I don’t seem to be able to put the books down, and after I read the book I watch the movie. This doesn’t seem that strange, but one morning I noticed myself doing my hair in the likeness of the elves and have made my Easter plans around getting to visit Tolkien’s birthplace in Bloemfontein, SA. If it gets any worse I will have to try to step away for a while and really examine what it is that I’m devoting my time to.
Well, other than that, as some of you might know, my parents are coming to visit in like A WEEK! Which is super exciting. Hot running water and consistent electricity? Sign me up! We are going to do a safari in Krueger National Park, which means I get to take malaria drugs of which psychedelic dreams and psychosis are some of the more mild side effects, fun. And then we are doing a stop over in Lesotho so I can show them around and then off to Cape Town, where I will get to make up for 8 months of no shopping and no gourmet restaurants. WOO HOO!
Well that’s about it for the week. Hopefully next week I will be able to report more than just a Lord Of The Rings obsession and mouse. However my plans for a donkey pub crawl this weekend will hopefully ensure that. Have a great day and an enjoyable week. Salang Hantle!
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