I'm a bit sleepy today due to the fact that I was up for approximately forever in the middle of the night last night listening to something scurrying around on my roof. Kendra, on the other hand, went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 10:30am so she's pretty well rested.
Let me start off by saying how tough I think I've become. In order to do this, we should think back to my reaction to bugs and other such creepy crawlies prior to living in Africa. To put it simply, I was not a fan. I'm still not, but I can now face them with bravery...which is an improvement. For example, when I was visiting Lee Ann in California just before coming here, a yucky bug made it’s way across her floor. I couldn’t face sleeping on the air mattress down there, knowing he was still wandering around. Instead, I had to crawl into bed with Lee Ann. It was safer that way. In Africa, as you may have heard, I’ve woken up to a bug in my bed right next to my pillow. And I calmly got up and killed him. No big deal, I’m brave now.
However, my bravery was tested last night when I realized that I’m pretty sure there are mice out there. Or rats, or something equally freaky, scary, and gross. I was sleeping ever so peacefully when I woke up just parched. I took a sip of water, and laid back down. When I laid down, I heard a sound that I was not pleased with. It sounded like a little something munching on a little something else, and it was coming from above me. I realized that I had heard this sound before, a few nights ago. However, last time I heard it I brushed it away and fell back to sleep. Last night, not so much. I thought to myself, what little something is munching on a little something else right up above me? Is it a noisy, very hungry bug? Then I heard a scurrying pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter (Kim, Cheryl, Ben and Jeff – as I typed "pitter patter" just now, I was reminded of the clomp drag grass grass grass…right?!). Not comforting. It came to me then that this was no hungry bug, this was sounding a lot like a hungry mouse. Oh dear me…I may be brave enough for bugs now, but I am not brave enough for mice!
I then came to a dilemma: How risky am I willing to get? You see, when I woke up parched it was because I was quite warm. I have somewhere around six blankets on my bed, and I was tucked under them all. Comfortable, but toasty. Now, I really wanted to get out from under the blankets so I wasn’t so warm. But with that came a price. Was I willing to expose myself to the mice like that? What if one found a way in through the roof and fell down upon me in my bed? And what if, when that happened, I wasn’t safely under my covers? Goodness gracious, I don’t think I could’ve survived. I wasn’t willing to take that chance, so I stayed under the blankets. Since this meant me being uncomfortably warm (while at the same time being worried about attacking mice), I naturally couldn’t fall back to sleep. I was stuck awake, listening to the scurrying and pitter-pattering above me.
When I finally did fall back asleep, I had a nightmare about mice and rats living under my bed. Not a peaceful sleep.
In the morning, while discussing this new concern with Kendra, I realized that I probably wasn’t quite thinking rationally in my half-asleep state. I mean, we’ve been here for five weeks now. Have I seen a mouse even once? No. Have I seen any signs of mice? No. If there were mice on my roof that wanted to get in, wouldn’t they have done that by now? Probably. So I’ve decided that I’m safe. Hopefully. Kendra has also given me the helpful hint that next time I’m too warm and also concerned about mice attacking me, I should take off three of my six blankets. Still safe, but also not quite so hot. She’s so smart.
Ok, I’m going to get a wee bit random here, but you should all be used to that by now. There’s something I’ve been meaning to make fun of, and I suppose now is the time. All over on the streets here, no matter where you are, there are shoe-shine people. They’ve got their little chair out for customers, they’ve got their bucket of water, and they’ve got their shoe-shinin tools. There are so many of them. Constantly (and by constantly I mean approximately three times per day), they try to get our business. They may call us over, perhaps simply ask us to get our shoes shined, or just tell us straight out that we have dirty shoes. Their approach is not important, though. It’s just important that you understand this is not a one-time occurrence. Or even a once-per-day occurrence. Now, let me inform you of the shoes I wear in Africa. Every day, I either have on my Toms or my flip flops. It’s one of the two. That’s all I’ve got. Do they even look at my feet before they try so hard to convince me to get my shoes shined? Because my Toms are made of canvas, and my flip flops are…flip flops. Shoe-shine man, can you really help me? It happens so frequently that Kendra and I are tempted to take them up on the offer someday. I think I’ll wear my $2.50 Old Navy flip flops and see just how spiffy the shoe-shine dude can make them.
This afternoon we did something exciting. Yes, we re-arranged our bedroom! Kendra and I returned home and thought it would be quite a fun time to move things around. Switch things up, you know? So we got to work. We decided that our beds were simply too far apart (no, our room is not that big, we’re just weird), so we moved those first. They are now quite close together...because we don’t spend enough time right next to each other these days (note the sarcasm there). We moved around our "dresser" and our top-notch table (aka broken drawers with a piece of plywood on top) and even swept up the floors. It’s like a whole new place in there! When Amare came over today, he was pretty much left speechless. He just kept saying, "Wow…wow…" and "I’m so proud!" I guess he likes the new arrangement. We’re pretty excited to show it off to everyone else. Clearly, we are easily pleased…
More randomness: As Kendra was brushing her teeth, she came out and said like it was nothing out of the ordinary, "Hey, there was a snuggle-bug in the sink so I killed it with shampoo" and went about her business. Of course, we lost it instantly and died laughing. First of all, she actually used the word "snuggle-bug" in a seemingly normal conversation. "Snuggle-bug" is the term we have created for the type of bug that I found near my pillow, trying to cuddle with me. Hence, "snuggle" bug. Secondly, she killed it with shampoo. What? An odd approach, yes…but it does indeed work! Actually, it’s not the first time we’ve used shampoo as a bug annihilator. Spider in the shower? Shampoo it. Bug in the sink? Shampoo it. Always a good solution. So good, in fact, that Kendra had the "fantastic idea" of squirting a shampoo barrier around walls of our room to keep other bugs from coming in. I just looked at her like she was crazy (note from Kendra - It would legit work! I mean, if any little critters tried to get in, they would get stuck in the sticky goodness of the shampoo killer!).
Breaking News!!!
As I was not able to post this on Wednesday, when I wrote it, I’m going to add today’s very exciting news. On this Thursday, February 16, 2012 the Strong Hearts guest house in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia acquired running water. Running water! Water, that runs! Desta came in this morning and tried to tell us something. He was saying things like, "Shower? Water? Waha alleh (water here)?" Our last guess would be that he was trying to tell us that we had running water and could take a shower. He was laughing, and we kept trying to guess. In the end, we said, "Ok! Yeah!" And he walked away laughing. Evidently, as we found out later, he was trying to tell us the fantastic news of the day. Amare came in and explained in English. Even though we could understand his English just fine, we still had quite a hard time believing! No way could we have running water. It’s been one month, one week, and one day since our arrival and we have not had running water for a single one of those days. Sensing our skepticism, he took us into the bathroom and….turned on the shower! Water came flowing out, and it was a beautiful sight to see! Currently we are waiting for them to get the water heater working. If all goes well, we’ll be taking nice warm showers in our very own bathroom this afternoon! We’re still finding it hard to believe, and are quite sure something is going to go wrong before we actually get to enjoy the shower. Fingers crossed, I’ll let you know how it all turns out!
Let me start off by saying how tough I think I've become. In order to do this, we should think back to my reaction to bugs and other such creepy crawlies prior to living in Africa. To put it simply, I was not a fan. I'm still not, but I can now face them with bravery...which is an improvement. For example, when I was visiting Lee Ann in California just before coming here, a yucky bug made it’s way across her floor. I couldn’t face sleeping on the air mattress down there, knowing he was still wandering around. Instead, I had to crawl into bed with Lee Ann. It was safer that way. In Africa, as you may have heard, I’ve woken up to a bug in my bed right next to my pillow. And I calmly got up and killed him. No big deal, I’m brave now.
However, my bravery was tested last night when I realized that I’m pretty sure there are mice out there. Or rats, or something equally freaky, scary, and gross. I was sleeping ever so peacefully when I woke up just parched. I took a sip of water, and laid back down. When I laid down, I heard a sound that I was not pleased with. It sounded like a little something munching on a little something else, and it was coming from above me. I realized that I had heard this sound before, a few nights ago. However, last time I heard it I brushed it away and fell back to sleep. Last night, not so much. I thought to myself, what little something is munching on a little something else right up above me? Is it a noisy, very hungry bug? Then I heard a scurrying pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter (Kim, Cheryl, Ben and Jeff – as I typed "pitter patter" just now, I was reminded of the clomp drag grass grass grass…right?!). Not comforting. It came to me then that this was no hungry bug, this was sounding a lot like a hungry mouse. Oh dear me…I may be brave enough for bugs now, but I am not brave enough for mice!
I then came to a dilemma: How risky am I willing to get? You see, when I woke up parched it was because I was quite warm. I have somewhere around six blankets on my bed, and I was tucked under them all. Comfortable, but toasty. Now, I really wanted to get out from under the blankets so I wasn’t so warm. But with that came a price. Was I willing to expose myself to the mice like that? What if one found a way in through the roof and fell down upon me in my bed? And what if, when that happened, I wasn’t safely under my covers? Goodness gracious, I don’t think I could’ve survived. I wasn’t willing to take that chance, so I stayed under the blankets. Since this meant me being uncomfortably warm (while at the same time being worried about attacking mice), I naturally couldn’t fall back to sleep. I was stuck awake, listening to the scurrying and pitter-pattering above me.
When I finally did fall back asleep, I had a nightmare about mice and rats living under my bed. Not a peaceful sleep.
In the morning, while discussing this new concern with Kendra, I realized that I probably wasn’t quite thinking rationally in my half-asleep state. I mean, we’ve been here for five weeks now. Have I seen a mouse even once? No. Have I seen any signs of mice? No. If there were mice on my roof that wanted to get in, wouldn’t they have done that by now? Probably. So I’ve decided that I’m safe. Hopefully. Kendra has also given me the helpful hint that next time I’m too warm and also concerned about mice attacking me, I should take off three of my six blankets. Still safe, but also not quite so hot. She’s so smart.
Ok, I’m going to get a wee bit random here, but you should all be used to that by now. There’s something I’ve been meaning to make fun of, and I suppose now is the time. All over on the streets here, no matter where you are, there are shoe-shine people. They’ve got their little chair out for customers, they’ve got their bucket of water, and they’ve got their shoe-shinin tools. There are so many of them. Constantly (and by constantly I mean approximately three times per day), they try to get our business. They may call us over, perhaps simply ask us to get our shoes shined, or just tell us straight out that we have dirty shoes. Their approach is not important, though. It’s just important that you understand this is not a one-time occurrence. Or even a once-per-day occurrence. Now, let me inform you of the shoes I wear in Africa. Every day, I either have on my Toms or my flip flops. It’s one of the two. That’s all I’ve got. Do they even look at my feet before they try so hard to convince me to get my shoes shined? Because my Toms are made of canvas, and my flip flops are…flip flops. Shoe-shine man, can you really help me? It happens so frequently that Kendra and I are tempted to take them up on the offer someday. I think I’ll wear my $2.50 Old Navy flip flops and see just how spiffy the shoe-shine dude can make them.
This afternoon we did something exciting. Yes, we re-arranged our bedroom! Kendra and I returned home and thought it would be quite a fun time to move things around. Switch things up, you know? So we got to work. We decided that our beds were simply too far apart (no, our room is not that big, we’re just weird), so we moved those first. They are now quite close together...because we don’t spend enough time right next to each other these days (note the sarcasm there). We moved around our "dresser" and our top-notch table (aka broken drawers with a piece of plywood on top) and even swept up the floors. It’s like a whole new place in there! When Amare came over today, he was pretty much left speechless. He just kept saying, "Wow…wow…" and "I’m so proud!" I guess he likes the new arrangement. We’re pretty excited to show it off to everyone else. Clearly, we are easily pleased…
More randomness: As Kendra was brushing her teeth, she came out and said like it was nothing out of the ordinary, "Hey, there was a snuggle-bug in the sink so I killed it with shampoo" and went about her business. Of course, we lost it instantly and died laughing. First of all, she actually used the word "snuggle-bug" in a seemingly normal conversation. "Snuggle-bug" is the term we have created for the type of bug that I found near my pillow, trying to cuddle with me. Hence, "snuggle" bug. Secondly, she killed it with shampoo. What? An odd approach, yes…but it does indeed work! Actually, it’s not the first time we’ve used shampoo as a bug annihilator. Spider in the shower? Shampoo it. Bug in the sink? Shampoo it. Always a good solution. So good, in fact, that Kendra had the "fantastic idea" of squirting a shampoo barrier around walls of our room to keep other bugs from coming in. I just looked at her like she was crazy (note from Kendra - It would legit work! I mean, if any little critters tried to get in, they would get stuck in the sticky goodness of the shampoo killer!).
Breaking News!!!
As I was not able to post this on Wednesday, when I wrote it, I’m going to add today’s very exciting news. On this Thursday, February 16, 2012 the Strong Hearts guest house in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia acquired running water. Running water! Water, that runs! Desta came in this morning and tried to tell us something. He was saying things like, "Shower? Water? Waha alleh (water here)?" Our last guess would be that he was trying to tell us that we had running water and could take a shower. He was laughing, and we kept trying to guess. In the end, we said, "Ok! Yeah!" And he walked away laughing. Evidently, as we found out later, he was trying to tell us the fantastic news of the day. Amare came in and explained in English. Even though we could understand his English just fine, we still had quite a hard time believing! No way could we have running water. It’s been one month, one week, and one day since our arrival and we have not had running water for a single one of those days. Sensing our skepticism, he took us into the bathroom and….turned on the shower! Water came flowing out, and it was a beautiful sight to see! Currently we are waiting for them to get the water heater working. If all goes well, we’ll be taking nice warm showers in our very own bathroom this afternoon! We’re still finding it hard to believe, and are quite sure something is going to go wrong before we actually get to enjoy the shower. Fingers crossed, I’ll let you know how it all turns out!
Creepy critters on the roof...yuck! But running water...wow!
ReplyDeleteSo proud of your bravery!! But will always protect you in the line of bug duty if necessary. Hahaha
ReplyDelete