Rats!

(Written on Sunday, January 23)

As I was boiling water for my breakfast tea – Ada, the anaesthetist, informed me, “I saw a rat in the cupboard.”

I am immediately grateful that I have been storing my food, all unopened, in my room, not in the kitchen cupboard.

“How big was it?”

“Not very big.” She says, and matter-of-factly pulls her hands apart to indicate a size approximately four times larger than my personal version of “not very big” – about 8 inches long.

I think back to the sound of breathing in my room the other night. I calculate – would there be any possible way for a rat to have snuck into my room while I was sleeping? I’ve never been brave enough to look under the bed – who knows – maybe there’s a tiny door or crevice down there. (This is a mystery which will go unsolved, as I don’t have the internal fortitude to even look down there…and because, basically – I DON’T WANT TO KNOW! )

Ada brings out a piece of corn and shows me where the rat has been eating. I am not surprised to see that the rat didn’t have much more gnawing success than I did. It has also been eating Ada’s tomatoes.

I also find out, thanks to Ada, that it is possible to boil the corn in order to make it palatable to western tastes and teeth. [Later – Betty tells me that she and Ken boiled two cobs of corn and that didn’t make it any easier to eat. I suspect Ada has levels of dental and intestinal fortitude that I can only dream of. She also seems to survive on endless variations of “stampot” – it turns out that, although she is Polish, she married a Dutch man and speaks and cooks fluently in Dutch.]

She tells me some good news – she was called out during the night, and was able to help save the life of a child.

Ada is heading to Zambia today, as her three month VISA for Malawi has expired, and it’s more cost effective (and fun) to go on a short safari in nearby Zambia. One of the young interns, Nick from Australia, was telling me about the safari he took prior to starting here – “Have you seen the beginning of Jurassic Park, when the opening scene flashes up – it’s like that!”

I recall the scene and do some quick mental substitution – “You mean, with elephants instead of dinosaurs?”

He nods, eyes gleaming at the memory. I am immediately sorry that I didn’t organize a safari for myself – my reasoning was that since so many people had contributed to the expenses of this trip, that I should not, even on my own dime, circumvent the nature of my time here, by tourist activities. But if I ever return, I will definitely make a point of including a safari. I think the other reason I didn’t, was that something like a safari sounds like more fun, if you are with a companion. Although, I note, Ada is going alone.