Here's how my Thursday morning began...
2:30 a.m. - My loving, caring spouse wakes me up to ask me to scratch his head cuz he has a horrible headache. I mumble something unintelligble and plop my hand close to his head and begin scratching...he promptly falls asleep
about 4:30 a.m. - I am now wide awake and have been tossing and turning for a couple hours. I decide to get up and go work on lessons or something...I groan and grumble and sigh, looking over at the blissfully sleeping spouse of mine, the one who woke me up...
As I stumble downstairs I hear this shrill squeaking and instantly recognize the clatter as coming from a rat (no mice here, only rats). I immediately begin checking all our sticky "plates." No rat on the one by the bathroom, no rat by the one beside the washing machine, hmmm...I continue to hear the squeaking which now sounds like terrifying screams from a small animal...I follow the noise and realize it's coming from behind the shoe rack by the door. I look under the shoe rack and lo and behold what do I see? No, not only one rat, but two rats! I didn't know Tim had put a sticky plate under there.
One of the rats was laying sideways, not moving at all, but its eyes were still open...
the other rat was trying to escape the plate, its forepaws scratching up the wall, its hind legs stuck to the plate. I thought, there is no way I'm going to pick up that plate, with that rat almost off the plate. It was trying desperately to claw its way off the plate...and I didn't want to get bitten!
Ok, now what do I do?
A conversation came to mind. Now keep in mind. this conversation happened during lunch at school. Only in Cambodia do you find yourself discussing various ways to catch and kill rats with colleagues during lunch!
The conversation went like this:
Me: "Yeah, we use those sticky plates to catch our rats, then we place them in a plastic bag, tie the bag up and throw the bag in the garbage pile out by the street (that's where the garbage goes and gets picked maybe weekly)."
Principal: "That's horrible, how inhumane. They take days to starve..."
Me: "Yes, but we just can't bring ourselves to bash them over the head with a brick. Besides we are helping to feed the street animal population."
Another teacher: "We did that once - bashed one with a brick; it was horrible, blood and guts everywhere..."
Principal: "I catch the rats and then put them in a plastic bag. Put the bag in the sink and fill it with water...make sure the bag has no holes and won't leak. I then put the rat in the bag and drown it. Works great, only takes a few minutes..."
Me: "Ok, I'll try that..."
So back to 4:30 a.m....I decide to try this new trick. Then I decide I do NOT want to pick up the sticky plate and get bitten. I mean, if both the rats were laying sideways and not moving that would be fine, but this one rat was halfway off and really fighting! So....I decided to return the favor...I trudge upstairs to wake up the loving husband who is still sleeping, the one who woke me up at 2:3o
I lean over him and say quietly, yet firmly, "Honey, wake up. I need your help with a mouse."
He sat up suddenly and stared at me. Then after about a minute or two, he said, "Only in Cambodia, will I probably ever something like this at 4:30 a.m."
We both stomp downstairs. I tell him the plan and how I heard about it from the elementary principal. I fill a plastic bag with water in the sink...I look over at my courageous protector...he is leaning over staring at the rats...no movement from him. He says, "move the shoe rack and lets see if he gets away..." So I do...the rat is still stuck but NOT happy! Tim doesn't want to pick it up either...then he comes up with a ingenious idea. He gets one of the other sticky plates and smacks that plate on to the the plate that already has the rats on it; thereby, making a rat sandwich! Now why couldn't I have thought of that? Then he gingerly places the plates in the bag with water. I hold the handles up, and Tim adds more water to make sure there's enough to drown the rats. We both stand at the sink somberly, yet curiously, looking on...At first there is much movement...then only a couple minutes later, all is still.
I say, "It worked! Cool!" (No, I'm not one of those people who hurt small animals and will one day blow up a building or massacre a bunch of people). I'm just glad I found a way to kill the rats faster so they don't have to suffer as long.
We empty the water out and tie the bag up; job done, and quite efficiently if we do say so.
We actually feel closer, like this crisis has brought us together...our new motto to survival in Cambodia is, "The family who slays together, stays together."
No comments:
Post a Comment