Gwo Rat

I'm not even sure where to begin. This Saturday was my first night in the apartment at the hotel. I have not taken pics yet, but it is lovely to have a space to relax in at the end of the day, and to sleep well in at night. It is a 2-story apartment, with a living/dining area and kitchen on the first floor, and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The whole thing is very open and lofty, and one of the interns Colleen is staying here with me.


Colleen came the second night, Sunday night. We got everything put away, got the kitchen set up, food put up on shelves to keep ants out (our biggest problem in the tent) and went to bed exhausted but thankful for a cool place to sleep.

Yesterday morning I was up at 5:30, when Colleen informed me that when she was up late working, a giant rat ran across the floor of the apartment. Not a mouse, but a rat. Larger than a guinea pig, with a huge tail she said. We came downstairs, and found a Cliff bar that it had munched on. We threw it away, and I told the manager (who called me Beautiful Eyes) that a huge rat had been in the kitchen. He hates rats, and assured me he would take care of it. He immediately sent a man to fix the screen over the window.

Last night I sat up in bed a little before one, only to have the light still on and Colleen coming up the stairs and telling me the rat had been back. She said it came flying down off the steps and jumped about 6 feet down onto the floor and then went into the kitchen. She said it looked really afraid of her. I said I didn't care, that is was gross and it had to go. I gathered my things to go take a shower (remember, it's only 5:45 at this point) and went into the bathroom. I put my clothes on the back of the toilet, turned to get my towel, and decided to go to the bathroom first. As I got close to the toilet, I saw something in there, thought it looked like a tail, got a little creeped out, and asked Colleen, 'did you do something in the toilet last night?' "Um, yeah, I peed," she said. My eyes got really big and I told her I thought there was a rat in the toilet. I made her go and look, and she very calmly told me it was still swimming around. Swimming in my toilet! I quickly dressed and went in search of help. I found the very nice man who spends his days sweeping the hotel grounds. I did not know the word for rat, and all I could say was, "Mwen besoin...(I need)..." and I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I made whiskers with my fingers and stuck my front teeth out and made what I thought were rat-like faces. I said, "Alle avek mwen s'il vous plait"(come with me please) in my crazy combo of French and Creole. He came, saw the rat, said, "Oh!" and I walked out because this is the same man I watched squash a giant tarantual with his foot last year. I did not want to see what he was about to do with the rat. I sat on the bed in my room, Colleen sat on hers, and we waited. He came out a few seconds later with a huge wad of toilet paper and a very long tail sticking out of it. I thanked him, and let him show himself to the door. As he was halfway down the stairs, Colleen and I started shrieking about the whole thing, as girls are supposed to do.  I told her I really wanted to shower and go to the bathroom at the orphanage.  I told her I really liked our tent a whole bunch, and maybe could we please go back? 

Then we came downstairs. The toilet rat had not been the only rat in the house last night. The huge one downstairs ate her mango and two bananas. Apparently, we have a health food junkie on our hands.
After being gone all day, we came home and told the manager about the ordeal of the morning. The manager came and looked and found the place in the screen where the gardener had undone the maintenance man's work to secure the screen to the building. The fixing began again, and the manager went to get a recently purchased giant rat trap for us to put in the kitchen. I went in the kitchen and started reading Colleen's Creole lesson for us for the day, and when I turned around, I felt like something was out of place. I squared the refrigerator with the walls, and that's when I noticed the almonds behind the fridge. Hmmmm, I thought. I have almonds that Mom bought for me. They have survived a crazy pack of ants ( we hand washed all 3 pounds so that I'd have them for the summer), and when I turned, I found that the rat had chewed through the mesh storage unit Mom had sent with me, through the huge plastic ziploc of almonds, and helped himself to the contents. Now I was furious. I discoved that he had also climbed on top of the kitchen counter and helped himself to the trail mix left by a mission team, and apparently tired of eating the almonds, so he left a half-eaten one on the shelf. Colleen and I both agreed that we felt violated. We felt like the rat had invaded our privacy, and taken something away from us. That's when we decided that we will have no mercy on this rat. I stomped around the apartment tonight telling the rat I hope he enjoyed his last day on this earth. That even with all his fancy smancy healthy eating, he couldn't survive two angry women.

So here I sit, typing this in the living room. Every minute or two, I find myself looking over my left shoulder to see if the rat is sitting on the stairs. Then I look straight ahead at the spot on the wall that I last saw the lizard/gecko. Apparently he's looking for a mate. I didn't know we'd have the Haitian zoo located in our apartment. I think these creatures need to start chipping in on the rent of this place.

I need to go make sure everything is closed up before I go to bed. The trap is set, and I can only pray that Colleen comes down the stairs before I do in the morning.

Bon nwit.