We're big sissy babies...

5-31-10

This is Africa (TIA). Let me just preface this with clearly we’re sissies and I know it. Obviously we do not have a western toilet. We have a squatty potty or as Africans call it a pit latrine. I did so well the first 12 weeks to avoid using one of these but lo and behold our first evening in Banda…hello squatty potty. I’m going to be honest…. It’s not so bad. For one, there is no work once you’ve done your business. You simply wipe and walk away. I’ve started to like it. No smells, clogged pipes, or overflow. Just walk away. But, ok it’s outside. I’m totally cool with it during the day. The evening however is a TOTALLY different story. I am glad my husband married me for better and for worse because that latrine in the night is my worse. I can’t do it. I’m sorry. There are bugs, frogs, and spiders. One night a frog just jumped right out of the ceiling and landed right beside me!! So now my hubby has to attend the bathroom every time I need to go once the sun goes down. He so politely stands there holding the toilet paper and the flashlight. Good job honey.

So of course, TIA, and everything is different. New, exciting, scary and different. Last Friday evening Jarod and I were sleeping. I am the dramatic one of the marriage and Jarod usually just tells me to stop being dramatic when I get all scared. Well, we were sleeping and something woke us up. I open my eyes to see Jarod staring out the window. I ask him what’s wrong and he says “shhhhhhhh.” So then, my heart is pounding and I’m lying there freaking out inside because well if Jarod is interested then it’s obviously “someone.” TIA. So well we laid there dead silent for 2 hours listening to “someone” walking outside on our gravel and then trying to get “into” our house and then sounding like it was on the roof or in the attic. We were totally freaked out. So my wonderful husband gets up and looks but finds nothing. Naturally, we told our supervisor we were FREAKED out and asked him what he thought about someone getting into our house. He told us he really felt like the area was safe but he would talk with the community mobilizer and make sure that they hadn’t heard anything. In Rwanda everyone knows everything that is happening. Someone always knows. We went out of town that night and came back last night. Jarod goes outside to brush his teeth and says…there is a man standing outside our fence. I was freaking out! Then he goes out there to ask him what he’s doing and the man has a machete! So, as Americans, I am freaking out. Jarod then finds out that while we were gone, the community had a meeting and they told people that we had someone trying to get into our house and that we were scared. The community wanted to make sure we were protected so people volunteered to guard our house from dark to dusk. They stand outside our fence with flash lights and machetes watching….for this someone…..

As we were laying there sleeping last night and feeling protected because sabahoro was out there watching over us, we hear it again. “Someone” inside our house. I force Jarod to get up and go look. He takes his stick he widdled into a “man spear” and journeys out into the hall. He walks around looking and comes back to tell me he saw nothing…nothing but a mouse. A MOUSE!!! A stinking tiny little mouse that was running around in the attic and then down the walls and then digging through our fruits and veggies and knocking stuff over. Again I say, TIA. That “someone” was something.

A little mouse that now has our neighborhood watching over us as if we are rock stars and need protecting. This is Africa.