Apparently this story has already circulated a bit but I figured I should tell it anyway. So one afternoon I came home after being away for the weekend. I noticed that the rock covering my latrine was moved over but I really didn’t think anything of it. Later that evening around dusk, I used my headlamp to go to the latrine. I peered down in there and what did I see, two beady eyes staring back at me. This wasn’t just a cute little rat but a huge bush rat about the size of a small cat. I could not bring myself to expose my bare ass to this rat for fear he would bite it or something. Since it was late and I really didn’t know what else to do, I peed in a bucket. I spent the entire night agonizing over how I was going to get rid of this terrifying rodent. By the next morning I had Plan A: smoke it out. So I gather some brush, cardboard, and a box of matches. Since it was light out I cannot actually see the rat anymore but just in case he is in there I wanted to make sure he was well motivated to leave. I wasn’t sure if he could climb the walls or not but I have seen mice climb straight up a cement wall so I figured it was worth a try. I light up a couple of the cardboard and toss them down the hole. Meanwhile, I scurry behind the wall to hide because at this point I am fairly certain that this rat is going to practically fly out of the hole and land on my face. I keep lighting up a couple of pieces at a time and toss them down there hoping to create a fire. There was a steady stream of smoke but the rat never jumped out and it was time for me to go to work. You would think I had to pee in a bucket a couple of times that day but it’s pretty easy to stay dehydrated in Africa. Anyway, later that evening around dusk again, I call some children in my courtyard, hand them a flash light and point to the latrine. When they see it they start laughing, pointing, and knocking each other’s head out of the way because there are over ten (children that is) of them now. After a couple of minutes of me hiding in the corner looking confused, a couple of boys show up with a long spear. NBD, right, just a javelin spear. Within seconds they have this thing skewered up and ask me if I want to eat it. I laugh thinking this is a joke. Nope. I tell them, “Je ne veux pas manger quelque chose qui mange mon caca!” One of the girls replies, “Mais la viande, c’est trés bon!” They were more than happy to relieve me of my dinner.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Burkina Faso? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Burkina Faso in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez