The Rat (Part II)

***A note on the pictures and some content in this post...they are a bit graphic and show a dead rat...my wife also gets the photo credits.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the rat had time to reconnoiter and plan a counter offensive.  For a week after our last encounter, I had been going over battle drills and preemptive strike scenarios until I ceased to see Kate's water bottle as only that, instead seeing a bludgeon that may be my only weapon in reach; instead of a shirt I saw a net to snare the beast in...my mind thought only of revenge.  This creature was the whale to my Ahab, the Roadrunner to my Coyote, and the french fries to my fat kid.  It was going to end one of two ways - with his gruesome death or my cowardly shrieking and asking for help from my host grandma.

Let me, once again, set the stage for what would prove to be our final encounter.  It was again dark, but this time it was also stormy.  The rain came down in sheets and Kate and I comfortably sat inside our home doing nothing in particular but otherwise enjoying a calm and romantic evening listening to the rain.  He chose this time, the bastard, when I was most off guard to launch his attack.

The rain had forced him to enter from the roof, which is not entirely connected to the walls of our house, but has room in between to allow for air flow and ventilation.  The rat seemed to repel down the wall with a quick and stealthy scamper.  Our only indication of his entry was when he landed on our metal trunk that is issued by the Peace Corps.  Kate and I sprung to our feet knowing that our outer defenses were penetrated.  The riot gear and tear gas canisters I had ordered off of Amazon.com would not arrive for a few more days, so I was forced to improvise.  Taking advantage of the rat's momentarily weariness from his rough landing near the trunk, I surveyed the surrounding landscape thinking of how I might vanquish him.

After a split second, I decided to try and trap him much as I had before, by pinning him with the trunk against the wall.  But this time, learning from my previous errors, I moved the other trunk into position to first cage him and then dole out the death blow.  As before, when I caged him against the wall using the trunks he tried to jump out of my trap - while he succeeded with ease last time, this time he could not make it and I knew that I had finally caught him.

A morale question quickly arose in my mind - could I actually do it?  Would I be able to destroy the creature?  After all, I am generally a pacifist and fairly easy going person and really don't ever wish to harm a thing.  After quickly weighing the pros and cons, I made my decision - he wasn't walking out of here again to eat my food, make scary noises at night, and poop on my floor.

***This next part is actually kind of gruesome...be warned***

I gave the rat a very small space to run along the wall being careful to not give him a full opening to freedom.  Once I saw that he took the bait and tried to escape, I ended the life of my greatest foe to date.

I quickly moved the trunk back flush against the wall, knowing that the rat was trapped between. As he tried to struggle out I waited until it was only his head left between the trunk and the wall (I did this out of mercy, I wanted it to be quick for him).  What came next was a quick shove of the trunk and a small squeak, as I carried out my opponent's sentence and saluted his spirit and ingenuity.

Of course, he was honored with a proper burial with full honors (I tossed him in our front yard and I think a wild dog got to him by morning...).  My sincerest hope is that this will stand as a warning to future rodents wanting to terrorize myself and my wife.

In all honesty, I have a dreadful fear of rats and while I may get a letter from PITA about this blog post, it took a lot for me to confront it (twice).  I am joking a lot but I really hate to kill anything - but this had to happen, and may again while in Cambodia.  Keeping our house pest free, whether they be snakes, lizards, bugs or rodents is something that is important for our general health and sanitation at home.  It is interesting to know that many of our live-in guests - like the small geckos on the walls or larger lizards - eat many of the other rodents and themselves are harmless to us.  I draw the line at rats though.

An update

There are always so many things to talk about that it is difficult to know where to begin when I sit down to blog.  Each day, Kate and I have random encounters and mind-altering experiences that make our lives in America seem truly dull (and they were).

Simple things like going to bed under mosquito netting (after removing the foot-long lizards from the outside of our net) each night, biking to classes every day on one of Cambodia's busiest roads, or teaching a class of Cambodian students or teachers provides input to ponder for hours.

For the most part, our lives are fairly static from a week to week perspective.  We either teach or study every day for eight hours, taking a few hours break during the sweltering mid-day heat to go home, shower, eat with our family, study and rest.  We ride our bikes everyday, typically around 10k or more, down red dirt roads like the one we live on and on National Highway Number 3, which is just about 200 meters from our house.  Sunday is our day off, and typically reserved for trying to find American food, socializing with other PCTs by playing volleyball or something, studying, cleaning, and of course...doing laundry.

Laundry is one of the biggest things that makes me realize I am not in Kansas (or Maryland) anymore.  Here is how it work:
1. Realize that I have too few clean clothes left and tell myself to do laundry
2. Nap instead because its hot - tell myself to do laundry on Sunday (wear smelly clothes the rest of the week)
3. Wake up early on Sunday and realize I need to do laundry or continue to smell like a foot
4. Do laundry: get the large metal laundry bowl, fill with water from our rainwater cistern that is usually crawling with giant red ants (they bite with their pincers, they don't sting like the smaller ones)
5. Put in soap and soak first batch of clothes in soapy water then scrub and squeeze clothes for a few minutes
6. Rinse in a separate bucket of clean water until the soap is out - by this time you will be very wet, a combination of sweat and dirty laundry water.  Be advised, ants seem to like this better and may begin biting you now.
7. Soak back in first bowl which of course you remembered to empty and refill with clean water and fabric softener, else your clothes will smell terrible even though you just washed them
8.  Wring clothes out A LOT or else they won't dry and might mold over
9. Lay out on fence to dry, being careful to avoid the small red ants (that sting)
10. Repeat until no more dirty clothes
11. Enjoy the rest of your day
5 hours later
12. Freak out when you are playing volley ball when it starts to downpour and know that your clothes are still outside
13. Come home, thank host sister for bringing in your clothes
14. Realize clothes are still wet
15. Rig up high-tech MacGiver clothesline system in house because its still raining
16. Wait two days until dry...
17. Realize it took too long to dry your clothes and they now smell like mold
18. See step 1

Needless to say, I won't be complaining about doing laundry in the US ever again.


This week also marks our midway point of PST.  We are halfway done with what we are told is the most grueling part of the Peace Corps experience.  Next Saturday we will find out our permanent sites - where we will be the next two years - and almost immediately thereafter leave to visit them individually.  We will regroup together in Phnom Penh for a night.  Kate and I are already planning on gorging on Western food whilst there, as well as hitting up the grocery store for some essentials during the last month of PST.


ALSO!  Thanks to Mama Watts for the care package!  We have been enjoying several jars of peanut butter this week as well as some other goodies.  Just in case anyone is wondering....you can find the address of where to send letter or packages to us on Kate's blog, but here it is:

PCT Chris Marsh
Peace Corps

P.O. Box 2453
Phnom Penh 3
Cambodia - US Embassy
Asia

I know the "Asia" part at the end seems a bit much, but we have heard stories of packages going to Columbia or Cameroon as Cambodia is not the most well-known country in the world. Also, make sure the declared value is VERY low or else someone might go through it and we are also charged a fee based on that amount here. The flat rate international boxes are not overly expensive and you can make those as heavy as you want.

Just in case you are wondering (further)...a running list of things that we would love to see when opening up a package might include:
-Candy from the states (usually hard or individually wrapped candy is best because of the heat and long journey of the package, we are not above eating melted chocolate though, just be sure to put it in a bag)
-Nutella (lack of chocolate here is astounding, but this stuff won't melt/spoil)
-Seasoning packets (we will be cooking on our own soon and want to stock up on some things that taste not like rice...like taco or faijita seasonings...etc.)
-Individual drink packets - crystal light or any kind of tea in those packets are great!
-A decent pack of pens
-Crackers like wheat thins or whatever...
-Granola bars, Cliff bars, fruit snacks...all are craved
-Marconi and cheese...that would rock...
-Dr. Bromners peppermint soap - so good for so much here, just be sure to put it in a bag and duct tape the top in case it leaks
-Also, for me, undershirts are a lifesaver with all the sweating, any kind will work and typically a medium fits me
-It would help to pack things in sealable plastic bags or hand towels as both are needed here
-Anything else you are so kind enough to want to send...

I have not written much about the food yet, so I wanted to write something in this update.  We eat with our host family almost every lunch and dinner.  We get breakfast on our own before classes.  Typically lunch and dinner consist of similar kinds of foods - our family knows what we like so they cook us all kinds of pork , beef, chicken (our favorite here, but very expensive), and fish dishes - they are usually with many other veggies or in a soup of some kind.  Did I mention rice?  We eat that a lot...rice in Cambodia is pretty much tantamount to Jesus Christ in the Vatican...its really popular.  Our family, and in particular our host sister, cooks amazing foods that we eat happily every day.  A few curve balls are sauteed ants and frog dishes that we get with some regularity.  I like both, but the frog is great - identical to chicken except for the bones which you need to spit out constantly.  They even gave us stuffed frog one night that had chopped up frog, curry and veggies all ground up - it was just heavenly (I know it sounds odd or even repulsive, but it makes my mouth water...).  Own family also gives us fruit after almost each meal, which is just awesome.  It has become a running joke in our house to give Kate bananas (because she hates them, but ate them out of respect at first) and watch her say how full she is and can't eat anymore - our sister loves this.

On our own at restaurants, we order noodles a lot to change it up from the rice.  For breakfast we have a few options - when we have time, we go to the market and grab a bowl of noodles with pork, a fried potato muffin that has veggies and meat inside, or a sticky rice and sugary crepe that my friend Kelly (thanks!) turned me on to.  The market atmosphere is really bustling in the morning - since few people here have electricity, let alone refrigerators, all food is usually bought and prepared the same day you eat it.  That means that you need to go to the market every morning and only buy what you need for that day.  This is fantastic for freshness, but not so much for convenience.

Just this weekend we have had some real treats.  Saturday night our training village all got together to make an American meal - pasta with homemade red sauce, garlic BREAD and grilled ribs were on the menu.  You will never see 24 happier people than we were that night.  The food was amazing, but the occasion allowed us all a chance to unwind, relax, laugh and be with the people that have become nearly family to us.  It was my favorite night in Cambodia so far.

Today we were treated again by a friend in a neighboring village who made some fantastic Jambalaya.  The dedication of this guy to bring his cajun spices all the way to Cambodia and cook for us is commendable and totally delectable.  Thanks, Ace!!

Well that about covers my fairly extensive update.  Look out for my exciting conclusion to The Rat Saga later this week!