I smell a rat!

We had our first rat in the house. It wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when” this would occur. When you live in a densely populated area with limited waste management you would expect to experience some of the issues related to such an environment. We were told when we first moved here that if you keep your place clean you won’t have any problems so we have worked hard to keep a spotless house. Dishes are always cleaned before bed and all food is kept sealed and out of sight. He (I’m calling the rat “he” but I didn’t actually check the gender) showed himself while I was cleaning the dishes one night. He walked out on the stovetop while I was in the kitchen doing dishes. I thought this was a bold move since there was activity and the lights were on. We were told that he was a young one so he may not have had the street sense to stay out of sight until the lights were out. I caught his movement out of the corner of my eye and as I turned to get a closer look he turned around and climbed into one of the vent holes on the top of the stove. We had two mice living in the stove when we first arrived so I had purchased some rodent trapping supplies in preparation for this day. I ran to the closet and gathered my glue traps and placed them all around the stove. The traps I had purchased were made for mice so I was afraid they wouldn’t stop him since he was four times the size of his rodent cousin. My hope was that he would get stuck on multiple traps and be immobilized.

After setting the traps I notified Val that we had a rat. She was not happy about that (Who would be?). I told her I had the traps set and I was certain we would have him caught be morning. I went back to washing dishes. Moments later I noticed movement in my peripheral vision. I turned to see the rat slowly creeping around the stovetop again. When I turned, he started back for the vent hole but got his rear foot caught on a glue trap. While struggling to get that foot loose he stumbled into a second trap which immobilized his front feet. He began to roll around trying to get free which got him more stuck in the two traps. I quickly grabbed the nearest blunt object that I thought would “do the job” without denting the metal stovetop. I grabbed the cutting board that was waiting to be washed (OK that may have not been the best weapon of choice but I was desperate) and I headed over to the stove. The cutting board had rubber ends on it and it was long enough that I could hit him without any fear of being close enough for him to bite me. I took the corner of the board and I gave him a good whack on the head. He started screeching and I whacked him two more times. He screeched no more…. Val heard the commotion and came running. Our neighbors, the Nelsens, also heard and came over to investigate. The rat was dead.

I left the traps out over night in case there were more in the stove and set multiple traps through the house in areas that might have rodent traffic. As of now, there have been no more sightings. My guess is that he was a baby exploring new areas. Unfortunately he chose the wrong place to explore….My Kitchen!

Oh Yeah, In case you are wondering…Val made me bleach and boil the cutting board.

The Waiting Game

Two weeks ago we finally got our visas. It was a six month process and would have taken longer if we had not had the assistance of New Tribes Mission in getting the job done. I have realized that everything takes time here in the Philippines. It doesn't matter how small the errand – you need to plan an entire day to accomplish any task. The most likely reason – the TRAFFIC. At 4:00 AM, I can get to the airport in 40 minutes. If I try it during daylight it would take 3 hours. When we first arrived here, the traffic was my biggest complaint, but now it's just a fact of life. You have to expect there to be congestion when you are living in a city with over 12 million people. The congestion goes beyond the streets – It's EVERYWHERE (market, grocery store, mall, etc.). After getting our visas, we went to get our Philippine driver's license. Fortunately, our language tutor's husband had a close friend who worked at the transportation office and he helped speed us through the process. We arrived at the transportation office a half hour before it opened and there were crowds of people everywhere. It took us 3 hours to get through the process and it would have taken twice that long if we hadn't had help from Raul's friend. The staff worked feverishly to get things done but when you have hundreds of people needing things processed there is only so fast you can go. For those people who don't want to wait (and have the finances) they can use a “Fixer” to get things done. I'm not sure of the legality of these services but for most any government process there is someone willing to do it for you. The question is, are you willing to pay for it? I guess, in a way, Raul was our “Fixer” that day but we were present for the process and no extra money changed hands – so it wasn't really a “Fix”. Coming from Springfield, IL with a population of maybe 150,000 to Manila is a major population shock and I'm still trying to adjust. God is teaching me to be patient and flexible. That's the only way to survive. I'll let you know if it gets any better.

Sorry for the Delay

So sorry for the delay in new postings. I realize the importance in staying in touch with friends and want to keep you up to date on what's going on. December and January were very busy and it takes me a while to write the blogs. I know in our last newsletter I said I would be blogging about the progress of my computer training ministry, however, we have decided to include that in our next newsletter. Thanks so much for your patience. I will post more soon.

Thanks!