2 August 2019
Unexpected Dinner Guest
There is a very significant difference between a mouse and a rat.
Let’s just jump right in. During dinner, I was having a discussion with my host father. We talk about many things, he and I, but tonight the subject was mice. He was telling me that today was the first day in a very long time he had seen mice and that he had caught a glimpse of them in the house.
You see, my host family just had their maize harvest and are currently storing the maize in large sacks inside, which obviously can attract mice. As we were sitting, eating peacefully and discussing how we need to acquire some mousetraps, I felt something brush up against my hand. Naturally, I immediately suspected it must be a mouse. However; upon rapid inspection I realized that it was not a mouse. But a rat. A huge RAT.
Now I don’t know if my family just didn’t know the English term for rat, or they have a wildly incorrect opinion on the size of mice. This beast was at least the length of my hand (tail not included) and most likely lives in a sewer somewhere, teaching martial arts to some mutant ninja African turtles.
So this RAT, not mouse, but RAT was brushing up against my hand in search for some tasty maize bits. In the 0.15 seconds it took for realization to hit and the initiation my inevitable freakout, the RAT ran up the length of my sweatshirt sleeve and ONTO MY FACE. I think it is fairly well known that I am not a squeamish woman. But never have I ever screamed with such abandon, nor ran around a room flailing about with such vigor. It was absolute chaos. The RAT was darting for the only cover available in the room, which happened to be our feet, I was a screaming flailing mess, my family was dying of laughter and scrambling to squash the beast, and neighbors were running over to see who was being murdered.
In the end, the rat mastermind got away, slinking back to his duties teaching Kung Fu techniques to Malawi’s next crime fighting heroes, my family laughed for hours recounting the story, and I had a very serious discussion explaining the exact differences between a mouse and a rat.
This definitely counts as wildlife education, right?
Everyone coming together, removing kernel from cob, after a successful maize harvest.
