There is truly never a boring day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer. As the Peruvian summer heats up, there seems to be more bugs and critters. The other night I found a cricket in my slipper - unfortunately I found it by putting my bare foot in the slipper. Then there are more flies, ants, moths, spiders, and creepy crawleys around. The worst, though, has to be the rats. I have heard rustling noises in the night before and wondered if it could be a rat, but never seen one. Therefore I chose to believe it was not.
Then the other night I saw one run over the roof of the bathroom - a small structure unattached from the rest of the house. That confirmed they were around my house - and seeing as we have a front door and back door open all hours we are awake, one could reasonably assume they could easily come in the house.
Tonight as I lay down to try to sleep, despite the oven like temperatures in my room, I once again heard rustling and moving around my room. I turned on the tiny flashlight - one of the fancy apps of my Nokia phone - and saw a fairly large size rat running around. Luckily I have started sleeping with my door open due to the heat and the little guy ran out the door to the living room. I then called my host mom (who prefers to be called host sister) to come help and my 64-year-old overweight aunt came running into my room in nothing but a bra and unzipped skirt (apparently these are her summer pajamas). My aunt, host mom, and host cousin grabbed brooms and eventually chased the rat out the front door. I stayed back and let them work while I held my 6-year-old niece Dayana who was scared.
Once we had gotten the rat out, my host mom proceeded to get out holy water and sprinkle it throughout my room, the house, and even over me as to ask for God's protection from any more rodents.
Needless to say I was now fully awake but smiling at my always eventful Peruvian life. Here's to hoping that holy water works and I won't see any more rats...for tonight anyways.
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