You Dirty Rat

One of the things Peace Corps stresses is that volunteers from multiple programs work together. In that spirit, the PCV from Latacunga and I decided to look into some projects around there. He is in the youth and families program, so he travels to a bunch of schools around Latacunga. A couple have asked him for help setting up small gardens near the school. He knows even less than I do about horticulture, so he asked me to help out. Our first visit was to a small town called Tilipulo. I thought that things were rough in La Libertad, but it was much worse there. John couldn´t remember the exact directions to the school, so he went to ask a family. The Mother offered her son as a guide for 20 cents. We declined the offer and walked another 50 feet to where the school was. My idea was to take a quick look around to see what was growing and what we would need to do, but as soon as the word that there were a bunch of "gringos" in town spread, we were surrounded by locals. We explained what we were doing and then they told us there plans. They wanted to start planting a nearby field right away with seeds that of course we would provide. I said that we wanted to start smaller and work mainly with the kids.

We looked around a little bit more, but they kept treating us like tourists. One of the ladies was spinning wool on a hand reel and some of the other ladies kept asking us if we wanted to take pictures of her (I we did, then they´d ask for money). As we were leaving, one of the ladies asked for a dollar so she could buy a coke. I said that I didn´t have any money. She then said it wasn´t a problem and told us that when we came back she would grill a cuy for us. I know she wouldn´t charge us for the guinea pig. It is such a strange thing down here when people will beg for small change, but then offer you a meal that costs $7 at any restaurant in the city.

The other night I was in bed almost asleep when a moth started buzzing around my bed. I laid there a bit before motivating myself to get out from under my warm covers. While I was laying, I heard a rustling sound in my room. I´m used to having to kill a moth pretty much every other night, but I hadn´t heard this other sound before. I turned on the light and first turned to see the moth. It was caught in a web by my bed and a big spider was crawling towards it. Also, there was a massive slug squirming up the wall by my light switch and to top it all off, I found out what was making the rustling sound in my room. As I turned to swat the moth, I saw a rat sitting in the middle of my room.

I HATE rats and mice. I wouldn´t cal lit a phobia, but it is close (now you know why I´m not a big fan of eating Guinea Pig).

After a slight pause of revulsion, I went after the rat. It was a fast mother and took off into my bathroom to hide. I ran into my kitchen and grabbed a broom, killed the moth/spider combo and the slug, and then went into the bathroom. The rat immediately ran out, and thus began a 40 minute midnight rumble to the death. I pretty much destroyed my room as the rat went under everything, ran up my walls, and climbed my shower curtain (which I ripped off the wall with a swing of the broom). I finally clipped it and then finished the job after spitting out every expletive in Spanish and English that I know. The rat was over a foot long from nose to tail and I don´t know how it got into the house, so now at night whenever I hear a noise, I get a little freaked out.

A couple of my friends from the southern end of Ecuador were in Quito for meetings last week, so I spent the night on Thursday hanging out with them. It was nice to catch up and also to pick up my mail from the office for the first time in a while. I got a bunch of packages from my family with Christmas presents and a big box from a college friend with softball bats, Chicago style 16" softballs, and matts for bases and home plate. I´m planning on playing softball with the kids at the high school. I hope they like it because I´d like to play all the time.

Thanks Mom, Dad, Steph, Matt, and Kyle for the Christmas presents and thanks Vaughn for all your work getting this sent to me Belyew, Bosone, Schriner, and Kruzic for the softball gear. I´ll post some pictures of the kids playing (or more likely, trying to play) softball soon.

Also while in Quito I was able to get the battery changed on my watch. I went to the Fossil store in the mall so that I could be sure to get the right battery put in my Fossil watch. As I was waiting, I thought to myself, "Do they really need Peace Corps Volunteers in a country where I can take a bus and get to a Fossil store in 3 hours?".