Wildlife Attack!

Well yet again it’s been forever since I blogged! So much happens that by the time I sit down and process things I am way too exhausted to write it out.

We have been in South Sudan for just over six months now. It’s absolutely unreal. I tell Theresa all the time that I feel like we just left America but in the same moment it feels like we have been here forever! Some days that forever literally feels like years and others it feels like the six months it has been. On days when I feel like we just left America there is usually something that surprises me and reminds me that I haven’t been in South Sudan my whole life. A prime example of that is my constant battle with wildlife. The past few weeks have been a particularly bloody and itchy battle between me and nature. At home the worst thing I usually come across is a raccoon or opossum staring at me from the trees in my alley. These incidents are followed by me attempting to run faster than a crawl into my house. Being in Africa my encounters have gotten much more confrontational. The most notable battle has been with the rats. Being away for a month left Theresa and my rooms open for squatters. When we were cleaning them out when we got back I was convinced that something was making a nest in my suitcase and the corners of my room. I found shredded items tangled together in an impenetrable mix, much like what my nieces hair looks like when she wakes up. My suspicions were confirmed that night and every night for the next week or so when I heard digging, scampering and clawing in my room. For the life of me I couldn’t see them but I could hear them. Sleeping was essentially not possible unless I slept with the lights on. Then one night I was quick enough in rolling over that I saw a little nasty rat crawling out of my garbage can! The next day I declared war on the rats getting traps and chasing them around my room with squeegees. Not only could I not catch them, but they were eating the food out of the traps! My room had become the Ritz for bush rats:  Clean, warm and with free food. Just when I had begun to accept the fact that I would not sleep again for the next 9 months and that Theresa would probably kill me because I was a sleep deprived cranky pants, I went to the bathroom and found not one but two rats hiding behind the door! I grabbed my rat killing gear, rain boots and squeegee, and vowed that tonight was the end of the rats! After closing the door and blocking the gap underneath since I discovered they essentially flatten themselves paper thin and slip under the doors I cornered them in Theresa’s bathroom. After wounding one by stepping on its tail I was able to smash it with the squeegee. When the other tried to make a run for it and found them trapped I got it too! In retrospect, I think I was probably a little unhealthy that I was that happy to have killed two animals. So happy I brought them to show the resident rat killer, Fr. Stan, on a dust pan. The great nights of sleep that I have had as a result pretty much justified my potentially psychotic joy of killing them. I am pretty convinced that the rats’ family has a hit out on me now however. The same week during prayer I saw a small hole with ants coming out of it between Theresa and I. In an effort to avoid getting bitten I covered the hole with dirt. A few minutes later I feel searing pain on my thighs and butt. After a delayed reaction as to what was happening I jumped up and revealed a stream of ants scattering under me. They had dug a new tunnel right under me to get their revenge! At first it was a dull stinging but it became intense and I sprinted into the shower. I had half dollar size welts all over. The only thing worse than the stinging was the itching! The next day the histamine in my blood soared again when I was stung by a wasp while teaching! I must have swatted at it by mistake because it stung me twice on my arm. The back of my arm swoll and started itching like crazy! Sister tried to reassure me my misfortune with insects is just because I am too sweet but Im convinced its the rats seeking their revenge! It seems that the only insects that don’t want to attack me are the ones I’m eating! There is a new season I have discovered aside from rainy season and dry season: termite season. It seems like they arrived within hours but one afternoon I noticed these little bugs with huge wings swarming around the light in our bathroom. They were not the standard 2 inch long wasps so I was a little confused. Theresa told me they were termites! I had no idea termites could fly so I was partly grossed out and partly interested. Apparently the students eat them and since I ate a fried grasshopper in Uganda I couldn’t pass up a chance to eat a termite here! It doesn’t taste like anything but it is an awkward feeling when it moves around in your mouth! 

Rat kill victory dance!

It moved in my mouth!



Posing with my prey!

yummy termites.

When telling my friends at home about my struggles with nature or my battle to teach a class of 80 rambunctious children their response is usually, “that’s crazy” or “I don’t know how you do it!” If I am honest, I say the same things at least once a day every day. But often in the next breath I am saying how much I love these kids and this place. A friend asked me the other day how things were going on a particularly challenging day, but even then I couldn’t say things were bad or that I was really unhappy. I am challenged for sure but as I responded to him I realized that it was for that challenge that I chose South Sudan. I knew going into this situation that it would be hard. I knew that things were going to push me to my limits and beyond but that is what I wanted. I wanted to get down to the essence of my own abilities and strength and discover more of it as well. Ultimately, even though I am only at the 6 month mark I think that I have succeeded. I have grown in my confidence, my creativity, my ability to love and my faith and so many more ways.  I am not finished growing and I am not naive enough to think that I will be done come December either. I actually hope that I am never done growing. If I stop growing, I’ve stopped learning and listening not just to those around me but to myself. One of the major problems of society, in my opinion, that leads to so many others is that no one actually listens. Everyone hears each other but no one listens and tries to understand not just with their mind but with their heart. Even though there are days when I question my every motivation and every action, those are the days that I learn the most about myself and reaffirm why this is the best decision I have ever made.