... these are the thoughts and updates on my life as I begin my 27 month service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua in the health sector, "Estilo de la vida saluable.." This is for my family, closest friends, anyone interested in the Peace Corps, or anyone interested in Nicaragua really. Enjoy!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Bane of my Hygienic Existence

       I make attempts at living a hygienic lifestyle. I tuck my hanging mosquito net under my mattress every day to keep out dengue-plagued mosquitos, I sweep my floor each morning to clear out the night’s worth of dead cockroaches, and I scrape the mold that keeps growing on my shoes during rainy season. I try to keep up with my clothes washing as well, yet whenever I look down at my “professional” wear, it’s a bit embarrassing to notice all the stains I didn’t scrub out, or had somehow managed to scrub in. .I’ve found myself questioning, “are socks supposed to bend?” more than once in this country. Needless to say, I’ve been doing an impeccable job at being a clean, highly functioning adult, am I right?


       ….until recently. A few weeks ago, my home was invaded by a rat. It began chewing through my oatmeal bags and leaving its droppings over my kitchen utensils. Being a health volunteer in Nicaragua, I’ve learned there are a large number of diseases that are spread through the consumption of rat scat, so I was beginning to get concerned. At night, while trying to peacefully drift off to sleep between the dogfights and the crowing roosters, I could hear it scurrying, looking for its next meal and toilet amongst my things. It was making a mockery of me, and I was not going to take it any longer! I armed myself with a deadly arsenal: bananas, rice, tortillas, and rat venom. I strategically put piles near its favorite hangouts, such in between my clothes, or the little hole it was digging out of the side of my wall. Then I waited. At first, I was discouraged, for when I checked my stockpiles of venom-riddled tortillas the next day it seemed that the rat was on to me, and wasn’t going to take the bait. It wasn’t until a few days later, that I began to notice that my room was starting to get a funny smell. Was it the tortilla/cheese/rice trap going bad? Or was that the decaying smell of a rat’s defeat? Once again, I checked my booby-traps, nothing. …Perhaps under the bed? I grabbed my emergency flashlight that I keep for power-outages, did a quick scan under the bed and alas! There it was! A rat dead in mid-stride! When I pulled out the bed (along with my posse of neighborhood children) to expose the rat, and the rotting smell of victory punched us in the face. I had never felt so accomplished yet disgusted at the same time. I felt like a responsible dog-owner as I got some newspaper to clean up the “little present” under my bed, and I quickly dumped the body in the woods. The smell still lingered, as I think that it had been decomposing for a couple days now, judging by the body fluids that had been left on the floor. However, no me importaba (I didn’t care), nothing a little bit of Chlorox couldn’t fix. Alas, victory! No more droppings beside my food. No more scratching in the night. No more bites out of the bananas I leave on my table. Helen: 1! El Raton: 0!!

       It's the little things in life that get us through.