All Creatures, Great and Small

Moving into my new house was a tumultuous experience. Having finally signed the contract with the landlady after much confusion on their and my part, I set out with my language teacher to buy the essential items; bed, mattress, stove, gas bottle, pots and pans. Having selected said bed from one place and mattress and duvet from another, an old man on rickshaw (tricycle with a place to sit/carry) was commandeered to cycle the bed and paraphernalia to my house. He was first directed to follow us to the gas stove and bottle shop, where to my surprise my teacher attempted to further load these items onto the already over loaded rickshaw. I suggested another rickshaw might be a good idea and we set off guiding two rickshaws through the traffic to my house.

Having settled into my house for two days, I have to admit I was at first a little daunted living on my own and had for two nights not slept that well, by the second day I was checking my contract to find out how much notice I had to give to move out just incase! I was missing the luxury of my temporary apartment and the family there. My new house was certainly different to the last, since moving in I had encountered all sorts of creatures including; very big and very small ants, jumping spiders, a very cute looking mouse which scurried along the roof whilst I was hula hooping, a big cockroach found on its back wiggling its legs in the bathroom (later removed) and my most recent discovery a lizard at the top of the stairs (not removed). There were certainly more mosquitoes too, probably because I am on the ground floor instead of the second, I spent the first two nights with my head under my bed sheets sheltering from the mosquitoes as I didn’t have a net and found bites on my nose in the morning.

Having bought a mosquito net and fashioned a four poster effect, made out of sticks from the garden, I put up my new mosquito net and watched the misquotes dive bombing then ricocheting from the net, ha ha you can’t get me now and contemplated all the creatures in, my new house-which were far more what I had expected from the VSO experience, this was more like it! Suddenly I heard a loud clatter of pots pans coming from the kitchen, my heart shot to my feet in 0.1 seconds and I lay still rationalising the sounds, I decided that the pans must of have fallen off their hooks and I slid from under my mosquito net to investigate. I peeked through my door and saw and heard nothing and crept to the kitchen gingerly. A rat scarpered across the kitchen surface and cruised into the store cupboard, to be honest I was quite relived that it was a rat and not burglar. I have lived with rats before and it’s not that bad, all food now lives in the fridge even the bananas which is what had drawn the rat in the first place. I had very good night’s sleep and decided it’s not too bad here after all. It even rained over night which is the first time in two months and its smells like home.