Warm-blooded and Uninvited

As I’ve mentioned, I love being here in Nigeria. I don’t mind the increased number of ants and mosquitoes that seem to reside here. I don’t mind the many lizard and gecko visitors that like to frequent our little house and I’ve even reluctantly come to accept the cockroaches as occasional cohabitants with me. However, I draw the line if it the uninvited visitor is warm-blooded and has live birth. I arrived home Monday night after my roommate had gone to bed, so I went into the bathroom to prepare for bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something dart along the wall! My heart jumps and I hope with all my heart that it is a cockroach. To my complete horror, it is a MOUSE! Kai! I couldn’t scream because Laurice is sleeping, but I stood frozen very unsure of what I should do. As I slowly turning around looking for what I should do, I see a cockroach scurrying along…that I can step on and kill but a mouse…what to do?! If I were thinking rationally, I’d realize that I’m much bigger than it is and know that it's not going to hurt me. But, this is why it’s an irrational fear, it makes no sense. It appeared to run into a small hole in the wall (or into the rest of the house) for the sake of my sanity for the night, it "disappeared"!

Next night, I had everyone on high alert looking for the mouse, but we hadn’t found a trap. I was sitting with Ezekiel looking at pictures when I thought I saw it dash out of the corner of my eye and asked for confirmation. Being smart, he tried to tell me he hadn’t seen anything. Unfortunately, I could tell it wasn’t the truth and this assumption was confirmed when it ran into the kitchen! I definitely screamed and was not pleased. Ezekiel couldn’t believe when he saw it that THAT was the mouse I was so scared of. However, there’s not a lot one can do at night in Nigeria with a mouse in the house except suck it up and try to put mind over matter. I survived and I’m still working on this!