The tale of the ratty Christmas Tree

We are settling into our borrowed home on the hill. The house we are living in has been around since the first missionaries arrived in the 1940s. The main part of the house is made from really hard wood walls, a cement floor covered in tile and an iron roof covered in overlapping roofing sheets. From the air it is a square-ish shaped dwelling with a patchwork metal roof. It is at the top of the mission station providing the most spectacular views of the jungle and within sight and sound of the waterfalls that fuel the hydroelectric power plant.

Our friends and teammates that were living in the house full-time before us had to unexpectedly stay in the United States for vital medical care of a family member. They have generously lent us their home and furnishings and other household goods. This has allowed us to move to the jungle with our suitcases and very little else. We are very thankful. The team has welcomed us and we are so looking forward to settling into a rhythm of routine.

We are hosting a young family during the week of Christmas. There will be children in the house and I very enthusiastically have embraced decorating and Christmas-fying our hot and humid jungle home. Our friends told us where to find their Christmas tree and I asked Georges our mission station gardener if he wouldn't mind going into the attic and retrieving the tree for us. He amicably agreed and we got a ladder and opened up the ceiling in a small hallway. He wasn't up in the attic long before he exclaimed, "Les Rats!" There was a family of rats living in the box that housed the artificial Christmas tree. Georges started stomping and shooing at the rats. He called out to Germaine, who has taken care of this house for many years, "Donne moi le produit!" She came running with a spray can of poison used to kill insects. I guess it works with rats too...

Georges was surprisingly calm other than yelling out "les rats" occasionally. He then began to pass me branches of the Christmas tree. He would shake off the larger pieces of nesting materials, torn plastic and paper, and I would take it from him and pile it up on the adjacent office floor. It was messy and sticky and disturbing. I wondered how much I really wanted a Christmas tree this year. I pushed on when I thought of the sweet little girls that will be spending Christmas week with us. Artificial Christmas trees are very expensive and generally only available in the capital city. I would not likely find another anywhere near our jungle home. 

So there I was taking one disgusting rat nested tree branch at a time from Georges above me when suddenly he cried out once more. This time he instinctively flung something from the branch he was passing down to me. That thing that was flung was a rat. Yes, you read it right. A rat flew from on high, soaring through the air as Georges scream echoed thorough out the dark attic. I watched, stupified, as the rat flew past me and landed on the tiled bathroom floor next to the small hallway where I was standing. It was a big fat rat. It was flying by me not more than a foot away from my face. To say I was unsettled would be a major understatement. I retreated further into the office. Be still my beating heart! Before I recovered Georges was calling to me as he had calmly resumed passing down tree branches. Again he shook it off like a champ while I was reassessing my life choices and what had led me to this moment. So we continued.

When Georges handed me the last of the tree he came down. I, along with Germaine and Georges, quickly carried the tree pieces to the front porch. Germaine sat down on a stool and began combing through each branch, picking the nesting bits from the pine needles. She would occasionally stop to show me rat chewed sections marveling at their diet of plastic pine. I sat alongside her and joined in. It was a laborious process and really, really, gross.

Georges helped to sweep up the inside of the house. He came out and started putting the tree together seemingly confused by our slow cleaning process. He wandered off the second time Germaine and I told him we weren't quite ready to assemble the tree. Then once again I heard Georges cry out, "Le Rat!!" He was in the house. The rat was loose in my home. I, looking for reassurance, said the rat would probably find an exit and leave the house on his own accord. Germaine and Georges agreed then added an ominous, "peut etre" translating to "maybe." 

After just a few hours the Christmas tree was clean and rat-free in our living room. I had some friends stop by and I shared with them my harrowing tale of the ratty Christmas tree. They couldn't believe it was the same tree. I was concerned that the rat loose in my home might find himself back at "home" in the tree but then I chose to have another thought! I put on Christmas music and found lights and untangled and trouble shot the lights to find a few strands that still twinkled and put them on the tree. It was a magical moment. The sun set, the music played and the tree glowed cheerily in the darkening room.

Unfortunately the story doesn't end with this heart-warming scene. Soon after eating some dinner I was feeling a bit tired. I decided to watch a dvd and go to bed early. It had been a stressful day of decorating, what with the rats and stuff. Ironically I was watching the animated movie, The Tale of Despereaux.

  

It's a movie about rodents, rats and mice and soup and a lonely princess. I don't know really because I never finished the movie. I was interrupted by a noise. A loud noise coming from the kitchen. I went to investigate and that's when I saw him. "Le Rat!" I screamed in my best imitation of Georges. Sadly the rat had not found an exit. He was alive and well and living large in the window above the kitchen sink. He shot down the counter and across the floor nearly straight at me. It was very upsetting. I was on hold with my friend Renee. She came back to the call to find me very altered. I was standing on the couch with a flashlight, I was on high alert. She listened and like a good friend offered me her futon for the night. I gladly accepted. I was not sleeping alone in a house with a rat at large. Steve was overnighting in Libreville between flights. Renee actually drove to my house and helped me pack away food and pack for the overnight. We looked around for the rat but didn't look too hard really. I didn't want to see him again thank you very much. Thank you Renee! You are a true friend indeed!

This all happened last week into the weekend. Our team leader Jeff and his wife Amy came over the next day and we put out rat poison and set a giant trap with peanut butter. Sadly the peanut butter got eaten but the trap didn't spring. There is evidence of the poison being eaten but the rat is still at large. I heard him throughout the night in various places around the house. We've found a cake of poison that was dragged to the foot of our bed. So he's making himself quite at home. We were talking to another teammate about snakes and he said the only times they've encountered snakes in their house or around it was when they had a rat problem. It seems the snakes are drawn to their food source, the rats. So when you have rats, snakes are soon to follow. I really don't like this logic. We have very poisonous snakes in these parts, green and black mambas, Gabon vipers, etc. I've seen a green mamba in real life and it's startlingly vibrant and beautiful. The kind of beauty that makes your blood run cold in its presence. Green is festooned all about this season but I hope to never see this particular shade of snake-green this Christmas or any other holiday or regular day or ever!

Thank you for reading the tale of the ratty Christmas Tree. It's not a heartwarming story. It's not even resolved. However I do have a lovely tree standing in our living room. We had a trip to Libreville and I was able to buy some ornaments and decorate the tree last night after our flight back to the jungle. It's quite cheery and bright. I hope the rat/rats move on soon. I hope the snakes stay far from our place. I am looking forward to a special Christmas in the jungle this year, rat or no rat! I will not be defeated!