Rata!

Yep thats right, take the a off and you have the word in English. Rats! In the last 2 weeks we have had 2 different episodes of rat sighting and killings in the Cuna. The first time happened as we were all playing outside with the kids. I was pushing a few kids on the swings, and Liliana was playing with a few other kids in the grass. She started screaming and I looked up just in time to see a huge, giant, ugly rat scurry across the grass. Liliana called the cook and the moms who were in charge of cleaning the cuna that day out to try to find the rat and kill it. We took all the kids inside while this was happening. One joy of working with kids ages 1-4 is they have really really short attention spans and like to wander off. Jherson had decided that he had enough of whatever we were doing at that moment and wanted to go outside to play. He walked himself out of the classroom with me following behind him to corral him back in. Just as I caught up to him, I saw one of the moms picking baby rats out of the garbage.

Apparently the moms had found out that the rat had a nest and decided to throw the babies into the garbage. Later realizing that this would not solve the problem. They were in the process of picking out the babies and putting them back in the nest. The nest was then set on fire, to kill the 10 or so baby rats. I was slightly traumatized by that episode, hoping that that would be the end of it.

Not so lucky! Friday we had encounter number 2. The prison had an amour fixed up so that we could store and lock up the supplies and toys that we use in the Cuna in the room. We had just gotten everything moved into the amour Tuesday and loving not having to lug all the supplies as well as the kids down to the Cuna everyday. As the kids were eating their snack Friday, Liliana opened the amour to get out something to talk to the kids with while we had a captive audience. She opened and shut the amour in about 5 seconds. After shutting the doors, she ran around the room hyperventilating and flapping her arms. I asked her what happened and she told me she couldn't say. I ask if it had 8 legs, thinking it was a spider, but she said no. She took me outside and told me there was a rat in the amour. We didn't say anything to the kids, let them finish their snack then shoved them all outside to play. Stacie (the other CCS volunteer) and I were going to play with the kids outside while Beatrice and Liliana took care of the situation inside.

Just my luck as soon as I got the kids outside 2 of them needed to go poo. I told them to hurry and we went inside to use the bathroom. They hurried and I got them outside. There is no running water in the Cuna so we have to take a bucket and fill the back of the toilet with water from a tub in the shower to flush the toilet. I was in the middle of doing this when Beatrice and Liliana opened the amour! I heard screaming and whack, whack, whack of the 2 by 4 piece of wood Beatrice had armed herself with and the broken broom handle Liliana had. I freaked and figured if I shut the gate fence that we have to keep the kids out of the bathroom I would be fine locked in the bathroom. Not exactly true. Liliana shouted to me that the rat was coming for the bathroom so I stood on the lip of the shower screaming just watching the rat squeeze through the openings in the fence thingy. I was now locked in the bathroom with the rat. It came towards me and hopped in the shower. Needless to say I sprinted out the the bathroom as fast as I could and stood on the tallest bench I could find. I stayed there until the whole ordeal was over. I kept telling the ladies let's just lock the rat in the room and get a guy to come kill it for us. They just laughed at me and Beatrice said, "we can take care of this." I then decided that from my perch, I should just take the job of telling the ladies where the rat was running to. After a good 3 or 4 minute chase they finally corner the rat and beat it to death. Lucky for me this all happened right next to my safety perch, so I got a front row seat to all the action.

As soon as the rat wasn't moving anymore I gathered enough strength in my shaking legs to run out of the room. With a pounding heart I was bombarded by all the kids who had been standing on the other side of the door with Stacie worried that their teachers were getting hurt inside as we screamed bloody murder. Stacie told me she had to do all she could to try to keep the kids from not opening the door and running in to save us.

While I was safely outside they ladies found another rat and repeated the cycle. We now had 2 dead rats on the floor of our classroom. We all decided that this was enough excitement for one day and called it an early day. We left the Cuna an hour early and just hung out in the women area until our ride came to pick us up.

Come Monday as we were walking to the Cuna I was telling Liliana that I hope we don't have any rat incidents today. I think that I jinxed us because as soon as we walked in there were the 2 dead rats laying in the same exact spot as they were 3 days ago! Oh if I can't get a teaching job in the states with this kind of experience I don't know what it will take!