Monday, November 20, 2006

The Mouse-capades ACT II

So in Africa, it seems very much to be feast or famine. It was Saturday night. Once a month we have a cultural discussion and this months discussion was on birth rate in Uganda, one of the highest in the world – 8 births to one woman. Wow! But I digress. Afterwards, Scott and I went over to the girl's house to hang out and make some tea and maybe watch a movie (our actual entertainment was far more African as you will see). When we got there, Amy came running out of her room saying that the mouse was back and that it was hiding in the corner under the armoire. We quickly armed ourselves with a broom, a large stick, and a driver (man it's like every one of these houses has a driver in it!). I set up a plan that blocked him in…Amy held the driver over the corner of the far side of the armoire to prevent the mouse from escaping that way. Carol guarded the door. My plan was to try to spear the mouse with the large stick (a very effective technique on bats) and if that didn't work than to rapidly smash the stick and broom handle together. I knew that the only way that he could avoid that was an incredibly quick move parallel to the sticks. That was my mistake. Of course the mouse was able to avoid the spear action and he had the brawn and perhaps sheer desperation enough to make the move parallel to the sticks, right out into the middle of the room, RIGHT INTO MY LAP!!! I can still see him bounding towards me in my mind – beady little eyes, small quick bounds in the dark (by the way, the solar batteries were dead at their house, so we were doing this all by flashlight). At this point we all screamed wildly like little girls. For two of us, this was justified. I am completely ashamed of my feminine screaming, but fortunately it went unnoticed in the commotion. To end, the mouse escaped into another part of the room. He won that battle. This will not be the final say.

1 comment:

Lee said...

Josh,

You don't know me but I am Bethany's dad. I read your blog regularly and pray for the team. I just howled at your story, reminded me of a night that Bethany, Pat and I had when I was there. Ask Pat about it, there is just something about mice and Bundi. Everyone leaves with at least one and usually several stories.

Lee Ferguson