November 18th
For the past two nights we have been dealing with rats. Sightings have been numerous and frequent- and I have located the entry way to their layer, which I suspect is widespread and expansive. I have seen black ones, gray ones, and white ones, and they are not small.
To save money we have a little stock pile of bread, peanut butter (not exactly JIF) and other little things to eat. With a live and let live attitude, we attempted an improvised bear-bagging system (in Africa backpacking skills come in handy even in hotel rooms) but inevitably there are crumbs lying around, which makes for an awful lot of scurrying during the night.
Last night I could not sleep because of the constant scratching and scurrying noises emanating from underneath the bed (which is actually only slightly above the ground itself). Apparently our system failed miserably, because upon further inspection, the rats had somehow (I still don’t understand how) retrieved crackers from somewhere, which were then pulled underneath the bed and stockpiled in the very center. There is ring of rat excrement surrounding the prize.
So, we drew a very artistic likeness of a pointy nosed creature with a scaly tale, and took it to the reception. I caved, despite J's assertion that should "live and let live. I packed my things up and asked for a different room. Now we are two doors down, but at least there isn’t a hole providing direct access to our room and crumbs, and I was finally able to get some sleep.
Also, J thinks I might have giardia. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that when an informant offers to take you to a tej beat (honey wine bar described in a previous note) to talk about Ethiopian culture, just say no. The tej we had left over that was poured into a plastic water bottle is expanding daily, which confirms the idea that we had that it is chock full of active yeast culture, and so our natural flora is, er, adjusting.
Sunday morning looking over the balcony of my hotel room (the new one two doors down) I stood in the sun, trying to warm up, and realized that what I thought was a storage shed for the hotel is actually someone’s home.
There was a metal shack with a US AID tarp for a front door, and someone came by and “knocked” then reached behind the tarp to shake someone awake. He rolled over, pushed the tarp aside, and rubbed his eyes. He reached over and put on his shoes and then, wearing the same clothing he had slept in, got up and left for wherever his life is taking him today.
Then I realized that actually, a whole family lives there, and I watched a girl with pink rubber shoes use a cement block to boost herself into a little crawl space.