In a Coke Bottle?!

Those of you who have been reading my blog from the beginning are probably noticing that something is missing lately.

Mice. Where are all the mice stories? The truth is for three or four weeks I don’t even think I saw a mouse and then I got behind on blogging and mice went to the bottom of the list of things I wanted to talk about… but alas here we are!

The day before Nunu and I moved rooms, it hit me that we hadn’t had a mouse in our room since Nunu arrived. It felt like an accomplishment to say the least. But that night I lay in bed listening to some plastic bags moving… no big deal because we got a new fan today and it’s on oscillate… of course the bags are going to be blowing around.

I decided to go to the bathroom one more time before going to bed and asked Nunu if I could turn the light on since I’d been hearing the bags. I flip the switch and glance around the room to find the bag that our glorious fan wasn’t on oscillate, so I started looking at the bags around our room. I look to the garbage bag, nothing. I look at our bag of bags and yell, “the bag moved, it moved!” I start justifying because I’ve accomplished a mouse free room… remember?!

“Maybe it’s a cockaroach or maybe it’s Georgia (the lizard we named), maybe I’m just seeing things!” Nunu got up and went to grab the bag, but I was like wait!! I opened the door and handed him the broom to pick up the bags (the last thing in the world I want is something running up Nunu’s arm!). He goes outside and we call Black, the dog, over. Nunu starts pulling bags out and he turns to say that the bag is empty, but mid-sentence I see the brown fur ball go flying out of the bag. Black takes off and they both run around the corner of the building.

Part of me imagines one of those cartoons where once the enemies get around the corner one pays the other one off and they share a cigarette together commenting on how convincing the other one was. But I’m pretty sure that Black went to sleep that night with a full belly!

A few days later, I’m walking across the yard and I see a dead mouse just laying there. I take a step back and start asking around why there is a dead mouse in the yard and it looked a little funny. Nunu was like, “Oh Amido found it in a Coke bottle in our room.” What?!?! He goes on to explain that some of the boys were helping him clean out our room for John & Laura and when they picked up the bottle, there he was sitting in the bottom.

The mouse looked so strange because Amido somehow got him out of a glass coke bottle. I’m not sure that you could fit a nickel inside of one of these bottles but this little mouse figured it out. Welcome to Mozambique.

A few nights later, we arrive in Chubia (to celebrate our wedding with the kids). I was so exhausted by the time we arrived that I couldn’t even eat dinner. I just went into our room to lie down and try and escape from the group for a bit. I was too tired to worry about the bug net, I just put the air (and fan) on and pulled back a corner of the blanket, so I could curl up for a little nap.

It was so strange though, I kept thinking I was seeing movement out of the corner of my eye. I thought once that something popped up from my backpack that was on the bed less than a foot away from me. Nunu came to check on me and brought a bag of bread and put it on the floor, I thought I heard the bag move. He came back again I asked him to leave the bag in the Kitchen, but I kept thinking I was seeing things. But like I said I was so exhausted, while normally I can just sense a mouse in the room, I was so tired that my game was off, I kept telling myself that I just need to sleep and I’m exhausted a seeing things.

I get up to go join the group and poof a mouse runs right in front of me… right under the bed! I was still so tired, I couldn’t conjure a scream… but I’m pretty sure my eyes popped out of my head. And I did one of those run-walks out to the living room. Nunu and John went in to investigate. They found a hole in the bathroom window and I noticed a window up high that was open, so they plugged the holes and closed the window. They searched for the mouse and they were convinced it had gone back out. I on the other hand, was not.

I hung with the group for a bit, but needed to lie back down. This time I pull down the bug net and tuck it firmly under the mattress. I feel so funny that a mouse can’t even keep me out of this room. After another nap, I get up to join the group. Yet again the mouse goes running from the corner right near me, under the bed!

I go out and I tell Nunu the mouse is still in there. In the nicest tone I can muster, I ask him to go into the room and not come out till they have the mouse. He and John go back and I start recruiting reinforcements. I get Pedro, Antonio and Latino to go help.

Laura and I stand at the end of the hall listening. I hear furniture being dragged across the floor and I can tell by all the talking they are trying to decide how to pick up the bed because the mouse is probably hiding in the wicker bed frame (yuck). It’s then that I hear the screaming, jumping and stomping. Which eventually leads to the crashing and breaking of something. Laura and Julie (both visitors) decide they need to get a peek at the action and they squeeze in the room for about a minute. Someone comes out and tells me they need a bucket to trap the mouse with.

Not a minute after I empty out a bucket, does Pedro come walking out of the room holding the mouse by it’s tail! Ah… big YUCK!

Everyone that was in the room walks out as if they just got off a ride at Six Flags… they have a bounce in their step and a smile on their face. I ask John for a recap and he tells me how the mouse was under the bed and when it ran out he tried to trap it with this pottery vase and as soon as he put the vase on the mouse it shattered. It looked like a sturdy vase to me too, but I guess on a concert floor it didn’t have a chance.

He then goes on about how the mouse tried to run out the door but it was shut, so he just kept jumping into the door. I think John said he was like 18 – 24 inches off the ground. I made a joke to John about all the screaming, because I didn’t think Mozambicans were afraid of mice. Johns response was so priceless… “Yeah all the screaming, that was probably all me!”

On Sunday night, we returned home only to find the power was still out. Almost every Sunday the power is out from 6am to 4pm. It was 10pm and all the kids were in bed. I suggested that John bring a bucket of water in their room incase they needed to flush or shower. He got the bucket and came out of the room and was like, “Uhm there is a dead mouse in our bucket.”

We aren’t really sure how it got there, but my best guess is that it fell from an opening where the wall meets the ceiling. Just like the mouse in the Coke bottle, he wasn’t full grown.

The funny thing about all of the mouse sittings is that after each one Nunu turns to me and says, “Ooh this will be a good story for the blog!” 

Prayer Request:

- We are going to purchase a piece of land this week or next. Our goal is to get a piece that attaches to our existing land but is along the street front. In the past land has been, all things considered, cheap. But with the oil companies entering the picture street front property has gone up quite a bit in price. So just pray for favor and a fair price.

-  I’m trying to book myself a trip home. Pray for a reasonably priced ticket and that we would have the finances to make the purchase.

As always, thanks for reading. And let Nunu and I know if we can be praying for you!