Uganda: Rats and Cats
Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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I would have never really considered myself a city girl. I don’t exactly consider Owensboro the big city, but it didn’t take long for me to discover I’m not ready to move to Green Acres either. This became abundantly clear the first time a rat paid me a visit in Mifumi.
This was a HUGE problem in my book, but when I mentioned it to the administrator at Mifumi, she seemed not to grasp the sense of urgency I was feeling regarding this rat. The rat situation came to a head one night when it was raining outside and I didn’t have any power. Water was pooling at the bottom of my door, and I heard a noise coming from down there. When I shined my headlamp down at the door, a rat was crawling in under the bottom.
Picture me seconds later standing on top of my sofa with my headlamp on, shrieking on my cell phone to my then-boyfriend about the current situation. Another rat made his way in despite the dishtowel dam I tried to build at the bottom of my door. We had now entered code red as far as I was concerned.
Another “emergency” visit to Mifumi’s home office was made. The staff was laughing when I once again brought up the “rat problem,” but their amusement subsided when I said I wanted a cat. It turns out that many Ugandans fear cats. Rats, on the other hand, are just part of village living and nothing to fear.
Sister Goretti was tasked with the assignment of finding me a cat. Goretti asked me if I wanted a big cat or a little cat. I told her I thought a small cat would be fine. Moments later she hopped on her moped and zipped away. When she came back, there was half of a yellow jerry can on the back of the moped and inside was an incredibly dirty, black and white kitten. Hello Oreo!
Oreo cleaned up pretty well, and soon became a bit of a neighborhood celebrity. The children living on the compound would come by knocking on the window looking for Oreo. I would go to the Mifumi market and buy omena (which is the same thing as sun-dried minnows) to mix with rice and feed to Oreo, so the local women liked Oreo because he was good for business.
At first I thought I got jipped when it came to mouse-hunting skills. We would hear a noise, and Oreo would perk up, but instead of going to check the situation out, he would stand there looking at me. I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “After you,” and he never went onto the scene until I gave the all-clear.
Later, he did better at chasing rats, and I had a new problem of him gifting me with rats. He’d come home with a live rat in his mouth, and proceed to play with it for about an hour before he’d eventually eat it. Despite our little differences of opinion about bringing rats home, Oreo was good company and I became happier with my village living.
Next time … teaching school!
Who would have thought that people didn’t mind having rats run around, but did not like cats. I’m glad you shared this, it was very interesting to me. So how is oreo now? Is he still killing those rats for you? I sure hope he is doing his job and being great company.