Ratatouille in Africa

This post originaly written on Sunday, March 2
As I write this, there are three men in my kitchen. One of them is my husband, and the other two are the doorman for our building and a relative of his. They are in our kitchen (and have been for quite a while now) because when I went in to finish the dinner dishes after getting the kids to bed, a rat scurried out of our sink and behind our washing machine! Yes, the sink I was walking toward contained a rat! And not a small one, I might add.

Jason came running from the bedroom to see what all the commotion was about, and when I told him, he quickly decided that the boab should handle getting him out of our kitchen. After all, what are we paying them for if not for rodent removal? So he went outside but couldn't find the boab, so he asked his wife what to do about a rat in our kitchen, hoping she would share some ancient Arab secret for trapping rodents. Her solution? "Hit him!"

She came in with the other boy and they tried to catch him, but when the rat ran toward her, she got so scared that she dropped the plastic sack she was supposed to catch him in. Apparently, there are some things that we all feel the same about!

So that's why three grown men are standing in my kitchen moving things around trying to find the rat that we're sure is in there. It's been about an hour now since we first saw him, and he has disappeared.

Okay, it's later now, and the rat is gone. Jason finally found him, hiding in a water drip pan under our refrigerator. The boab wore Jason's big thick grilling gloves to grab him by the tail and pull him out. All in all, it was pretty gross and traumatic.

Here are a few pictures I took after the fact. I was afraid to take the camera in the kitchen while he was still there because I knew if I saw the rat I would drop the camera!


The site of the original spotting. He ran from under that green bowl to the corner behind the washing machine.

All the stuff that got moved to the table so they could get to him.







The hiding place. He was under that fridge for a good half hour while they tore our kitchen apart looking for him. Finally, after the boab and crew had left, Jason spotted that skinny tail.








Here's one of the boab's sons. He was curious enough to come stand outside the door with me, but not really interested in getting any closer to the action. I think he was proud to have his picture taken, though.