The Year of the Rat???!!!

Okay, so those of you who skyped with us yesterday will find this old news, but for our kids it was an extreme highlight and they have not stopped talking about it. Last Sunday, I posted on my facebook page that Africa is full of adventures because I had a bird fly in our house and had to catch it in a bag and let it loose outside. Not unheard of for some people, but new to us!
Yesterday, I was cuddling with Faith and she yelled "Mom, I just saw a rat go in the kitchen!" Well, I was a little unsure that she really saw a rat, but I had Bryan check it out with me anyway. Sure enough there was a rat behind our refrigerator. Now, we are not talking about a cute little pet rat. No, this was a big, grey, nasty looking rat and it was in our kitchen. We closed all the doors to the kitchen (it is a shared kitchen with our suitemates) and opened the back door to the outside of the kitchen so we could hopefully scare it out. I know it doesn't solve any problems by letting the rat outside instead of killing it but our only "weapons" were a broom, frying pan, and feather duster. While we worked on scaring the rat out, the kids ran outside to find the stray cat that has adopted Beautiful Gate (and it was pouring rain so they got SOAKED). They told the maintenance man (Edward) about the rat during the process so he came to check it out.
In the meantime, Bryan and I had hit the rat a few times with our "weapons" and it lodged itself in the back of our fridge. Then Edward came in with a spear and stuck it into the back of the fridge and "took care of" our rat problem. The kids think of him as a hero now and today they saw him and said, "We don't have any more rats today!" They had a hard time going to bed last night due to fears of more rats, but we managed to calm there fears. Adventures will continue to await our family, I am sure, as we have already begun our new year with the rat!