Gross rat stories

Yesterday I had the full intention of grossing you out with our rat story. Things have changed because all of a sudden the "maurading rat that was eating our bananas and tomatoes in the kitchen and who eventually committed suicide by cramming his big body into the tight spaces of our air conditioner" story isn't nearly as gross as the one I heard last night. Years ago my mom told me how when she was a little girl she always feared that a rat would come up out of the toilet and 'get her.' We all KNOW that this is ridiculous and that rats just don't and can't come up out of the toilet.

Think again.

The 'teacher grapevine' has it that last week a teacher from SPH, who has his aging mother-in-law visiting, had his mom-in-law come out of the bathroom and comment "you have rats in the toilet." Thinking that what she saw was probably not quite reality, this teacher went in and had a look himself. Sure enough, there was NO rat in the toilet bowl....at least not until he flushed. As soon as the water started swirling, a rat popped into the bowl from the reservoir tank and flowed back down again. Not quite believing what he saw, he called in his wife who confirmed that yes, there was indeed a rat in the toilet. It wasn't until they flushed a few times that the rat disappeared completely. I don't know how the rat got in there or if it is still alive, but I do know that i will not be visiting the loo without a light on and a pre-flush going on, at least for a while.

Never say never, at least not in Indonesia.

As for our rat, he was only stuck in our a/c for about 2 days, not long enough to completely decompose but enough so that when we turned on the a/c above our dinner table it set off our meals. We have the rat man coming in again Monday to investigate further scratching and shuffling sounds our helper is hearing above her room.

Thanks for reading.