Mice, Cats and Fleas

I have now been in my placement for over a month and already there have been many highs as well as lows. Last week was my lowest point so far I think. I had mice in my house! They were everywhere – in my kitchen, in my bedroom, everywhere. And what annoyed me was that they didn’t care that I could see them running around. They didn’t try to move around in the dark so I could see then running around all day and night! They just ran diagonally across the room in front of me! A couple of times one of the mice even stopped to have a look at me.

We put down different types of poison and a trap but the mice were too clever and didn’t touch them. I was getting more and more stressed and couldn’t sleep after my kind neighbour tried to comfort me by telling me that last year he was killing three mice a day – some in his bed!! I killed one mouse with a broom, but the others were just too quick.

The last resort was to bring in a cat. I was a bit uncertain about this idea as it would be a disease ridden stray cat, not a pet (as no one has pets here) and I was scared of fleas (-I have enough of those already-) plus Typhus, Rabies etc.

While I was weighing up the pros and cons of having a cat, I heard a knock on my door. It was my friend holding a cat by the scruff of its neck. Next thing I knew she threw the cat in my house and went. I was terrified! The cat frantically tried to find a way out of my house. It was equally terrified of being locked in a house as it normally roams free. It was crying to be let out and I was going to open the door, but then I thought about how nice it would be actually fall asleep at night. So the cat stayed and mostly cried at the windows or hid behind the sofa. I felt very cruel. I told my friends that I felt sorry for the cat but they said that the more the cat cries, the more scared the mice will be. Anyway the cat stayed for two days and then it escaped when the door opened.

But so far so good. I haven’t seen any mice for a few days. I just hope they don’t come back. I had to do some extreme cleaning with Dettol after that.

Needless to say, I’m sleeping much better now, but I keep getting bitten by fleas now! I can’t blame this problem solely on the cat as there are always fleas – from the grass, from farm animals, from other people’s houses and so on. They get into the seams of your clothes and then bite you several times in the same area. EVERYWHERE! Everyone here gets bitten by them frequently, but Ethiopians don’t have the same reaction as ‘ferengis’. They say they feel a mild irritation but mine swell up and itch for weeks. At least there are no malarial mosquitos though. I think the only thing I can get from the fleas is Typhus which doesn’t sound so great, but better than Malaria I’m sure.

For those of you that think I’m on holiday, I’m not. I have been working! I’ve had several meetings and am arranging a programme for the different things I will do. I’m really excited and slightly scared. I will explain what my work will be next time.

So what have I been up to?

Well I am getting to know the town more and more. I’ve been on two long, beautiful walks - to the gorge and to the river. I can see the gorge in the distance through my bedroom window, but I didn’t really know what to expect. The walk itself was wonderful as we went through lovely fields. But when we got to the gorge it was stunning, so peaceful and so perfect.

The river I went to today is also beautiful and it’s just around the corner from my house. We went along the river for some distance when we spotted a farmer waving a stick at us on the hills above. We stopped and it turned out that he was telling us to go no further. Luckily we had an Ethiopian friend with us so she was able to explain that we were just there to look at the river and nothing else. But still he was insistent that we turn back. So she asked him why and he replied that there were creatures there that would harm us. We didn’t believe him, but turned back nonetheless as we were afraid of the stick he was waving more than anything else!

A note on Ethiopian time:

Ethiopians use the ancient Coptic calendar (unlike in the UK where we use the Gregorian calendar). It includes twelve 30-day months and a 13th month of five days (six days in leap years). This means they are in the first month of the year 2004 currently. Actually the first day I arrived in Ethiopia was new years day here.

Ethiopians also use a 12-hour clock (rather than a 24 hour clock like we do) with one cycle of 1 to 12 from dawn to dusk, and the other cycle from dusk to dawn. The start of the day is 6 o’clock in the morning, rather than midnight. This means that you need to specify whether you are talking about daytime or night time as there is no am/pm.

(Are you still with me?)

Therefore, 7am would be 1 o’clock in daylight hours in local Ethiopian time. Basically you just add or subtract 6 hours to work out the time. This is called Habesha time.

When foreigners make appointments or any kind of arrangements including the time it is vital to know whether you are talking about ‘Ferengi’ (foreigner) time or ‘Habesha’ (Ethiopian) time. When I make an appointment to go for a walk with my Ethiopian friends at 9 o’clock in the daytime it means 3pm for me. I think I’m getting used to it.…