Now I don’t know if your like me but my mother instilled in me unwholesome fear of disobeying her. For instance, after a hearty dish of tasty meat and greens and ugali, I loved licking my fingers- not washing them thus, i could linger in absolute nolstgia over the hearty meal i had devoured. My mother as peceptive as all mothers noticed this and decided is was time to drive the lesson on hygiene home. Little had i known i would recall this for the rest of my life. It was as simple as this: if you don’t wash your hands while your asleep little creatures will come at night. First they will lick your lips, then they will start chewing on you bit by bit but, (she paused), you will not feel a thing. Why?- i asked thinking this story was definitely going my way. Well, the creatures alwyas come in pairs-one chews one you, while the other one blows and they do this inter-chageably till they are satisfied. When you wake-up and look at the mirror you will have no lips to smile and your fingers will be half way gone!! As she walked out she said they are little creatures called rats! I never disobeyed but  i always doubted if this was true, today, i have proof.

Yesterday, we met an old acquintance. She lives at the heart of the slum, it takes guts to go there. I always say adventures of a city girl like me are nothing compared to what the slum has to offer. My friend goes onto tell us how amazingly clever this little creature are.( Now in the slum rats are not just guests that come and go- they live with you in your home.)Just for the record my friend and our acquintance are deaf so the story goes on in vivid sign languge which makes it outrageously funny!

One evening-she relates-after a hearty meal of ugali (don’t we just love our staple food) she rinsed her hands set everything to bed. Now during the night felt a little pull and tag and she kept shoving whatever was playing with her arm-imagining it was her husband out to his old tricks again. She didn’t realize there was a party going on while she was fast asleep.

She got up the following morning as usual, prepared the family -off she sent her man to work and her first born to school. Finally, some well earned peace and quiet. Before her new-born woke up she decided to do some laundry. With one thrust of her arm in water-oouch!! she cried. She wondered, when she had cut herself. Slowly, she sat down to examine the damage that had been done. It was wierd she thought, it wasn’t a straight cut but a jagged edge with little bits of her flesh missing. Then she thought… it couldn’t be! After last nights dinner I became the dinner?!

Now here she went on to tell us what really happened. She imitated her predators facial movements by putting on a wide fake smile with all her front teeth out,sneered the her eyebrows down and begun to bite at the imaginary flesh, the blowing several times on the same spot simultaneously. I’ve seen imitations of many things but this was over the top hilarious! She did it several times to demonstrate how rats chew on your flesh and make sure you are completely oblivious in your sleep to what’s really going on. She deserves an oscar for such a rib-cracking performance.

So there you have it proof that rats will feast on you if you don’t clean-up well. My mum was  right I never understood then but now I’m fully educated. Straight from the horses mouth- it turned from myth to reality.

She goes on to tell us  after that it time to deal with the little beasts-how?   My next story tells all…