The Tale of Panya

This is a blog post about 2 girls, a panya, a kitchen, and our resident hero, Baba Twa. You may be pondering hmmm…what in the world is a panya? That is a very valid question my friends, one of which I will happily answer. Panya is Swahili for...you guessed it, RAT!!! Just when we conquered the cockroaches a lovely little friend decided to pay us a visit in our kitchen this week. Mind you, I saw him (I like to think it was the same rat) scurry across our storeroom ceiling beam last week, but I just imagined he was leaving and would not come back…or at least show his beady little face again. I was wrong. The tale begins with two crazy girls getting ready to do a fun Jillian Michaels workout video in our tiny little cottage in the village. Tucked securely in my room (for if anyone saw us white chicks in tank tops, shorts, and tennis shoes at 8:30 at night it would surely confirm we’re nuts) with my laptop all geared up, we were preparing to break a sweat. Em just had to run to the kitchen to throw something away. The next thing I knew, I heard a gut-wrenching scream. I ran to see what was the matter, and Emily pointed to the cabinet and informed me that a “mouse” was hiding under it. With my mind flashing back to last week’s cameo, I was certain it was no mouse, but in fact a rat!!! Apparently the vermin was on our table attempting to chow down on the compost when Emily reached around the door. In a flash, he ran and jumped right in front of her to scurry to safety under the cabinet. Before we had any time to think we heard voices outside our door. Have we mentioned yet that neighbors can hear everything that’s happening in your house and vise versa due to screen windows? Well you can, and thankfully we have some very protective and chivalrous neighbors. I recognized the voice of my language helper, Mama Twa along with a few male voices. She had brought her husband, Baba Twa (Father Twa in English) and a neighbor with her. Without thinking, Emily and I left the cornered rat in the kitchen all by himself because we were more terrified of someone seeing us without a khanga on! We quickly got dressed, grabbed our dictionaries, and answered the door. Through some charades and limited vocabulary, they understood we had a rat in the kitchen and sprung into action. One man was armed with a stick and the other our broom. The sneaky rat ventured from under the cabinet to the table with the stove in one swift scurry. Emily, waiting in the front room on a stool, stood anxiously, while I (mostly because I was curious and wanted to see how this whole thing was going to go down) peeked back into the kitchen. Before I knew it the rat jumped off the stove top cooker onto the floor and was gunning right fore me! At this point I decided I had seen enough, and as I ran into the living room I heard the painful smack of the stick on the concrete floor…followed by several other quick smacks. Surely they had killed the rat! I found myself standing on a chair in the front room right next to Emily, Mama Twa just laughing at us. Upon reentering the kitchen I saw the rat in a puddle of blood, the last bit of life twitching out of him. I grabbed a bag, and Baba Twa picked him up by the tail and placed him inside to dispose of him somewhere. We were so thankful we had been rescued. The thought of killing a rat myself didn’t seem too appealing. Plus, it made for a good language lesson the next day as we all sat on Mama Twa’s porch and rehashed the tale of the rat in the kitchen. We baked them some carrot cake as a “thank you for killing the rat” present, and they loved it! This is just one of the ways we are connecting with our neighbors, and little by little we feel more at home here in the village. We are very blessed to have such caring people to come to our aid, and it makes us feel secure to know there are others looking out for us. It is a funny story we won’t soon forget, and some small part of me is thankful for that little rat scurrying into our kitchen. Just one more little adventure in Africa. PS- I attached a picture of the kiddos with me waiting for porridge at the school! Teaching is going well, and I will update more on that soon!

Well I hope you have enjoyed this tale Sarah has written. Sure was an adventurous night and I was thankful through it all we were able to depend on our neighbors. Good for relationship building. Now I just have a quick summary of the day I had today. I want to remind you that all these things happened in one day. Not everyday is like this though. The day began at the school where I see children to address health needs. I have been washing a child’s head everyday due to ragging impetigo she has probably had for months that has gotten way out of hand. Today it has worsened severely, so please pray for healing, as I am concerned about a possible blood infection if we cannot get this in control. Then a man came to our house seeking my medical, well nursing really, opinion. He has a sick sister and grandmother. I think we figured out that the sister may have celiac disease due to her severe intolerance to certain foods, and then we went to see his grandma. Going to his house opened the door to making me aware of a plethora of health issues. His 80+ year old grandma has severe leg swelling, high blood pressure, voiding frequently, and how am I going to assist with this problem when she cannot even get out of bed to take to the doctor. I will encourage them to just care for her as best they can. Then they introduced me to a child relative who does not talk as a 6 year old. While sitting to play with him I quickly realized he could not hear. I screamed his name and did not even so much as look up. I am going to try to find some resources to help him, but not sure how this will go about in Africa. While still at the same house with all the health issues, they introduced me to a older woman who showed me her breasts due to what she thought was just a sore which she has had for several months. In looking at the growths on her breast, I have a feeling that it could be cancer. There are multiple outgrows of lesions, very sad. We encouraged her to get to the doctor. Then as I was riding home on my bike, I met a very pregnant lady. She was due 12 days ago and asked me to feel her belly and it seems as if the baby is breach. I felt as though they were asking if I would deliver the baby. And I said she really needs to get to town, as I believe this could be a very difficult delivery in the village and I am not going to deliver it. This is just a bit about my day. This is not a typical day I remind you. But thank goodness I feel the Lord’s peace through it all. I am only capable of so much and I am trusting to Lord to guide my words and who to see. The community just sometimes needs to be reminded that I am a pediatric nurse, not a family practice doctor. Thanks for reading a long post.

Many Blessings,

Emily and Sarah