Find though that she be little, she is fierce

Rawr. That's me being fierce. Okay, so in many ways I have not been fierce lately. My rat saga, sadly did not end. I probably am not fierce enough to deal with it, but I am smart enough to let things lie. It has not eaten any more of my food, nor has it tried to eat the plastic bucket that holds my food. It has eaten the rim off of my 75 liter water tank. I think it might be suicidal, that is the only explanation I have for why it would try to get in my water tank and not my food tank. I still hear mice as well, usually I hear them chewing something when I am trying to sleep. I just lay there and hope it is not my clothes. My friend Jill has been fierce. She has had a major rat problem, I can not complain about rats after hearing what she has gone through. She had rats living in her couch and openly flaunting their ratness. She bought some poison and killed those little buggers. Sadly they crawled into her couch to die. So, without power and after reading a dracula book, she opened up her couch and dug them out. My hat goes off to her. It was another Nanyuki weekend. I small girls weekend to help celebrate my birthday. It was fun, good food, good friends and good drinks. The only thing that stinks about Nanyuki weekends is the travel. To get there from my house it is an 11 hour journey each way. And it's not a smooth road. Take a dirt road, wash out at least 90% of it to create pot holes the size of Rhode Island and craters then make sure it doesn't rain so that there is plenty of dust. On the way back to my house I was sitting next to the window, my preferred seat since I can open the window and not vomit. Let me add that the majority of Kenyans I have contact with find 80 degrees to be cold, so they never open the windows and always have on jackets and knit hats on. I am always sweating. So I am sitting there, it's hot so I have the window cracked open at most 2 inches. The woman in front of me (IN FRONT OF ME) does not like this, so we battle each other for a bit before she turns around. Her: "This van is for Africans, people who really need it. You should take a taxi like the rest of you." Me: "What? I am not a tourist, I live here. In fact I am a volunteer, so unless you want to give me money to take a taxi I can not afford it." Her: "I will get sick, will you pay my hospital bill?" Me: "If I get sick at some point in my life will you pay mine?" She turns around for 15 minutes. Then turns around and starts craning her neck to look at Jill who is sitting behind me. Her: "Your sister is comfortable without her window open." Me: "I am not her, I am very hot and the window is only open a small bit." Her: "You will get me sick" Me: "You can not get sick from fresh air, and I have shut it when it gets to dusty. You are not yelling at anyone else in the van who has their windows open. Why?" That was the last of the conversation, I got to keep the window cracked open (except when it was dusty) and she gave me the evil eye the rest of the journey. Everyone wins. The trip was not all bad though, they took us past some animal preserve that they do not normally drive past. I was able to see some rhino and water buffalo which means I just need to see a cheetah to complete Kenya's big five (water buffalo, rhinos, elephants, lions). We also saw giraffes, gazelles and zebras. It never gets old, seeing all of this wildlife. I still can not believe that they are just roaming around and not locked up in some zoo. Here is a picture from my classroom at the local primary school. Here are some of the girls in my class, they were thrilled to get their picture taken. Though standing still in one spot is hard for them to do. If I took a step back in order to get everyone in the shot, they would all take a step towards me.