Rats and Little Chairs

It seems the weather also brings the rodents indoors. The other day, Julia opened one of the draws in the kitchen and a rat jumped out. We typically expect cockroaches and make sure to turn the lights on and make some noise before going into the kitchen, but we don't usually see rats in the drawers in the middle of the day. LiAnne had gone to the market for us, so she was in the kitchen for the commotion. Ron heard what was going on and both Leanne and Ron were trying to smash the rat with a broom. Ron apparently smashed the rat and life moved on (at least for all of us except the rat). I wish we had a video of the whole production. The things we experience here in Haiti are interesting to say the least!

We also asked LiAnne to try to barter for some chairs that we saw on the road. She ended up getting us seven chairs, but it's the funniest thing. They are "little people" chairs made out of straw. They are actually really cute little chairs and fit me just fine, but they are too low for the standard size table we made. Ron has been taking scrap blocks attaching them to the bottom of each leg in order to make the chairs taller.

There are a million simple things in life that we used to take for granted in the USA. One of those things is just the ability to purchase cheap stuff at the Goodwill, Walmart, or various discount stores. Here in Haiti, everything is incredibly expensive. We're figuring out how to find reasonable items and how to use what is less expensive, but it's a learning process!