This is Haiti!!

Some times things happen here, and you have no explanation except just to say This is Haiti!!  Like for instance when Nick got back from a ride the other day and told me a good story about how he stopped on the side of the road to buy juice from a little stand.  This may sound like a random story, but it turns out that the lady selling it was topless.  It's not uncommon to see topless women just hanging out here.  You can be driving along as see a women doing her laundry, or sitting with a group of people not wearing anything up top.  This is Haiti!!

Since being here I have gotten really used to bugs, rats, and spiders.  Yesterday I witnessed probably one of the most random yet impressive things I have ever seen.

I was sitting in the pharmacy helping do some lab work on our kids, when all of a sudden a short term volunteer came in and told me that there was a rat in the rafters having babies that were falling on the ground.  She wanted to know what to do with them so that the puppies didn't eat all the babies.  I went outside to investigate and sure enough three baby rats were laying on the ground, and up above you could see a giant (and I do mean giant) rat tail coming out of the rafters.  Since her butt was hanging off the side, each time she gave birth her babies would fall 10 feet to the ground.

In the process of finding Rikerns and Sampson (the yard guys) to help me, I told the nannies who did not believe me at all.  It didn't take long for a crowd of 10 people to be standing there looking up at the rat tail.  Then we discovered that there were actually 2 rats up there.

I finally found Sampson and told him what was going on.  He grabbed a 10 ft pole and called Roxy, our dog over to help him.  He took the giant pole and speared the rat.  Literally, he jabbed the pole in to the rafters and got the rat with one shot.  I was super impressed.  He then handed to pole over to a nanny who made sure the rat was dead, while he took another pole and tried to spear the other rat.  He missed twice and the rat ran inside the pharmacy.

Sampson and Roxy sprinted inside, just in time to see the rat run across the pharmacy floor.  No worries though, Roxy got this one!!  COTP is now home to 2 less rats and all their babies!!  Good work Sampson and Roxy!!  I mean honestly, have you ever seen any one spear a rat, especially when it was 6 feet above their head??  I'm impressed!  Sampson just moved up a few notches in my book!!