Friday, May 2, 2008

The Reason We Had to Get a Hotel

It was Saturday, April 5th.

We had just gone back to the house we were renting. We had changed and gotten into bed. Walter was asleep in less than 5 minutes. I wasn't asleep, yet (obviously). Then it happened.

I heard a something land on the roof. At first I thought it was a squirrel. It scurried around on the roof for a while. Early Saturday morning I had heard it on the roof and didn't think anything of it. But this time it was different. The sound changed.

Within a few minutes I could tell that it was no longer on the roof but in the roof! I didn't panic (amazingly). I continued to listen for a few minutes. I realized that it wasn't a squirrel but a rat! And still amazingly I hadn't panicked yet. Soon enough, it was right above our heads. Soooo..... I decided it was time to wake my protector! Ok. Now it was time to panic! I was hitting him and saying "Walter, there's a rat right above us!" He woke up and told me to turn the light on. As soon as turned the light on, the rat quit moving for a little bit. He could see the light in our room! When you can hear the sound of wood being ripped and chewed vividly, you know it is very close to you!

A little background on our bedroom. We were staying in the master bedroom of the house. It was basically a playboy room. It had satin material stapled/fastened along the whole ceiling; beautiful closets; a very large bed; expensive fixtures, etc.

We could tell that just about the only thing between us and the rat was the material on the ceiling. That's how close it was to us! The last thing I wanted to experience was having a rat fall on my bed or even to have it in the same room with me!

Walter asked me if I wanted to stay or go to the Pritchards. Um, hello, I don't want to stay here! But I told him the decision was up to him. He said, "We're leaving! I've heard enough to know that I'm not sleeping here!" So off to the Prichards we went in our pajamas. I can only imagine the thoughts Ja had when he heard us walk in to his house!

We were going to sleep on their couch and chair, but Ja had an aero bed so we slept on that. Actually, I don't think we even slept for most of the night.

We went back to the house in the morning to take a shower and get ready for church. However, there was no hot water. Yet another reason for us to vacate the premises. We packed up all our things and told Ja that we needed to find another place to stay.

I was going to get pictures of the room in the house after church but things didn't work out. I never went back to the house. Walter and another missionary went back and got all our things.

Ja told the owner of the house the reason we left and he said that he knew about the rats and the hot water problem. Apparently, rats don't bother him!

We ended up finding a quaint little hotel that had bungalows for rooms for only $13.50 per night. And best of all, no rats!

Below are pictures taken at our hotel.

The inside of our bungalow
Malagasy people are very short. My feet were on the edge of the bed and Walter's hung off the bed. Also, we slept on a box spring the whole time we stayed in the hotel. Apparently, they don't sleep on mattresses; only box springs. We were so glad to get back to our own bed at home!

Our bathroom - notice the curtain - there aren't doors on a lot of bathrooms

The shower - notice the shower hose - we still couldn't stand under the water to take a shower because the part that holds the shower head was broken

The toilet - the seat was broken - we almost fell off so many times! Notice the holes above. It was like a little window. However, there wasn't any glass to keep the bugs out. The mosquitoes came in at night.

The view from our balcony

Another view from the balcony

One of the flowers at the hotel

Another view of the hotel



These were so beautiful. The blooms would open during the sunlight and close at dusk every day.

1 comment:

mama2drama said...

Reading this again makes me laugh =) I can't even imagine the two of you showing up in your pj's. Falling off the toilet seat makes me crack up too! But the view from the balcony...beautiful. The firmament shows His handiwork huh?