Rat Trap

After living here in Fatick for a little over six months I have come to accept the fact that I will have a few "house guests" on occasion.  Armed with Yotox, I can take care of all the roaches without too much trouble.  I have had some lizards living with me which haven't alarmed me too much because I know they eat insects.  However, when one decided to move into my bedroom and take up residence behind my dresser, I wasn't too thrilled.  To make matters worse, it would decide to "chirp" early in the morning and wake me up.  I would then have to cover my head with a pillow if I wanted to be able to go back to sleep.  I did everything I could to convince it to move to another room but it wouldn't listen.  Several weeks ago I discovered I had another visitor.  This time it was a rat.  I used some rat glue spread out on a cardboard to catch it which was a great relief.  Then, a few weeks later I saw another one run across the floor.  I bought me a rat glue trap from the store this time and finally caught it.  I was glad to know that those things really worked!  I haven't seen any more rats but I still left a trap out just in case.  Yesterday morning I awoke to find a roach stuck to my trap.  After returning from our trip to the beach last night I discovered I had caught a lizard on my glue trap (I guess it was trying to eat the roach).  I was a little sorry about that since it eats bugs but there wasn't anything I could do about it.  This morning when I was not awakened by the usual chirping I decided I wasn't so sorry I caught that lizard.  After getting up I discovered I had caught another rat on my glue trap.  While he was stuck, he enjoyed eating half the lizard.  Since I'm not too fond of these kinds of varmints I used a rake to push the cardboard trap out my front door.  When my teammates showed up for "church" at my house I was able to get one of them to dispose of it for me.  I think I will be buying me a large supply of those glue traps the next time I go to the store!

Easter

     Easter has always been a pretty special time on the Holloman Farm.  My children loved waking up on Easter Sunday morning to check out their Easter baskets to see all the candy the Easter Bunny had left for them.  Most of the time there would be a small pile left over (each child had to get the same amount, you know).  That little pile would always be stacked at Gary's place at the table so he wouldn't eat up the candy from the kids.  The kids finally got too old for me to do Easter baskets.  That didn't stop me having fun, though.  It seems there was alway a family serving at our church that had children.   It became a tradition to have them over to our house for Easter dinner after church.  Then we would hide/hunt Easter eggs with their children.  Most of the time the Easter Bunny would leave an Easter basket at our house for those children.
     Another tradition was taking the annual Easter picture of our family and any family that happened to be sharing the special Easter dinner with us.  Sometimes it was hard keeping everyone dressed up for the picture so we would have to take care of pictures just as soon as we arrived home from church.  It's fun looking back at all the famiy Easter pictures to see how styles have changed and to see how quickly my kids grew up.
     This year I missed the traditional Easter picture, special dinner shared with friends, and the egg hunt.  However, I can't complain about my Easter here in Senegal.  It started out with attending a wonderful time of games, food, and fellowship on Saturday shared with so many friends serving here in Senegal.  We were also joined by many new friends from Mali who are staying here until they are free to return.  I got to watch children of all ages hunt for Easter eggs and then watch a game of egg toss.  Easter Sunday was celebrated by attending the International Christian Fellowship worship service.  What a blessing to be able to share in the singing, Scripture reading, and message celebrating Jesus' resurrection.  Following the service I went out to eat with many of my new friends from Mali.
     So, I did get to have an egg hunt and special meal with friends this year.  Maybe I didn't get to have my annual family picture but I did enjoy being a part of my new "family" here in Senegal.