Putting Sneakers To Good Use.

A few weeks ago, I was reading Rachel's blog and almost jumped up and down at this statement:

"This is a world where cockroaches in the kitchen do not necessarily mean a dirty house."

She is talking about her African experience, but that sentence crosses the ocean and applies to Thailand too. I cannot tell you how many cockroaches I have (a) seen in my house (b) killed in my living room alone. In fact, just a few minutes ago I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed the nearest shoe and thought I squelched it, but when I turned on the light, I apparently only got a wing. Ugh. A few minutes later, a limping cockroach (I've never seen one like that before!) came crawling out from under an end table and, well, that's the end of him!

I could also tell you about the impossibly huge brown spider Carolyn and I found in our kitchen a month ago. Pookie had just gotten done telling me how this new spider was found in Rangsit (our little town - by the way, I just killed my second cockroach of the morning!) and how this spider bit a boy and the boy died from it, so the comfort level wasn't very high in our kitchen as we came face to face with the furry thing. Carolyn eventually grabbed a broom and swatted it to death.

There was also the time I was walking up our (dark) stairs to go to bed, blissfully ignorant of the fact some sort of insect was already bedded down for the evening on the seventh step. When I stepped on it, I felt movement under my foot and quick darted up the stairs. Now every evening I shine my cell phone light onto the stairs to scare away any creepy crawly things. You may ask why I don't turn a light on. Well, that's because the light switch is only at the top of the stairs:).

Rats, rats, rats and monitors only add to the excitement here in Thailand. But in reality, we're not ever surprised when faced with these creatures because this used to be a jungle. We went to a refugee camp in January and as we passed the old camp, the only thing that told us thousands of people ever lived there were some steps hacked into the side of the road. The jungle had completely taken over what used to be a thriving place less than two years ago.

In the meanwhile, we keep on killing the bugs and insects that make their way into our house. Just don't tell me what's running around in the ceiling. I can just imagine. If the scratching is any indication, a family reunion is taking place!

Oh, I just killed my THIRD cockroach and it's only 7:15 in the morning.

Yuck.