2 December – HE HAS NOT LEFT THE BUILDING!

Ratty is back! But this time we mean business! I spoke to my neighbour, William, this morning and to my surprise and disappointment, he is equally depressed at waking each morning to find remnants of food packages, droppings and other tell-tale signs of rodent activity. I had thought that African stoicism steeled my colleagues to what we find so upsetting. Not so. William would dearly love to find a solution – a final solution – too.

Last night, I left rat poison hidden with some rice in an egg shell, the protein-rich egg white hopefully irresistible and spelling certain death. At the darkest hour, I woke in a sweat to hear the tin in which I’d left the trap, being dragged across the kitchen floor. I didn’t go and look. I could imagine the scene only too well. At daylight, I was proved right. One of the egg shells had gone, the tin had been dragged to the other side of the kitchen, most of the poison had gone, but there was no dead rat....thankfully. I didn’t actually want to find a dead rat in my kitchen.

Listening to William this morning, I wondered why he had done nothing about it. And of course it is partly to do with money, but it’s also to do with a feeling of resignation. Life can be grim here. And rats are just part of it, not the worst part of it.

I am becoming more and more confident on my bicycle. Adrian hasn’t exactly helped. He’s impatient of me when I stop for other vehicles and intolerant of me for going so slowly. He cycles too close to me, wanting to talk, intimidating me, and I’ve threatened to get off and walk more than once. Although I can see that it is relatively quiet on the roads and very flat, I cannot get Adrian to understand that I’ve never ridden a bicycle before and my mum and dad, who both rode bicycles, would be proud of me. Tonight, the small children who call “Lady” as I pass, on my way to the beach, got a fright as I screamed because I’d got stuck in the sand and almost fell off. It’s taken me until I’m fifty-one, and living in Africa, but I’m doing the shopping on my bicycle and calling “Good morning” and “How are you” in Kiswahili as I go.