I love Malawi. TRULY. Two weeks in and I am so happy and so busy and so inspired. My heart is full. The people here could not be kinder and I am learning so much at such a fast pace. I never imagined that this place could fill my heart so fully. 

With that said, I killed a mouse last night. I didn’t want to! But, it happened. Let me explain! 

I went to bed early like I always do here. Mornings start earlier here and I’m usually up before the sun, not by choice, it’s just a thing. Call it Jewish guilt but I can’t lay in bed while I can hear my Amayi (mom) outside working. Life is very different here. Anyways… so I went to bed early and I had been asleep for a while when I was awakened by scratching and noises near my head. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and couldn’t see anything but I could hear something! Whatever the something was, it was under my bed mat and it was very close to my head! If you know me, you know that I was completely FREAKING OUT at this point but it was the middle of the night so I couldn’t scream. I weighed my options but ultimately I knew that the only thing I really wanted to do was go back to sleep and I couldn’t do this while this creature, whatever it was, was making all of this noise. So, without leaving the safety of my mosquito net,  I stood up on my mattress and proceeded to STOMP repeatedly on my bed mat up near the top of my mattress. It took a couple stomps but I quickly heard a sharp squeak and then silence… that’s when I knew. Before that squeak, I wasn’t sure if it was a cricket or some other strange creature making noises under that mat. But, after the squeak, I knew. I knew it was a mammal. It was quick, though… so hopefully a swift death? 

Here’s the strange part: after I successfully murdered the animal, I went back to sleep. I had no desire to see the aftermath of my stomping and no one was awake to clean up my mess so I just went back to sleep and figured I would tackle the clean up in the morning. I was also still kind of in denial about what I had just done. I think I was still hoping I had successfully killed a large and very scary spider. Nope. 

I woke up this morning and carefully climbed out of my mosquito net. I tucked the mosquito net back in because I never tie it up for fear that something creepy and crawly will find its way into my bed during the day. Yes. I am paranoid. I then lifted the end of my bed net to reveal the small mouse that I had murdered in the night. Confirmation of my heinous act. I was so sad. I went outside and called to my Amayi and asked her to come inside (bwerani) and showed her what I had done. With a look of horror on my face and a look of sheer amusement on hers, she picked up the mouse. She thinks I am hilarious. So does my Ababa (dad) and they have been laughing about this and sharing the story with their friends all day. Also, my Amayi said her brother would eat my mouse. At least it went to good use? Protein? 

My friends thought it was terrible and so did I. Malawians have found it all incredibly humorous. Especially the fact that I am so horrified by it all. I mean, I wanted an experience, right?! Until the next one… RIP Mr./Mrs. Mouse.

Oh Malawi…