And now for a roach story

Today I was *finally* able to get to the market. It rained Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week. I was able to get some things on Friday at the market and then Sunday we stopped by Vicky’s (another story for another entry ;-D ). Monday was nice so I got as much laundry done as possible and hung it to dry. Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday it rained again and then it rained in the night for a long time. Needless-to-say, I was to the point I didn’t have enough related items to put together for a meal other than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which really get old fast. So I took a trip to the market. I had a list of the many things we needed and began working my way through it a little at a time.

The last thing on my list was eggs. I’d gotten eggs from one lady before so I asked if she had eggs. She had none. I asked at another place and they wanted much more than normal for eggs because they were “indigenous” – which, the man explained, meant they came from the village and weren’t imported. And I suppose was as good a reason as any in his mind to make them almost 2000 shillings more than what you’d pay anywhere else.

Finally, I found a lady with nice, big, eggs for 5500 shillings for a tray of them. I asked for two trays and handed her my lovely green plastic trays that James and Osbert found for me so she could fill them. (A tray of eggs is 30 eggs or 2-1/2 dozen. 5500 shillings is just about $2.75.) As she picked up the first egg to put it in my tray I saw at least 5 roaches scurry out from under where it had been. Every single egg was like that. :shudders: But I was committed. Those were now my eggs. I also got a little bunch of garlic cloves from her.

So I came home with those eggs, knowing I was going to have to do battle with roaches as soon as I got home. I was careful where I put the eggs so I wouldn’t get any potential roach eggs on anything. I put all the eggs in the sink and filled the sink with hot water and disinfectant. Then I let them soak.

Meanwhile, TWO roaches had made it alive to our house. :gag: :shudder: They both scattered one way and another and I went after them. They were not leaving my kitchen alive.

“James!” I yelled.

Whack. Whack. I smacked at the roaches.

“James! I need you!” I called again. He was close, in the garage but couldn’t come right then.

Whack. Whack. STOMP. One of them was dead. Jamie came to the kitchen. I told him I needed his Dad and a flashlight. I’d lost the other roach. Elizabeth brought the flashlight and I went looking. It scurried across the wall and behind the transformer sitting on the counter. I moved it. SQUASH. The other one was dead.

Then I had to deal with cleaning the eggs. The disinfectant has worked and I didn’t find any eggs or anything. Then I pulled out the garlic. Four tiny roaches were on that. So I’m going to freeze the garlic just in case. That should kill any other eggs that might be on those garlic cloves.

Mom, I was thinking of you as those roaches scurried everywhere.