A PROSPERITY OF RATS!!

HERE IS A PRETTY ACCURATE PICTURE OF A GERBIL.   Nice little fellows with tails that fluff out endearingly.   Not so large a rodent as a rat, and content to eat scraps, lick up jam and margarine, and even drink milk.     TWO actually fell into a basin of just boiled and left to cool milk in our kitchen last night.      We are hoping to discourage them altogether over the next week.     They have come indoors before, but not often, over the last 14 years.    All my womenfolk scream, shudder and flee at the least sight of one - and they are VERY small and of no physical danger to anyone.     Ah Well, where is my 'club', I had better go and stop one in its tracks.........   OR maybe skin, and COOK it!

YESTERDAY it was Kenya's Budget Day, and a chance for a new Finance Minister to try his luck with our economy.  The Daily Nation, says 'It's a feel-good Budget'.     Not a very apt headline for an increasingly poor and run down population,
who look for more than 'feelings' to assuage their needs.   I mention the Minister, The Hon. Robinson Njeru Githae, pictured to the left, because he is accredited with the words I shall now quote, spoken at another event previous to the Budget Day Speech.       He is reported to have said

IN TANZANIA they eat rats.

But in this country (Kenya),

if you tell people to eat rats, they will NOT eat!

Therefore, people will die of hunger -

and there ARE rats here!!

These remarks were taken as a warning that further austerity is on the way for the Kenyan - at least for the man in the street;   If you won't eat RAT, then you will eat nothing - no MEAT anyway!     How about that!       Many would be VERY unwilling to demean themselves by eating rat - but on the other hand hunger can force a man to do stranger things!

In Viet Nam, Cambodia, and other smaller nations such as Tonga, rats are eaten.  Even the French have been known to eat them - with snails and frogs legs!     I have seen 'rat' described as providing 'a nutritious additive to the diet' of the undernourished, and to those more wealthy 'tempting snacks' and even 'tasty meals'       Poverty seems to have forced many in the world to turn to unusual and previously unappetising sources of food -  should we prepare ourselves?  I mean if we could accept rat meat as a food source, then it could be the beginning a new 'prosperity', and the setting up of a Rat Meat Commission, and A Rat Procurement Agency that would give jobs to thousands.     And, of course, no doubt Rat Meat Fast Food Bars might spring up Country Wide, and we all be persuaded of the 'finger licking goodness' of Fried Rat.     Indeed take a look at the photo below - looks like fried chicken - they say it even tastes like fried chicken - but THAT is RAT my friend!!  

AMAZING.....and there are SO many of them - everywhere!  Especially in the sewers!       And just because they are so many, and reproduce en-mass so quickly and regularly they will be CHEAP!       Rat and Chips - rat and ANYTHING will be cheaper than Maize & Beans (Githeri), cheaper than Ugali, or Rice and Sukuma (cabbage)......it will be within reach of EVERYBODY.   Why it could be a WORLD ANSWER to the international food problem.       Perhaps I should not kill that harmless, unsuspecting little Gerbil too quickly - this needs some thought.

We all shut up and besieged by world financially induced famine, and all the while there is food out there for every table  -  surely we do not well to tarry too long thinking about  it?    -  lets get busy telling everyone how to find LIFE and how to BETTER themselves..................Start advertising ...start a rat farm.....!

Well, you are all right this week,  I had nothing NEW to share with you about Testimony or even those who live here.      Just the Gerbil Invasion of Green Cottage, and the stress filled ladies that I share the house with.

I have strongly advised them both  to import a Rodent Exterminator from the Town, but am assured that some erstwhile herbalist or 'medicine-woman' (has to be a woman) , has a sure fire remedy.    Just a pinch of their 'discourager' here and there, and every Gerbil, Rat or even sluggish caterpillar will be gone.      I wrestled with this for about three weeks, giving in week by week.    We still have the Gerbils falling into the milk, licking up the marmalade, and enjoying the sugar.    I have given up now.  Especially now, since the better action might just be to TRAP them and EAT them.       Remember this and be duly warned - just in case you will be visiting,,,,,,

Well this is ALL I have.    Be GLAD with us that we are all WELL,  and Praising God for His Comforting Holy Spirit.     He is our EVERYTHING.   He has been very close this last month, and speaking clearly to us.      It has been desert like yet the grass under our feet is green and lush,     But if we have materially been in need, it seems to have sharpened our perception of many things, and shown us our values etched in and more defined.

Much Love in Jesus to each one of you

John and Esther / Daryl and Carol