Ooh, and I forgot, I also saw a very young rat once, in our kitchen in Abidjan, who jumped out of the sink towards me in an effort to (as it turns out) make a quick turn and go out the door, but I didn't realize that in the dozens of milliseconds between its jumping towards me and actually hitting the floor and turning. I had time to think, How can I get the most people here the fastest? I know, I'll scream! So I screamed - apparently guardiens from up the street got to our kitchen before my parents got out of the living room. It was a doozy of a scream. When they got there I I yelled Un rat! And they all yelled Le rat! Le Rat! And they chased it and they caught it, and they made soup. They were very happy. AND they'd done their good deed for the day and rescued the poor toubabou child...