Carol’s India Blog

In the last few weeks I have travelled far and wide. After 2 weeks back here in Koraput I went to Mumbia via Vishakapatnum and Hyderabad, from there to Goa, back to  Bhubaneshwar, Berhampur, Digapahandi and then Koraput! I have travelled on foot, by jeep, car, auto, aeroplane, train and bus!

Mumbai was expensive compared to Orissa – I mean £8 for a meal for two with beer - what a price! There are some beautiful buildings and it’s very busy and dirty. There are people living and bringing up children on traffic islands and under motorway fly overs, men sleeping on their carts and washing under standpipes in the street – all the things you saw in Slum Dog!  India gate was mobbed with tourist (mainly Indians) best of all I ate the best meal since leaving home (I am becoming obsessed with food)

Goa was very relaxing and different from the other parts of India I have seen. It’s a strange mixture of Indian and Portuguese cultures. Instead of  Hindu shrines on every corner there are shrines to Jesus, Mary and the saints and instead of Hare Krishna or Ganesh painted on the front of the buses it’s Jesus or St Peter!  The houses, the women’s clothes and the food are all vaguely Mediterranean. I did see a few ageing hippies but  as it’s Indian holiday season it was only Indians at our hotel. Women in the pool fully clothed and the ultimate wet tee shirt competition. Do they not realise this is much more revealing than a swimsuit! The swimsuits that were being worn were like the ones our mums wore in the 1950s (I mean us old folks mums obviously) The beaches are beautiful, I am very tanned, and the seafood was excellent. The monsoon was just beginning as I left and the journey to the airport at 4.30 am was quite scary with fallen trees, lashing rain and high winds. Over here in the east the monsoon has not arrived yet. I had an e mail from the British High Commission – Dear British national etc. so exciting like being in a movie – advising not to go to the Punjab as there are people setting fire to trains and buses following the Sikh murders and if living in North Orissa or West Bengal to stay inside as cyclone Aila is sweeping in.

I was quite excited about coming back to my new home and settling down but I had forgotten I am in India and the garden shed with the crinkly tin roof was still a garden shed with at tin roof, an outdoor open fire for cooking, and an outdoor communal tap for bathing. All their promises to fix the electrics, put in a kitchen area and convert one the latrines out back to a shower had not even started. The shed, where I had spent a few nights before I went away, was never suitable as a place to live but not wishing to make a fuss and be too demanding I said it was ok. I could live with being woken up by the monkeys running up and down on the roof and the quirky little touches. For example when the electricity went off (not a power cut just my shed) the owner told me to go outside and fiddle with the 3 cables running from the house.  I pulled them about a bit, there were lots of sparks and flashes and he was right, the electricity came back on! I had visions of being electrocuted in the middle of the night and not being found until morning. When I plugged in the fan at the same time as the one weak light bulb, the power cut out again. With none of the work being done one of the office lads was told to take me back to the hotel, to the rat and cockroaches. At this point I stopped being assertive and became quite upset, (I think I have become soft after staying in a decent hotel) I refused point blank to stay there. After much head shaking and pan chewing the boss decide to put me in tribal research centre! They have rooms - so I wake to the noise of tribal drumming and singing. There is a tribal museum next door and very interesting research library. What more could a girl want – apart from my clothes and my belongings! I feel like a gypsy. Apparently everything that happens in life has purpose so all those camping holidays with a squad of kids must have been to equip me for life in India!

I went to Digapahandi on Saturday to see my friends, collect my mail (parcel from Jaynie) and close my bank account – silly me that will take 3 to 4 weeks!  I’ll have to go back again but I am getting quite fond of the bank manager so I don’t mind. It was lovely to see Pravasani and Vratima and the old lady. She was very pleased to see me and thought I was moving back. I had trouble getting away, and had to stay for tiffin. There was no sign of Nora and Sir, who have hardly been seen since I left. The only changes I noticed were the grain stores in front of the houses had been dug up, most of the ponds and rivers had dried up and fields were so dry and cracked turning the earth over would be impossible – and mon Dieu was it hot!

I have so many funny and complimentary comments on the blogs – about time I put up some responses:

My youngest nephew John Evans has got through the most difficult bits of the selection process for the polis, but he still has a way to go. He has the medical and fitness teats so fingers crossed and all the best John. I can’t believe he is old enough to be a polis man (they get younger everyday) seems only yesterday he was that wee blond haired boy with the impish grin! And hopefully it will be a case  of ‘Good evans – not another PC Evans!’

To Abby and Kevin (Beryl and Mark’s daughter) have have a lovely wedding day!  Wish I could be there! And in answer Beryl’s question – yes I have 2 brothers-in-law called Philip. The one she knows is Phil Greene that famous Glasgow City councillor and the other is my sister Rosemary’s man, Phil Evans – a well-known Nantwich copper.

Tommy- I  love you comment about the ‘little green idol ‘but I think it’s me who is  the envious one –  of your trip to Rome – all that history, ice cream, pasta, good wine, warm sun and romantic places like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain! Bliss.

And finally – Rosemary - I am still that ‘shy, steady gal’  well maybe a bit less shy than I was when I left home.

will write more soon.

I had a welcome break from the smell of the Indian summer (think sewage, spices and sweaty bodies) when I made my short trip to Nepal to meet the requirements of my visa. I spent 3 nights in Kathmandu and one out in a village somewhere up a mountain side. I ate real bread and doughnuts (recommended by Sue) and sat in the beer garden drinking beer on balmy evenings looking at the stars – oh bliss! Phil (E) would love it – good walking, cold beer and good food. The music might not be his taste though, lots of Buddhist chanting, which I loved and bought a couple of CDs. There was trouble in the city; something to do with the Maoist Prime Minister sacking the chief of the army so there was an air of excitement about the place. Kathmandu is full of tourists which means no one stares at you but you get hassled to buy in all the shops. It was the end of the season so it was quiet apart from (strangely) lots of French people.

My guide on the trek really was a Sherpa – his village being 2 days walk from Base Camp Everest and his mother tongue Sherpa. As there was just the 2 of us we had many long conversations. He told me that this summer his parents will make the long trip from his village to the city when 3 of his 5 brothers (who work abroad) will be home on holiday. He thinks it will be the last time they will be able to undertake the 5 days walk and 12 hour bus journey as his mother is now 78 and his father 69. He was a small,quiet spoken man,very strong and fit – not surprising as his father insisted that he and his 5 brothers and 3 sisters go to school. A 2 hour walk down the mountain and 3 hours up again every day! There is a school in his village now, and a medical centre. However he lives in Kathmandu so his 3 children don’t trek up and down the mountainside everyday. I wonder if the Nepalese will become soft as people give up the hard life and drift away to the towns – only 2 of his brothers still live in the village. As I trudged up the hill behind him I was reminded of treks up Scottish hills (Ben Lui, Ben More, Stob Binnein etc) in the footsteps of my other sherpa – Sherpa Duncan.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the full experience of the trek as I was not well (chest infection) and we took the jeep some of the way. The view from my room in the village was breathtaking, but it must be a hard life living on the side of a mountain. There are small terraced fields, some only about 3 feet wide, cut into the hillside where they grow potatoes, corn, cabbages and other vegetables and on the lower slopes rice and wheat. The villagers also keep goats, chickens and the odd cow, and there are apricots, peaches and yellow berries, which look and taste like raspberries. My sherpa picked fruit for me to eat along the way. The woman don’t carry loads on their heads as they do in India but on their backs in conical shaped baskets with straps that go around their heads. The people up in the high villages are so strong, I felt quite pathetic!

Kathmandu is very busy and traffic struggles to get though the narrow streets. The architecture is interesting and some of the doorways so small they look like they were built for Hobbits. I visited the hilltop Buddhist temple Swayambunath Stupa, known as the Monkey Temple (for the obvious reason that it’s home to lots of monkeys) and the big Hindu temple. The Hindus bring their dead here and there were 3 funeral pyres burning. The groups of ‘holy men’ hanging around the temple never cut their hair and cover their bodies in a white paste. – very scary looking. I asked my Hindu guide what they did and he said nothing but smoke marihuana and ask people for money! He said they have a very easy life not like the rest of us – obviously not impressed.

I loved Nepal and hope to go back one day.

Hello Bloggers and Dr Martin!

I gather from all the blog comments that everyone felt sorry to leave Nora and Sir; they were as funny as they were exasperating. But with 18 dead from heat stroke so far I didn’t want to be number 19. I think Nora would be delighted if she knew that she was a celebrity in the UK, she was obsessed with status!

I miss my friends in Didapahandi but most of all I miss my little house, which, as you saw on the photos, I had made my home. I feel unsettled and quite homesick at the moment. I wish I could be there to share in Beryl’s excitement of her daughter’s wedding and as it gets nearer, all the excitement of Barry and Anne’s wedding. I can’t wait to do the ‘proud mother’ role.

I am still living at the hotel and its not much fun to put it politely. I left the first hotel as I got fed up with the cockroaches, the torn sheets and the 8ft by 8ft room. I felt it was not helping the chest infection I have developed (no swine flu here!) or my state of mind so I moved to a more up market place around the corner. This costs 250 rupees a night, and guess what, I still have the cockroaches and the torn sheets! And there is a free rat for every customer – mine is in the bathroom so I daren’t go in there at night. Jim (Orr) suggested I took it to obedience classes and trained it to make my breakfast for me – thanks for that Jim!, you.ve been watching those cartoon again!  When I asked for some other sheets I was told they didn’t have any and this is the best hotel in town. I will never understand Indians, they buy TVs for all the rooms and the bed linen is torn and the place is a ‘flea pit’

Koraput is a busy place with a great Sunday morning market where all the tribal people come to sell their produce. The women arrive; their heads piled high with baskets of vegetables and hand made goods and spread their wares out on the road. It’s very colourful. There are men selling fish – some still alive in buckets – and meat, which I haven’t seen since I left Delhi. Ali (the other VSO vol) decided to buy a chicken which was clubbed to death in front of us, skinned, drawn and cut it up into pieces The ground under foot was running with blood and innards – not sure if I will ever have the guts (sorry!) to buy a chicken.

After coconut milk and breakfast I had no where to go apart from back to my room as to linger on the streets invites too much attention. I am tired of the young men in their embroidered jeans and tight fitting shirts asking me the same pointless questions (where you come from Mam, where you go Mam, can I have a coin from your country Mam, can you get me a visa and a job as it is my dream to go to the UK or America). It’s sad the young people don’t appreciate what they have here – a close supportive family and a rich cultural heritage. But for a young man who aspires to the life of a bollywood star, family trying to marry him off and cultural heritage are not part of the exciting future he has in mind.

Apparently there is an even better market in the nearby town of Jepore where the Bondii tribe (reference for Eve) come to sell their produce and their jewellery. And I found the children’s park that Evie mentioned. It has some play equipment, and nice flower beds but could do with a ‘make over’ by the grounds maintenance team at North Lanarkshire Council. Now there’s an idea for a cultural exchange, I wonder what they would make of it here and what the peace loving, sober Indians would make of them.

On Monday I was taken to see what will be my new home for a few months. First impression was good as we entered the big imposing gates of a very nice house.but the feeling was short lived! There is no other way to describe it but as a garden shed! One room with a corrugated metal roof, currently being used as a vegetable store. I was quickly assured that they will clean and paint it, make a kitchen area and put in fan but still not impressed. Reminded me of the dens we used to make as kids in the abandon stable block of the big house ‘west lea’ .There are 2 latrines out the back but no shower, in fact no where to get washed, clean my teeth or do anything that requires water except outside where there is a tap and a pump with the family and servants all watching over me. At that point I said no this is no good, but my new boss, as determined and full of promises as Nora, says they will convert one on the latrines into a shower for me. This all sounds ok but when the monsoon comes I will not be able to hear myself think with the rain beating down on the metal roof! This will be done by Wednesday (he promises) so far nothing has happened. I will wait, as always India patience is essential for survival. If it’s meant to happen it will, if not something else will turn up.

In answer to Beryl’s question – Mark is right that’s how it’s done!  I have seen the jail Claire found, but not discovered what the malaria tank is,  maybe that’s where they send you instead of the jail. Almost as bad as my hotel.  I await the cockroach receipes!

I have moved! I left the infamous Nora and Sir on Wednesday afternoon. To my surprise they seemed very sorry to see me go (Nora even asked me if I would consider coming back in November to work with them) and the old lady was crying, as was the little boy. I was sad to leave the old lady as she will have no one to talk to now, maybe the family will move back – and appropriate the VSO fridge! Prakash, my Oriya teacher turned up just before I left and he was nearly in tears as well. He said he was sorry to loose his best friend (!) and that we had a special connection having been together in a previous life – never found out the details on this. I will miss them and they have provided me with some very funny stories over the last few months. I don’t think my new place will be such an amusing experience, the organisation is well run and ‘grown up’! and I will have no more bus anecdotes. I have promised to go back and visit the Digapahandi mob and will definitely do so.

I am now living in place called Koraput – it’s still in Orissa but further inland, so I will miss my Sundays at the beach. I travelled here on the overnight express – not a good name for a train, almost guaranteed not to move very fast. 11 hours to travel 280 k and It was over 3 hours late, but this meant that for the last stage of the journey I could look out the window. The scenery reminded me of home – hills and glens – and all those songs about ‘the green hills of home’ came into my head! It’s very forested and there are bears and wolves roaming about (real ones not just the human variety), and lots of snakes! Koraput is much bigger than Digapahandi and has some charm, but the main plus point is that it’s cooler! I could not take much more of the 97% humidity and temperatures of 45 degrees everyday, the day I left they had closed the schools because of the extreme heat, so it’s exceptionally hot even for India. On the down side, apparently you cannot buy toilet rolls here so that’s going to be challenging. I will have to organise a trip once a month to stock up! Or get used to the Indian way.

As yet I have no home so I am staying in a hotel – and it’s grim. There is a TV, which the cockroaches seem to enjoy, they keep wandering across the screen. Last night I felt something tickling my leg and yes it was a ‘roach. I felt quite sick, if I had anywhere to go I would have packed up and gone. But you just have to get on with it so I sprayed the room with some toxic substance, tucked my mosquito net around me and carried on. Having a TV is great as I can watch the movie channel and check out the news, but it’s difficult to hear due to the chanting and conch blowing from the temple next door. There are poor people lying about all over the temple steps just outside my window, waiting to fed. Of all the poor people here it’s the old people who upset me the most, they seem so frail and sad. The kids are full of mischief, but old people without a family to care for them have no comfort at all and seem to be just waiting to die.

Before I left Berhampur, Anna and I went to the Jhoti Hotel for a meal (this is one of the places I stayed at with Sue and Bill) and we were greeted by the BBB (the Berhampur Breast Bandit.) It appears that the chef has the same interests. We ordered,amongst other things, vegetable koftka, which is a sort of veggie dumpling in a creamy sauce. Smirking, he presented us with a dish containing 2 round, white dumplings each with a strategically placed cherry! You have to laugh.

Back to the buses (maybe that goat wasn’t a billy maybe it was a tim! ) I have to correct something I wrote in an earlier blog – it was Lewis who crossed Mozambique in a bus on a nine-hour bus journey and not Greg. Reminds me of that film with the young Scottish doctor travelling across Africa on a bus!

I am not going to say any more about my brown trousers (which will now be used as dusters) or the valuable ‘antique’ chairs. Except to add that I wish had the chairs here as they are much more comfortable than my plastic chair, and you don’t stick to them if you sit for more than 5 minutes.

I think Claire’s suggestion about getting a cat is an excellent idea, not only would it eat the insects but it would be company for me. There are a few cats here, which look healthier than the mangy old dogs, being adaptable and able to catch their own food – the dogs just hang around begging and eat rubbish. Saw a dead wolf on the road the other day – been run over!

My main news is that I am moving to the hills and no wonder the British headed for the hill stations in the heat of the summer – feel a bit like the ‘memsarb’! Will keep you posted on new place

The chanting continues every evening and it’s lovely to sit outside, listening to the sounds on India, looking at the stars. Thursday was a holiday – first round of voting in the election – and as predicted there was some trouble with a number of people killed. Very quiet in Digapahandi however, apart from the relentless speeches and loud speakers. Everyone now has an indelible stripe on their forefinger, presumably to stop them voting twice. The logistics of organising the election must be a nightmare, there are so many people and so many who can’t read, goodness knows how we would cope, remember the fiasco with the count at the last election!

I spent a couple of days in the state capital, Bhubaneshwar. It’s a totally difference experience in the city compared to life back in Digapahandi. I can wear my jeans and tee shirt, sit in air-conditioned cafés and wander about without being stared at. I visited the State Museum, where they have a fantastic collection, particularly the palm leaf documents written in Sanskrit, but all very badly displayed. The museum Lewis made in his bedroom at the age of 5 was far better. I think they could use a volunteer or maybe they could give me job – and I could do Summerlee mark 2.

Some days I love it here and feel I am coping well and some days I wonder why I left home. I could be back there surrounded by people I love, with a comfy bed, a hot shower and a washing machine, instead I have insects, a hard bed and wash my clothes in a bucket. Life is challenging, and I find it impossible to sleep, it will be cooler in the hills – but I have lost weight, so there is a positive side to everything! The humidity is around 97% and despite having at least 5 showers a day I still feel sticky all the time. I will focus on surviving until the weather changes in late June! And more positive stuff – the mother’s day card Evie sent me in early March arrived yesterday and I have had some lovely e-mails and letters from folk at home. No sign of the dvds though, and I have got used to leading a frugal life and making the most of everything. I will feel like royalty when I come home.

And finally – I thought I had seen it all but today a man got on the bus with a large billy goat! The whole bus stank of goats but no one even gave it a second glance apart from me – at least it didn’t get a seat

Thankyou for the very flattering comments and the cheeky ones! I’ll have you know Jim, those chairs in the Stirling flat are practically antiques, and they hold lots of memories – as well as a lot of dust!

Phew it’s hot here, according to the local paper we topped the 40 mark yesterday, but it’s cooler today, about 30. I now get up around 5.30 do half an hour yoga, washing and shopping before breakfast. It’s the best time of day and everyone else seems to be up and about too. The only problem is that I start to fall asleep around 1pm and there’s no where to sleep at the office. The new office cleaner/teamaker/cook (Ma) lies down next to my desk and goes to sleep for a couple of hours. The rest of the time she stands and watches me or makes me endless cups of chai. When I arrive at the office in the morning she rushes out to greet me, throws her arms around me and takes hold of my hand! No one at Stepps office was that pleased to see me, although Tommy or Karen always made me tea.  (I miss the Summerlee crowd very much)

The heat has almost got rid of the mosquitoes, now it’s the plague of the termites – they don’t eat me they eat everything else! I can’t leave any of the clothes I have been wearing lying around as they are eaten overnight! And they have started eating my shoes. I now put my clothes to soak in bucket of soapy water and rinse them next morning. And then there are the ants – they will not cross the cockroach chalk lines I have marked out and they don’t like the bleach much either. All this killing of innocent creatures is not good but all’s fair in love and war, and this is war! There are plenty more to take their place. I tried to co-exist with the spiders but when the bigger one killed the smaller one I felt it had no future. Maybe they were male and female and there will be lots baby ones soon – aagh. My god it’s hard work living here.

Election fever is at its height. Following the visit by the first minister of Orissa to my street (which attracted a crowd of over 4000 and went on until 2am) we had Sonia Ghandi in Berhampur last week. – arriving by helicopter. She is the widow of Indira Ghandi’s son (Italian, Indian by marriage) As I write this I can hear the loud speakers – attached to rickshaws and autos – electioneering. Trouble is expected on polling day (16^th) VSO have told us to stay indoors. I doubt if there will be much excitement here in Digapahandi but there will be no buses. A day off!

I know the camera never lies but Bill’s photos make it look like I am on an extended holiday – so you have all found me out! And Jim’s comments are brilliant – no wonder he used to be famous comedy sketch writer. Have to agree with him about the brown pedal pushers (not trousers actually) I look like a badly dressed American tourist but that’s the beauty of being here, you won’t run into anyone you know so you can get away with wearing ‘BarL.s finest’ and no one will ever know – only now you all know!

I also feel I have to point out that it is not as lovely as it looks. It’s hard going at times, everyday brings new challenges. This week it was two spiders the size of saucers in the shed that houses my shower/toilet. Spiders normally don’t bother me but these two are monsters and for all I know they may bite. I also have a large lizard/gecko and a very pretty black and white striped beetle in there. I assume they are all eating the mosquitoes so it’s turning into quite a little ecosystem. And then there is the water, or lack of it. It has been off since yesterday. Not a problem for drinking as I have some bottled water but I hate not being able to have a shower. I will be joining the crowds at the pond if it is not sorted soon. I called Sir to report that the pump seems to have packed up and we (me and his old mother) have no water but he didn’t seem to care but then they don’t live here anymore. The poor old lady seem to have been abandon.

The other challenge is the bus! I am sure no tourist has every experienced the full horror of an Indian‘ordinary service’ bus journey (except maybe Greg’s journey in Africa). The temperature must be well over 100 and sometimes I have to stand all the way. I have stopped noticing the smell but the men (sometimes the women) hacking up and spitting really gets to me! You have to be very careful if you walk past the bus as they all spit out of the windows. Last week there was a woman sitting next to me shelling peas all the way and chucking the pods out of the window, I was tempted to give her hand. And last weekend the bus was so crowded a woman sat on my knee all the way back, she literally had no room to stand up. Goodness know what would happen if anyone fainted.

Most of the time it’s quite humorous but it was a very sad journey on Wednesday. I went to Berhampur for a meeting with VSO. The young woman sitting next to me had small baby completely wrapped from head to toe in a cloth. Even its face was covered over. The baby never moved or cried, and at one point its little arm fell out of the cloth, it was badly jaundiced. She got off at the city hospital with her husband and an older woman. I think it was a very sick baby. These things make me appreciate how fortunate I am, and I realise that many of the things I get wound up about are pretty trivial. For example my yahoo mailbox would not let me send any e-mails and I got very frustrated but actually in the greater scheme of things it doesn’t matter. I have sorted it out now and feel quite pleased with myself. As time passes I become more and more laid back and I wonder if I am turning into an Indian!

Thursday 19^th March – Great excitement; well actually it’s only me who’s excited; because we have rain! This is unusual as apparently it very seldom rains outside of the monsoon season. It’s the first time I have felt the rain on my face since I left home. I think they all thought I was mad when I went and stood outside. The storm started about 2 pm with thunder and lightening, followed by strong winds and heavy rain, and accompanied by dark mutterings from sir about cyclones. They had a major cyclone here in 1999. It was a national disaster, hundreds of people were killed, villages and crops destroyed so it was not unreasonable to worry. And of course the electricity went off (a daily occurrence here) Must admit it was bit scary when branches started to fall off the trees next to the office and the neighbour took his cow and calf indoors with him. The debris on the roads didn’t last long as in midst of all this, women in saris and small children scurried about collecting up all the branches. . Who needs ground maintenance and estates services! The men were all sheltering of course, and it was amazing how everyone just disappeared.

Carols oriya book nursery 1

Back to normal this evening, just a little rain and a welcome breeze. And my Oriya lesson! My teacher is exasperated with me as he expects me to remember a word after he has told me once which of course I don’t. I need to sit and repeat it over and over again and even then I struggle. The Oriya script looks like snails crawling across the page and everyone shouts all the time. Prakash (my teacher) says I my voice is far too police and gentle, and I need to learn to shout. I keep writing things phonetically and he keeps telling me use the script but all the letters look the same! Apano kemeti achanti? – ‘how are you? ‘ and ‘Mu bhala achhi’ – I am fine. Long way to go before I can hold a conversation although it’s surprising how much I can understand. And I can read a story from a nursery book all about a balloon whalla in Oriya script!

Monday 23^rd March – For some weeks now I have thought that the boss is expecting an addition to the family but I don’t like to ask in case she is just putting on weight! But the fact that she made me take any references to holidays and working hours out of the HR policy but leave in the section on maternity pay could be a bit of a give away. This is very nice for them but not so good for me as she is the only person who really speaks English. And if I have little work now I will have none when she is off.

I think VSO will definitely move me to another organisation, but will wait and see what happens. As of today we have the internet in the office which is great and at least I will be able to do some research. Today ‘sir’ took me to work on the motor bike so what with him looking at the scenery, using his mobile, picking his nose and playing with his son who was also on the motor bike with us, it was a bit of a stressful experience.

Anna and I have a now have a competition running to see who can win the ‘blue peter badge’ I think she was winning with her home made planter for her balcony (she has a posh flat) However last week I met a young aussie (Brian) who is definitely in the lead with his combined rat and cockroach trap. Like me he lives in rural place. Last week at the golf club party he told us a story that made us all scream and squirm. He had been placing a jug full of water (heavy) over the drain in his room at night to stop anything coming up. One night he forgot and was awoken in the middle of the night by something chewing at his wristband – it was a large rat!! Naturally he freaked out, leapt out of bed and tried to club it over the head but it shot back down the drain. He now has a water filled jug containing a bottle of water ( for the weight) and has discovered that cockroaches climb up the side of the jug, get stuck inside and drown – dual purpose! My house is scrubbed with bleach and other chemicals so not too many insects, and if I ever wake up and find a rat in bed with me ( there is a joke in there somewhere folks) I am going home!