If the rats of Mwanza were ever to take their NYC subway-dwelling cousins on in a fight, there would be no contest. The rats of Mwanza are about the size of small pigs. When I can entice one to pose for a picture, I will prove it to you!
It's no wonder the rats are so huge: mango, papaya and avocado trees are abundant here. So are garbage heaps, like this one, recently burned, right outside our front gate. And though these piles of trash are picked over daily by dozens of people scavenging for scraps of food, re-usable or re-sellable items, apparently there's still more than enough left over to keep the rats happy.
We never knew what a difference garbage collection services made to our lives until now. Like water, and electricity it was just something we never had to think about. Toss it down the chute, pile it on the driveway--and it's gone out of our sight--forever.
Now the reality of just how much smelly, non-bio-degrading garbage we produce weekly stares us in the face. All the garbage we produce goes straight to a growing pile at the far end of our yard. Some of it will feed the rats, and other nocturnal critters, and some of it will be burned. But sadly for this delicate planet of ours, most of it will just sit there--for hundreds of years probably.
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