Saturday

WARNING:  If you have a weak stomach then you don't need to read past this line.  You have been warned!!

Saturday morning we woke up and the right side of our kitchen sink was backed up.

I got a little plunger and went to work.  It only pushed water out of the pipes below the sink.  It did not solve the problem.

I then went to the hardware store that Freitas and Auristela own and bought some acid crystals.  You put it in the drain and pour hot water over it and it burns through the clog.  I've used it before and it worked great.

This time it didn't do anything.  It bubbled liked crazy but didn't break through the clog.

I went back to the hardware store and Freitas let me borrow his plumbing snake.  We've used that before on problems and it's solved them.  This time it did nothing.

When I borrowed the snake Freitas told me to call him if it didn't work and he would come over after he closed his store and help me.

I called him and he came over.

He tried the snake again and we thought he removed the clog.  We turned the water on it came out through the pipes again.

He opened one pipe and saw nothing.  He closed it back and opened another one.

When he opened the second one we saw this:

That's right it's a rat tail and back legs.

NASTY!!!

One by one the kids and Benay came to check it out.  Everyone was thoroughly disgusted.

Everyone wanted to see but not get too close.

Freitas asked me to get a plastic grocery bag.  I got one. He asked if I was going to pull the rat out of the pipe.  I told him sure.  As I got closer I realized that was not going to happen.

Freitas then got the bag and pulled him out.  The kids were in the kitchen when that happened and here is how that went:

I asked Freitas how long the rat had been in there because his skin was worked off his body.  He said he probably only came in through the sewers the day before.  We would have smelt him if he had been in longer than a day.  The acid I threw down there today was what peeled his skin off.  Lovely.

This all happened right before lunch.  None of us had much of an appetite.

Freitas called us later in the afternoon to see how we were doing.  He told Benay that he had a steak sandwich for lunch.  It was cooked rare and every time he took a bite he had to remind himself that it was steak and not rat.

Benay sterilized everything in the kitchen after lunch.

I kept feeling sick thinking about how many times I pushed that rat with the plumbing snake, fried him with acid and tried to plunge him out.  The water that came back up through the sink was gross looking.  I felt sick again as I thought of my hand in the water as I tried to plunge it out.  The hand in the water that had hit the rat and was pushed back up into the sink.

We tried to pay Freitas for what he did.  He wouldn't except any money and told us that he did it with all the love in his heart for our family.

We've mentioned here before but we are very blessed to have such an awesome Brasilian family.  Saturday we were VERY blessed to have our good friend deal with this nasty problem.

Writing this is making me feel queasy as I remember all of that fun experience. As Anderson would say, "I almost just about puked."

Benay wanted me to put the following picture on the blog (I didn't want to but she persisted):

If you are feeling queasy right now it's your own fault.  We warned you at the beginning but I know how you felt.  It was kind of like coming up on a car accident wasn't it?  You know you shouldn't look because you might see someone seriously injured, blood or even death but you look anyway right?  You guys read the warning at the beginning but still just had to look didn't you?

It's never dull in our house.

Thanks Freitas!