This is part of an email that my Dad Kent George sent to me the other day. A little vocabulary for those of you who don't know Pelawan.

Sepukan=blowgun

Besley=dart

Beleb=rat

Dear Tim,

It is 1:15 Saturday morning and I just had to get up and write you a short note. Actually that is not totaly true. To be perfectly honest I went to bed at 9:00 pm and figured I would get up early in the morning a prepare for Sabbath School. Well I did get to sleep but then about 10:30 I was awakened by a rat busily gnawing on something, somewhere but suspiciously sounding as if it were inside the house. For the last week we have been enjoying quite a managery in our house. the other night Jilin woke up to find two rats playing hide and seek in her book case. I came to her rescue but we were unable to rid our selves of the loathsome creatures. The next Day Jiji was kind enough to give me 10 besley for my sepuken and I figured I was ready for the big hunt. Well once again they showed up but to be perfectly honest it is really tough to get in a good shot at one of those pesky varmints with a nine foot long Sepuken in a room that is only 6 feet wide. So once again they ran off merrily. Well this has continued on for some time and has advanced to a stage where it is no longer fun and games, rather deadly serious. I think the rats even understands the nature of the game at this point and they are ever so cagey. I did bate a trap with a peanut butter covered cracker and later with a tootsie roll but they had nothing to do with it. They are just too smart. Well, I just couldn't sleep with this gnawing going on somewhere so I crawled out of bed turned on the lights and the gnawing stopped. So I sat down for a while and it began again. I crawled through the attic and looked in every nook and cranny with no success but after 20 minutes of no sound I went to bed and turned off the light and committed myself to a good nights sleep. Well 10 minutes into the good nights sleep there it is again. Boy it sounds like it is right above me. Anyway I crawl around the room. pulling books off shelfs and finally find a little nook where the noise seems to be coming from. so I climb up on the desk and figure I will pull the books out of the hole and see if I can see anything suspisious. Well I pull them out but to my surprise also pull out the rat. he went scampering along the top of the curtain while I jumped for my sepukan. Well this game of hide and seek goes om for quite some time. He sticks his head up and I swing the sepukan around, all nine feet of it and sweep something off the desk. The rat makes a dash for a new location. I am too late. He pokes his head up and I manage to fire a shot which misses as he dodges to the right. Anyway the game goes on. I have the door closed so that he cannot escape and we go round and round like tWO gladiators fighting to the death. Finally he makes his fatal mistake he jumps off the bed runs under the desk up the side of the cabinet and into a hole in the side of the cabinet. Aha I have him. I cover the hole and check for other ways he can escape. No way. Great. I go and get the can of Cockroach killER. open the drawer a crack and insert the tube and spray all the contents into the cabinet. Wow there is no way something can live through those noxious fumes. It even says on the side of the can that if I breathe too much of the fumes I should go see a doctor. Well we won't worry about that I will jsut leave him until the morning and call the mortitian. With the job finished and feeling the success of a gladiator who has just survived the Coliseum, I close the door and figure I will just have to sleep somewhere else. But the thrill of victory is too great and I have to go to my office to read. I still am not sleepy after 45 minutes of reading and then, Someone is gnawing on my house. It sound strangely familiar. I go to my room and there it is, no doubt, I have been our witted again. Later I found there is a hole in the back of the cabinet for the specific purpose of allowing rats to escape . I shine my light up into his hang out and he figures the time is up and he needs to humor me again. This time he is not so quick. He realizes his oponant is pretty stupid and he does not need to worry too much. It is back to the same old game as he runs from book shelf to book shelf. Finally he takes refuge in another one of the many alcoves which our bedroom is blessed with I climb up on the bed but it is too dark to really see where he may be. I cannot shoot the sepuken and hold a flashlight at the same time so I slowly advance the sepuken until it is resting on the edge of the alcove. I can see what could be two beady eye or maybe just my imagination but i shoot none the less. Well he erupts from his den dragging the besley behind him. I have hit him but as to where I cannot say. I figured the besley would pull out eventually but it hangs on and somewhat impedes his progress. Well in the end he took up refuge in the rolled up carpet on the floor. I am ready for this. He has already tried this trick once and he got away but not again. I carefully fold over the far end of the carrpet and then fold over the end he went in then drag the carpet out of the room. Folding both end toward each other I hear the besley break and I take half the set of encyclopedia and stack them on the folded ends. I will wait till tommorrow. Drag it outside and with 40 or 50 people present with clubs and spears, I will open up the carpet and see how he is fairing. At least I think he is inside. And I hav sat here for 45 minutes and so far no more gnawing. Well after that adrenolin pumping session, I am not sleepy in the least so I decided that I would just sit down and write you a short note.

Unfortunatly this is not the end of the story. But I cannot yet tell you the rest because, This particular rat was not the only one living in our house. Unfortunatly the other is a big mother of all Belebs. I am sure she will be showing up again any day.