My worst nightmare!

Friends, I had my first truly traumatic experience here in Uganda this week. I have learned to appreciate the geckos...ok, not really appreciate, but certainly to prefer them over the visitor I had on Tuesday. Here's the scoop: Kari, who had been staying with me for a week while recovering from her accident, left on Tuesday morning. I was adjusting to life on my own again. I decided to heat up some leftover tacos from the night before. I put them in the oven, waited 20 minutes for them to be nice and hot. I opened a drawer to get out a pot holder and almost picked up a RAT instead!!!! Not a mouse, a RAT. I FREAKED OUT entirely. I ran out of the house and went and got my house helper, Sarah. She came in and took everything out of the drawer and the cabinets trying to find this stupid thing. She was fearless, but didn't find it. I jumped in my monster truck and went in search of traps. I found some glue traps and poison, bought four traps and one large bag of poison and headed back to the house. I put the traps all over the kitchen. Okay, I didn't, but I did stand at a safe distance and tell Sarah where I wanted them! We closed up the kitchen. I called a friend in tears and asked if I could stay with her and her husband. She very graciously said I could so I made Sarah go to my room with me and stand next to me while I hurriedly packed a bag. She must have thought I was crazy to be so freaked out over something she deals with all the time! Anyway, she helped me load my stuff in the monster truck. I put everything in the driver's side, threw my keys into the seat and closed the door. I immediately realized that I had just locked my keys and my phone in the car! At this point, I fell apart completely. It was a total meltdown. All Sarah could do was pat me and say, "Please don't cry. You'll make yourself sick." That's how hard I was crying. If I could have gotten to my phone, I would have called my daddy and said, "Come get me. I hate Africa!" Finally, I realized that Sarah had keys to the house and could get me in to use a phone that I wasn't sure worked. It did and I called my friend in hysterics and told her what I had done. She and her husband rushed over and worked for over an hour to get the keys out of the car. I spent the night at their house praying through the night that the RAT would be dead by morning. I called Sarah the next day at 10:00. Friends, God is so gracious! The RAT was in the glue trap and dead as it could be. Hallelujah! I don't know what I would have done had it not been caught!
Please pray for me. I don't know what God is trying to teach me about fear through geckos and rats, but I sure wish I could learn it faster. God's word tells me over and over not to fear, but I am really struggling. It's odd. I'm in a place with bars on all of the windows, padlocks on all the gates that are on all the doors, and I have to have a guard at night, but I am not afraid of being hurt by people at all. It's these creepy, crawly things that are getting to me. Please pray that I will learn what He is trying to teach me...quickly!
ps. I got cat. It's coming in the house starting today!