Rat kay k ap manje pay kay: “The house’s rats are eating the house’s thatch.”

In Haiti and other countries of the Caribbean, thatch used to be a popular material for people, especially farmers, to use to roof their homes. It absorbs the heat of the sun less than other materials, and it’s cheaper too because it grows in the field of the farmer. Nowadays, we do not find many houses with thatch roofs - even in the countryside.

As much as rural dwellers like a thatch roof, rats also find it a good place to live and hide. Sometimes, they use thatch as food, too.

The owner of the house will notice that when some areas of the roof have holes or begin to leak. They might even hear the sound the rats will make while destroying the roof.

Haitian people use this proverb when they see people of an organization or other group are the ones that are destroying it by their actions and behavior. They say this proverb to state that people are sometimes the ones that are harming their own people. We understand that some people do not even like themselves. They are willing to destroy what belongs to them. Then other people tend to step back and stay away from those matters.

We sometimes are sad about what’s happening to some associations, familie, but we do not know that they or some of them are the ones that are trying to destroy their own. When we know, we say: “Never mind! Rat kay k ap manje pay kay.”