I honestly, I don't mind rats, at least not in theory, they're clever, they can be kind

of cute, but I will say living in New York for 10 years, it builds a kind of reasonable

fear of them.

They just, they surprise you, they just dart out, they come scurrying behind you or even

between your feet when you least expect it.

New Yorkers by and large are not fans of rats.

But in Tanzania, in East Africa, there is a place where rats are welcome.

And not just any subway rat, it's a rat called the African Giant Pouch Rat.

And the place that welcomes them is called the Popo Research Center.

Here they try to train this African Giant Pouch Rat to perform absolute marvels, marvels

like detecting landmines or sniffing out tuberculosis.

We are well beyond dragging a slice of pizza down the subway stairs here.

My name is Dylan Therese and this is Atlas Obscura, celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today, we go to the Popo Research and Training Center in Moro, Goro Tanzania, it's where

rats are being trained to be the heroes we all need.

Moro Goro is a city in eastern Tanzania about the size of Boston.

It's known for being the home of several notable African universities, but it is a different

kind of student in the southern part of the city that really grabs folks' attention.

This is Lily Shalom, she's the communications manager at Popo and has been for the better

part of the last decade.

Over that time period, she has grown quite familiar with the African Pouch Rat.

...