Creepy Crawlies

Okay – well what would Africa be if there weren’t a whole bunch of weird bugs? With the rains coming to make everything green it also brings out every imaginable kind of bug. And if you think you’ve seen a big bug – just forget it – they NEVER freeze here so they just continue growing and growing until some are the size of a small dog !! A couple of months ago I had a horned beetle in my room on my curtain. That is probably the largest insect I’ve ever seen. The photo doesn’t do it justice! Cockroaches aren’t really that big of a deal anymore – although very gross still! With the rain the season of flying ants has come. These creatures come up out of the ground at night drawn toward the light and they fly around and eventually lose their wings and die. In the morning the porch (or your kitchen floor) are covered with wings and the bugs have disappeared. The locals like to catch them and fry them to eat with their nsima. Apparently they taste like peanuts!

The other day we saw a praying mantis in our kitchen which was kinda gross but we didn’t do anything about it. The next morning it was eating a fly so we decided to let it stay! We have several geckos that live on the walls and eat all kinds of bugs – mosquitoes, moths, termites, etc. The problem is that the other day I was making my bed and out from under my blanket on the floor was a lizard (this was not a gecko) about 10 inches long – black with a blue-ish tail. Yes it is harmless but I still screamed! It stayed in my room over night then I saw it the next morning. Last I saw it was hiding behind the stove in the kitchen – maybe it has been cooked by now.

Mosquitoes are also a menace here although they aren’t very big there are hordes of them. They carry a nasty strain of malaria which is currently infecting the majority of the children in the surrounding area. We have at least 10 beds in the hallway of the pediatric department with some beds holding more than one patient each! This past week or two the census has been between 60-80 just in peds! Imagine – each child has at least one guardian! We won’t even talk about what that ward smells like!

We were having dinner at Clare & Ali’s house the other day and suddenly Clare saw a scorpion on the floor! Yikes – that is actually scary! She dropped a big shoe on it and just left it till morning. We have plenty of spiders and occasionally they are scary looking too (although Cristy is sure that every spider is out to get her). The flat wall spiders don’t bother me but the big, ugly brown ones are worthy of the DOOM!! (bug killer) We keep a can handy in the kitchen and the bathroom for any bug that might encroach on our personal space.

Today I had a surprise – it was pouring rain and people were just milling around in the entry of the hospital watching the rain (seems to be the thing to do even if they are working inside – to just go out and stand and watch the rain). It had gotten dark inside with the rain so I went to turn on the light. The light switch is in a wooden box on the wall that looked like it was locked. There was something like a pull string on the edge to open the box. So I pulled the string and it was a praying mantis – not a string!!! I shrieked (quietly, mind you) but there was a group of guys standing right next to it that just busted up laughing at me. The bug flew away and was fine, but I was startled! I turned around and they were still giggling so I gave them a hard time and said, “no laughing!” Ewww I can still feel the bug in my fingers – it was kinda cool to the touch and a little squishy. Oh well – glad to be some entertainment!

The other gross thing that comes out in the rain is the snails. They are giant sized here and their shells are more like – well I can’t describe them. They are like slugs with shells and they are “snails on steroids” as Cristy says. They climb up the windows or are in a heap procreating somehow. They are disgusting!

Well before I gross myself out any more I’m going to stop this discussion! Let me just say that my tolerance is being tested AND I am enormously grateful for my mosquito net that keeps all kinds of creepy crawlies out of my bed at night!!!