Picture yourself on the African savannah A hot wind blows through your hair as you gaze over the dried
grasslands which stretch for miles in every direction. As you look towards the horizon, you spot a
herd of elephants silhouetted by the setting sun and as you make your way
towards the nearby watering hole, you encounter a teeming mass of wildlife.
Zebras, giraffes, gazelles and wildebeests converge on the precious water, taking
their chances against the lurking crocodiles.
It is scenes like this one that bring people from across the globe to
the plains of Africa. Thus far however, I have yet to encounter a single
example of classic African wildlife. Instead of elephants, lions, cheetahs,
giraffes, or zebras, I have been experiencing a different perspective on
African wildlife- the creepy crawler version of the circle of life. Instead of majestic cats or awe-inspiring herbivores,
I have been immersed in the world of insects and reptiles, and their
populations are increasing at an alarming rate.
This
week has been a week of my African Big 5: mosquitoes, lizards, spiders, wasps,
and snakes. As the rainy season is in
full swing, my usually quite barren site is teeming with life. The constant supply of standing water, left
over by the daily rains, has created a mosquito paradise. They emerge every
morning and dusk in malaria infested swarms, and I spend these mosquito-dense
hours doing whatever I would normally be doing (lesson planning, reading, spacing
out and pondering life, etc.) in the safety of my mosquito net. On the
plus-side, mosquito bites are such the norm among the population right now that
whenever a sunscreen induced pimple appears on my face, my neighbors just
assume it’s a mosquito bite.
Unluckily for the mosquitos, lizards
have been hatching left and right. I counted 10 baby and adolescent lizards in
my house today alone. They range in size from under an inch (the adorable
teeny-tiny newborns) to over 9 inches (I’m assuming their mothers). The lizards
however, are my favorite intruders. They eat mosquitos, they are clean, they
are not venomous, and we get along fine.
The spider population has also been
increasingly lately. As spiders help control the mosquitos and flies, and
I’ve never been afraid of them in the past, I was fine with my resident
spiders, but lately there have been just too many. The
majority of my spider roommates are a large, incredibly flat species which is
not dangerous or aggressive and I generally leave them alone, but this week
there were at least three hatchings and some of them had to go. There are also a few spiders that closely resemble scorpions and they are always a lovely surprise. The last straw
came in the form of a tarantula sized spider falling from a web onto my foot as I
opened my front door a few days ago. I instinctively stepped on it and the amount
of guts that went flying was shocking. I decided it was time for my eight-legged house-mates to find a new home,
so yesterday I went on an epic cob-web cleaning spree and swept as
many spiders as possible out of my house. With a plastic bag tied around my
head to protect my hair from angry soon-to-be-homeless spiders and sunglasses on to protect my eyes, I
went to work evicting those who had over-run their welcome.
Now, let’s move on to the wasps. I
am not a fan of the wasps. They are huge, loud wasps and have incredibly
painful and toxic stings. Although I have luckily not been bit, I have seen the
effects of their stings on others, and it is not a pretty sight. I spend hours of downtime stalking them with
a fly swatter reinforced with packing tape. They are fast, but my fly-swatter
turned wasp swatter skills are improving.
If you noticed, we are moving from
my favorite intruders to my least favorites, and here we are at my very least
favorite of the creepy crawlers - the snakes. Even in the United States I had a
somewhat irrational fear of snakes. But here, where 9 of the 10 most dangerous
snakes in the world are found, the fear seems a bit more rational and is, in
all honesty, bordering on constant terror. Luckily I have a pair of snake-proof
boots (like SUPER rain boots) that are great for wading through potentially
snake-infested puddles or walking through suspiciously tall grass. However, my most recent, petrifying snake
encounter did not occur on an overgrown path, in a murky puddle, or even while
chopping the grass in my yard, but IN MY HOUSE.
It was around 11 pm, and I had just
finished lesson planning. It was way past Mozambican bed time, so all my
neighbors were fast asleep. I went through my regular nightly routine of
brushing my teeth, washing my face, putting on my pajamas, and then I went to
lock the iron gate on the outside of my door, something I do every night. I
reached into the darkness to grab the gate and felt something move as my hand
brushed against it. I pulled back my hand and instantly jumped back just as a
long, black snake fell to the floor. I
thought I was going to have a heart attack, and I have honestly never been as
scared as I was in that moment. The
snake was coiled and still. Although it was not huge, it was probably about 3
feet long and was very black. Although I did not know if the snake was venomous,
black mambas, one of the most dangerous snakes in the entire world, live in
Mozambique, so I panicked, jumped into my snake books, and rushed to my kitchen
in search of some sort of weapon. I managed to find a large stick and a kitchen
knife. I whacked the snake with the stick. It didn’t faze the slithering beast.
The snake began gliding quickly across the floor, so I struck again, this time
inflicting some damage, but still the snake was moving across the floor. By
this point I was standing on a chair, sobbing in fear (I have never in my
entire life cried from being afraid) and did the only thing I could think of. I
threw the sharpened kitchen knife at the snake, slicing through its body. Now
there was snake blood everywhere, and those of you who know me, know how I feel
about blood. Finally the snake seemed to be on the road to death, but it was still
moving and I was therefor still terrified. After whacking the snake for what
seemed like a tear-filled, heart-racing eternity. It finally ceased to move. I
timidly and still trembling removed the snake’s body with the stick, locked my
door, and worked up the courage to clean up the snake blood. Needless to say,
the experience was nightmare inducing and I did not sleep that night. I have
been on high snake alert ever since. I conduct at least two snake-searches of the
house a day and keep various snake-killing weapons stashed around the house. On the plus side, the neighborhood children
and even the adults were very impressed that I was able to kill the snake by
myself, and my snake-slaying skills have been the source of great respect from
my community.
Although the encounter was one of the most
terrifying experiences of my entire life, I have to admit it was also slightly
humorous. I mean a crying person wearing pajamas standing on a chair in the
middle of the living room wearing pajamas and rubber snake boots throwing
knives at a probably harmless (but then again MAYBE NOT) snake would be pretty
funny to an observer (who was not afraid of snakes and who knew for certain
that the snake was harmless). If the snake actually was harmless, I feel bad about
killing it the way I did, but I still don’t know what kind of snake it was, my
neighbors seem to think “it could have bit me” whatever that means, and in the
moment all I could think was IT HAS TO BE A BLACK MAMBA, so I’m standing my
panic- induced decision.
Not all the creepy crawlers are
overwhelming or scary though. There is a really cool giant centipede that
lives in my shower and keeps its distance and there are always a few cheery,
brightly colored beetles around. This
week I had the privilege of finding a beautiful, and surprisingly large,
beetle-like bug with a red and black shell and very sticky feet. In an effort to avoid terrifying all of you,
this is the picture I have chosen to include. Check out this cute little guy
sitting on my rain-soaked cement porch. Hopefully one day I'll get to see some elephants or zebras, but for now I'll be content with the cute little beetles. As always, much love to you all and thanks for
reading!
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| One of the cute creepy-crawlers |
