The Wildlife

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! 

One of the cute creepy-crawlers