Volunteer Amani
13th Jan 2007Interesting Creatures And Creepy Crawlies! I thought that it was about time that I created a diary entry devoted solely to the subject of the wonderful flora and fauna here! It will take some doing to list all of the amazing things that I have come across since my arrival, but here are some of the entertaining highlights! Needlss to say everything is bigger, noisier and much wierder here, and that is just the insects! Let`s start with the insects, or wadudu as they are called in Kiswahili! Boy have I seen some specimens! Huge ants, (no not one of my relatives) that have a really nasty nip, that stings like anything! I know because one managed to crawl up my trousers and bite me on the leg! Smaller versions of ants that move enmass, and look like liquid treacle as they cross my daily path to work, and minute versions that are so small that they use the grouted joints in my tiling as pathways to find their way into every conceivale foodstuff! I have given up trying to stop them, and am sure that I have consumed a few during my daily breakfast of bread and honey and coffee! Now to the spiders! I thought that coming across one huge specimen, just like a small tarantula, outside my house was fine, infact I found it quite interesting, and being the animal lover I am I relocated it across the road! The following day I had a similar on, but even bigger, sat on my kitchen wall watching me cook! I knocked it into a container with my hand and again relocated across the road! I mentioned the spiders to my neighbour and work colleague, who commented that I should have killed both of them as the next one would appear in my bedroom, and they have a really bad bite! Another work colleague later told me that his wife had been bitten by one and it turned her whole arm black! She had to be admitted to hospital for treatment! The story does not end there as quite unbelievably, I awoke the following day from forty winks to see yet another spider, or the same one returned, crawling up my bedroom wall!! Enough was enough, and quite reluctantly I knocked it into a container with a very long-handles wooden spoon abnd dispatched it swiftly with boiling water. I shudder to think what would have happened if it had been able to creep under my mosquito net whilst I slept! I would say that the biggest of the 3 spiders was easily as big as my palm. as it had very long, hairy legs (no not like that aunt you know), and it had a very impressive set of jaws! I have kept the spider that I had to kill and intend to take it into Amani for the children to draw. Just the kind of subject matter that they will really like! There are also some amazing butterflies out here. Huge specimens with amazing markings that often land on the mud to take water or minerals. Other equally impressive insects include preying mantis, on my house wall, and a complete array of huge beetles and cockroaches, which often fly by night, making an amazing noise, and always seem to crash-land on you! There are also crazy crickets and grasshoppers which also seem to be attracted to your clothing rather than the vegetation! An entry about insects cannot be finished without the mention of the ever-present mosquitos! I have to admit that now they are not too troublesome, as my body appears to be fairly accustomed
|
| 671 Words | This page has been read 30 times | View Printable Version |