vermin

i sometimes get to the point of finding rodents, insects, or any small thing that scurries, crawls, or slithers repulsive. but then i try to remind myself that they, too, are God's creation and serve an important purpose in their being. no matter how gross they may be. i recently read the book the prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver which got me rethinking my stance on these creatures. finding bugs beautiful may be something i never succeed in doing, but i'm trying my best to change the way i look at them so i can appreciate our co-existence. that being said, there's still no way i'll be giving up my insecticide anytime soon. it, too, was created for a very important reason.

i was staying at emily's house in pagala a few months ago and had a series of encounters that would merit the night as the Night of Vermin. i'll start with the latrine. cockroaches and scorpions rendered it out of order for the night. we didn't care if the scorpions were dead. the live cockroaches were enough, there's just something about them. then there were lizards falling out of nowhere and crawling over emily's hand, moths flying out of the flour container, and... the worst part: a half spider, half frog, half monster in the shower. i was about to take a shower when i spotted the little devil. he just stared at me with an evil look in his eyes, daring me to enter the large closet sized room. i did the only reasonable thing to do in that kind of situation and called emily over to get rid of it. she finally succeeded at getting it to jump out of the shower with this huge squeegy thing she has. i spent a good 20 minutes slowly and carefully inspecting the small room to make sure it didn't decide to hide somewher so it could jump out and attack me later on. the bug ended up being cleo's breakfast the next morning.

one of the biggest reasons why i thank the good Lord for my mosquito net is for my mental reassurance that i won't wake up in the middle of the night with a mouse in my bed or crickets on my head (both things that i've heard happen to other people). well, there are no mosquito nets on the beds in atakpamé, as well as a handful of mice living in the house. one day i was staying at the house and something woke me up slightly, then i really woke up when i felt cold, little mice feet crawl over my leg. it was a pretty disgusting feeling. i tried to be brave about it and tell myself it was no big deal. needless to say, I was not able to go back to sleep.

i was coming back home from the ceg in m'poti one afternoon when i noticed a group of people gathered around some bush with big sticks. they had lit the bush on fire and looked like they were waiting for something to come out. when the snake finally slithered out, everyone batted at it with their sticks with no luck since no one wanted to get too close. i stayed as far away as possible and nervously watched it disappear into another patch of bush. i hadn't seen a snake in my village before and the 5 or 6 foot mass that i watched slither right in front of me was enough to give me the heebie geebies.

i was getting ready to turn in one night and closed the door that connects my two rooms (something i did back when cleo still lived with me). when i realized i had forgotten something in the other room, i opened the door and when i did, a something fell from out of nowhere right in front of me. at first i thought it might be a lizard. but then i focused and realized it was something black and red with antennas and about 50 pair of feet along its approximately 6 to 12 inches of length. shock, panic, and disgust kept me from thinking quickly and all i could manage to do was spotlight it with my flashlight and watch it scurry across the room. i didn't even pick up my broom. i was yelling at cleo to kill the damn thing but she looked just as confused as i was and barely betted at it. once it was out of sight behind a bag, i tried to think of my options. try to kill it and sweep it out or leave it and deal with it the next day when i could ask a neighbor to come and do it for me. i chose the latter option. i got what i needed, closed the door, and stuffed something on the bottom crack between the door and the floor, just for good measure. the next morning when i had tanti come and do a search of the whole room, it had disappeared. i figured it had either 1. got hunted down, killed, and eaten by cleo, 2. found its way out of my house, or 3. found a hiding place and is waiting for the opportune time to come out again and scare me. now why did God have to go and create such a creepy looking thing? that's my question.