Giant Araignee

So today when I got home from training I went into the bathroom to germicide (Dettol) my bath water when I saw an araignee (spider) bigger than my hand chilling on the wall right next to my bucket. I did not Dettol the water and instead went back to my room for my Birkenstock, then stood in front of the spider for a good minute considering whether or not my Birkenstock would be big enough to kill it or if I would have to hit it more than once or if it would sense me trying to kill it and start running which would freak me out even more! I then turned around and decided that it would just go away and if it didn’t I would not bathe today.

A couple minutes later, my mom walked into the bathroom and killed it with one swift swat of a FLIP-FLOP and then fed it to the chickens. Yup.

Also, there is something living in my ceiling. I usually only hear it moving around in the evenings and as Scott put it, “it has some girth to it”. Although, last night at like 3am it was GOING TO TOWN up there scratching around and making lots of noise. I was almost afraid it was going to come through the particle board and land right on top of my mosquito net. It didn’t, and I just heard it scurrying around again. I don’t know what it is. Maybe a rat. Hopefully a rat and not a TRULY giant spider!! It is way too big to make its way into my actual room (unless it falls through the ceiling), but still…I have a roommate.

Today there was also a large araignee at Jake’s house when we went by there this morning. But his was way up on a wall above the door to his bathroom in the hallway. Neither I nor he nor his second mom would kill it and it was still there when he got home from training. Apparently his mom finally used the “broom” (a bundle of thin stick-like things tied together) to chase it all the way out the front door.

Inside my actual room I have only had a couple of smaller bugs and spiders but nothing major. Right now there is a cricket hiding somewhere by my door and the last two nights has been singing it’s heart out. A lot of other people have mice and rats that make noise in their rooms at night but not me. Well, other than whatever it is that’s living in my ceiling.

And the weird worms living on my bathroom floor. They look like tiny leeches and I have only noticed them because when I’m squatting in there at night with my head lamp on with only the floor to stare at, I see moving things and on closer inspection see that they are, in fact, little worms living in the water that is perpetually on the floor of my toilette. I wonder what they actually are. No wonder Peace Corps insists you wear flip flops in the bathroom!

I would have to say, though, that one of my bigger fears is getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stepping on one of those giant araignees as I get out of my mosquito net. I once mentioned this to Dave (who is the bug-phobic-est of all of us) and he was like, “that’s why I keep a flashlight in my net! And then I check my whole net before opening it and examine the whole floor before stepping on it!” And actually, last night Jake peed in a bottle because he knew there would be spiders in his bathroom if he ventured in there.

C’est la vie en Guinee.

PS yesterday my mom gave me a vrai apple that she had bought in Conakry! They are expensive at 2 mil 500 francs a pop (same as an avocado), as they are imported. It was the most amazing apple I have ever eaten and I shared it with Scott.