Creatures We Live With

Hello friends!

I thought I would give you a taste of some of the normal creatures we share our lives with here in the Philippines.

#1--the amigas--in the local language "amigas" means "ants". No, these fellows are far from being our friends, folks. They annoy me and get to me every day. There is nothing more motivating to doing the dishes and taking out the "basura" than to see a trail of ants surrounding your crumbs. Get rid of the food crumbs=get rid of the ants. Tidy, tidy I have become!

#2--"la cucaracha"--that's right, the cockroaches! You do not want to go to the C.R. (comfort room) in the dark at night, because you might just step on a cockroach, and that is not fun in bare feet. When I turn on the lights I see something running to hide and sure enough, "we see you!". Nate grabs his shoe (or mine!) and stomps that thing out. I've become brave enough to do it myself when necessary, but I much prefer my hero to do it.

#3--geckos--those little guys with wide eyes are climbing the walls and sneaking around the house. Where do they come from? The good thing is they are not as gross and are not harmful. However, they do annoy me. One day I put the lid to the toilet down after having just sat there, and I screamed to find a huge gecko right behind my back and staring at me with wide eyes. I've learned to shake my towel out front and back before wrapping it around myself--obvious reasons--you don't want to be cuddling with a gecko (or a cucaracha!)

#4--termites--these are the WORST!!! I don't know if you could even bear my stories about those dudes, but they are so small and secretive that when you finally discover them you are like "OH NO!!!" Oh boy, those things get to my soul, I'm telling you! After many discoveries (what is the deal with cardboard?! You'd think it was chocolate!)....I have had to take a shower, clean the whole house, sweep everything, spray everything, and wash everything just to get myself to feel clean again. I just feel like my skin is crawling when I come upon a village of those termites living in an old box or in some wood. I hate those termites--I'm serious!

#5--one creature we HOPE we never see in our house is a cobra. Yesterday at school we heard a banging sound....come to find out our student's dad was smashing the head of a cobra with the bottom of the trombone case. I'm sure that's not the best thing to do with an instrument case, but he would rather kill that thing than get bit! I've heard stories of people finding those poisonous creatures in their homes, but I'm hoping I never have to tell one of those.

(I've already told you my rat story from a couple years ago--ewww!).

That's all for today. I hope you are glad you don't live with these creatures!