Home Sweet Home

It happened.  I knew someday it would, and the other morning it finally happened.  A lizard inside my mosquito net….

I still am not really sure how he got in there or how long he was there for, but I came back from the bathroom and there he was, a little guy about 6 inches long, sitting up in the far corner of the net.  Rather than simply leave him and hope he found his own way out only to climb in to bed at night and discover my new friend still with me, I strategized a plan to help him exit. 

Grasping a broom, I kept as much distance between me and him as I could, trying to coax him down off the net.  Who knew lizards could jump?!  This guy leapt on to that broom causing me to of course scream but I acted quickly and ran outside before he could jump off.

Later in the afternoon, I was greeted by another friend in my kitchen.  This guy was a fat one and quite the jumper too!  I tried to coax him out with a broom also, but his jumping was too much for me confined inside the tiny kitchen so I just let him be and hoped he found his way out on his own.

It’s small moments like this when you realize the little things about yourself that have already changed.  I distinctly remember a time back at my home in California involving a similar lizard incident when I called my dad at work to help me.  What I expected him to do all the way from work, I don’t know, but somehow he was going to rescue me from this “beast”.

Now, here I am in Africa tackling these “beasts” on my own.  Though, admittedly I still might scream a little when it seems like the lizard is coming toward me, I look at them more now as friends who eat the bugs.  I’m happy to see them running around my backyard.  As long as they stay out of my bed, we will be okay.  I definitely check (and then recheck and check again) to make sure my net is fully tucked in at night so no other fun critters try to snuggle up with me…

Since these lizard adventures, I have since been graced with the presence of a spider almost as big as my palm and a little scorpion inside my house.  Home sweet home!