Not for the squeamish

On Fridays we have homemade pizza and watch Downton Abbey. T is always counting pills for the clinic or sewing something so this week i decided to be helpful, too. I was cutting pills on the coffee table when out of the corner of my eye i saw a big fig tree gecko come down onto the kitchen floor and lick up a big termite. "Hurrah!" i exclaimed! But T said that now was my chance to get rid of this big guy who uses my kitchen counters, table and freezer as his private latrine! 

So we got a broom and a ceiling duster and chased him along the kitchen walls and ceiling until he was trapped on a high window sill. Just when we were trying to catch our breath from laughing so hard and deciding what to do next, the gecko took a flying leap off the sill onto the upper cabinet, skidded off the edge and took a nose dive into the kitchen garbage can! I swooped over and closed the bag and put him outside. 

I understand that geckos are not dangerous and that they are very helpful in eating up pesky insects, but i have a strict "No pooping on the counters" policy that this one could not follow no matter how many times i chased it down the hall! And I know one of the little guys from the other end of the house will move in to continue the offensive (albeit smaller!) kitchen messes, but doesn't everyone need a night of broom-waving gecko-hunting to talk about?!?

The reptilian adventures resumed on Saturday. At 5pm I went to a housekeeper's compound for a traditional tea party. Ataya is similar to the rounds of Arabic tea that get sweeter and sweeter with each serving. It is made from loose Chinese tea leaves on a tiny charcoal stove in a tiny teapot and served in two tiny glasses that are sticky, shared and piping hot. It is an acquired taste but not unpalatable. 

We drank our ataya outdoors in the central patio, sitting on mats and benches while the little kids ran about and the older girls sat close to me. It was challenging but fun to try to communicate with her and her sisters and her brother's wives and all their kids. I brought candy for the kids (actually children's gummy vitamins)  and it is cute how the nine adult woman wanted to try them, too! 

On the walk home I gave my dad a Facetime tour of the western side of the village and the mission compound. (This is an open invite to my Skype and Apple pals to schedule the same!) I stopped into T's house and we chatted. In the dark I made two different trips across the compound to my house for ingredients for our fresh mango & yogurt smoothies and thankfully picked up my flashlight. For when I finally left for the night i caught my house's cat in the beam and she was stalking something. I trained the flashlight in the direction she was looking and saw this big dark stick--that slithered away! It was heading up the incline to my house so i followed it and then called T on the phone and told her to come take a look. 

The snake was about 5 ft long and moving quickly so it was hard to see it's markings. Not knowing if it was dangerous and nervous about its size, T decided it needed to meet the business end of a shovel. And there we were taking turns at whacking, dodging and following this snake around the yard with her long handled shovel. It was not a pretty sight even in the dark and neither of us relished this activity. Thanks to the grizzly exercise and to the strong tea, it took me a long time to fall asleep and then i dreamt of running into fast and frightening snakes and vipers!