Attack of the Killer Geckos (and one baboon)

July 23rd, 2009 • 2 comments ICTR Internship
Tags: Africa, Arusha, bus, dalla dalla, fear, gecko, lizards, safety

We’ve had some interesting neighbours come and go at Kundayo Apartments. I loved the intestine eating, Cupertino-dwelling Americans; and my daily badminton game with our German neighbour is awesome. And we also recently had one neighbour who warned us of the danger of the ever-present, semi-transparent geckos that climb our walls

These guys are fast little lizards that run all over our walls and ceilings, are usually gone before you see them and are extremely pale in colour. We often see them in the shower or hanging around the kitchen, but haven’t been too worried about them – I think their quite cute.

Apparently though, these tiny lizards are deadly poisonous and one bite could see any one of us in hospital. Worst of all, if they eat any of our food, which we stupidly leave open in the kitchen, then are really in trouble.

But I’m not too worried and kinda like their company. Besides I’m pretty sure they’re protecting us from mosquitos and spiders.

We also neighbour a forest filled with monkeys (or I say baboons) which we listen to every night.

One happened to come into our court yard on the weekend. We were inside our apartment and heard a loud thud on the roof. Clare asked if someone was working up there and I walked outside and saw a monkey about the size of a large dog minding his own business on our patio. He ran off shortly after seeing me, and much to my disappointed Clare won’t let me leave bananas out to attract him back.

The wildlife is definitely one of the better aspects of living in Africa (as long as they leave our washing alone). But this also illustrates a typical mistake some people make during their time in ‘Africa’ – they live in fear.

Sure there are a lot of things here to be afraid about – muggings, AK-47s, rabid dogs, street hustlers, dalla-dallas, malaria, unergonomic working environments – but, as cliche as it sounds, if you spend all your time worrying about what’s going to go wrong, you’ll miss out on all the cool stuff.

That’s why I love our daily trips in to the UN in the morning, even though the bus driver is just about certifiable. We careen at high speed down roads that resemble rivers, drive into oncoming traffic and are always only second away from impact with a dalla-dalla or poor cyclist. But it’s also great fun and ‘an experience’ that you couldn’t pay for.

So my advice if you come to ‘Africa’? Enjoy it! Everything that happens, especially the bad stuff, will make a great story some day, so try not to stress out too much about the lethal lizards or the two day bus trip through armed gang territory. Anyway, in the end I’m sure it’ll make a great blog post…

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