Things that crawl in the night

I'm not sure that I've ever seen a spider whose eyes actually have a reflection when they are looked at with a light. After getting some pictures, I ran down to the kitchen, and grabbed one of those clear plastic glad tupperware tubs (you know, the ones with the blue lids). I was going to trap it against the wall with the tupperware, slide a piece of paper under the spider while it is calmly behaving. Then, transport it somewhere else. Like, anywhere but my room. The tupperware wasn't big enough.

I go to trap the eight legged beast, and it starts running all over the place. Its really fast. I end up having to chase it all over the room trying to herd it with my insufficient Tupperware and a pair of starchy underwear. I eventually corral the spider over towards the screen door and it starts moving up the door jam (I've heard from others that these things jump, far). I could hear its feet tapping on the wall. The spider moved closer towards the screen door and actually tried opening the door. I saw the door move ever so slightly, but it was not able to open the door enough to squeeze out. Maybe if it ate a few more children or a baby carabao it would be strong enough to open a screen door by itself. So naturally, I helped it out. I mean, I am in the Peace Corps doing good things, so why wouldn't I help a spider move out of my room. This really was a large spider I'm still impressed and scared! The next morning it was gone, but my shoes had moves a few inches to the left of where I had put them.

The next creature I wasn't as kind to. A few weeks ago I had just returned from class and I wanted to get out of my long pants, and into something a little more comfortable (like my ice suit). I went to my dresser door and wasn't paying to much attention to what I was doing. Nor did I pay much attention to the small thumping and patting against my chest. I looked down just in time to see a mouse make it's second attempt to tackle me. It leaped out of my dresser and onto my chest and began to run up my body. (I hope you're smiling). It didn't make it that far (only up to my collar bone) up before it fell to the floor and scuttled away to a corner in the room. I went to get Roger (host brother) to see if there was a mouse trap in the house that I could use. His response was that we needed to call the police because there was a trespasser in the house. After we had a little laugh, Roger got a broom for me and we went up stairs to do the dirty work. With a little team work we made the rest history.
A few nights later after feeling pretty comfortable in my room once again. I woke up to something tickling my neck. Bigger than the usual ant. I grabbed my own throat and chucked the unknown creature across the room. I turned on the light and looked for a few minutes to find this tickle bug, but there was no luck. I assumed that I threw it so hard against the wall that it dissipated into nothing. So I went back to sleep. An hour later I felt the same tickling sensation on my leg. After crawling on my leg, the cockroach had settled down against the wall long enough for me to turn on the light, grab my tsinelas (flip-flops) and smash the living existence out of it. I slept much better after that. I woke up 30 minutes later to roosters tuking. That was a longer day than most.
Those are my best animal stories for now. Fortunately, all the creatures were pretty small, but the creep factor is right up there with best of them. For the record the mouse wasn't that bad. More startling than anything. It was a small mouse. The spider was much bigger.

In Waray-Waray, people say hinay-hinay. The direct translation means, slowly-slowly. What they mean is to go carefully on your way and be safe.

So, slowly-slowly and watch out for spiders!
-K