A rat, a bat, and a bull

Life here “en brusse” (in the bush), is much closer to the nature, meaning that I am now used to roosters crowing at all times of the day, donkeys braying (also at all times of day, and it’s really really annoying), cows mooing, goats and sheep bleating (which sounds a lot like children), and dogs barking (and fighting) and generally all sorts of noise all the time. Normally, all I really have to deal with is the noise, but in the last couple weeks, I have had a couple interesting run-ins with the wildlife here.

The rat: So the other night, I was getting ready for bed. I had already bushed my teeth and was just going to visit the latrine before lying down. It was already dark out (fyi, I was too scared to use my latrine at night for the first few weeks of site), so I had my flashlight ready and gave the usual preparatory flash around the latrine before going in. Normally, there’s nothing there or occasionally I’ll see a lizard scurry up the wall, but not tonight. Tonight, there was a black rat hanging out right next to the hole. I’m sure he was there to eat the crickets and other insects I don’t think about that also live near the hole, and normally I’d thank him for such a task, but I had to pee.

I kept my flashlight on him, trying to scare him away, but he couldn’t climb walls like the lizards can… I left, hoping he would leave, but was still there when I came back. It was starting to get late (aka 8:30), so I decided to let him be the bigger man, and I went and took care of my business in the shower area…

The bat: This one just happened two nights ago, I was talking to a friend on the phone lying in bed, in the dark, when I started to hear to something scratching against my window screen. I figured it was a large fly or wasp (those flies are louder than you think against the screens!), but when I shined my flashlight from bed, I saw a bat!! I still don’t know how it got into my house, but I suspect he found a way between the sheets of tin that make up my roof. I often see sunlight coming through in the morning, meaning there is a space large enough for a little bat to get in. I wasn’t sure how to encourage him to leave, and didn’t really want to get out of my bed at that point, so I just waited about 20 minutes when I heard him move to the window in the main room. I went out and opened the door, hoping that he would be smart enough to fly out, but that was a no go. I eventually just went to bed, but I could still hear him banging around against the windows. Luckily, he wasn’t there the next morning when I got up, so I will just hope that he doesn’t come back! I’ll maybe also look into sealing up my roof better…

The bull: This one actually happened on Thanksgiving Day, which is the same day my village did some activities in honor of World AIDS Day. I was biking between the CSPS and the school, where the kids were cleaning up and I passed someone from school and as I was waving, he started yelling that there was a Taurus coming. I turn around and see that there is a large black bull running towards us!! Everyone else around us is running to hide behind bushes or trees, but I was currently in the middle of the road with nowhere to go. I don’t know about most of you, but I have never had to avoid a rampaging bull before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. It was running towards me, and I didn’t want to move because I was afraid it would try and chase me, but my friend was yelling at me to ditch my bike and run to the nearest bush. In the end, the bull moved on before I really made a decision, but it was pretty scary for about 5 seconds there (of course it felt longer than that though…). When I got to school, my colleague made fun of protecting my bike, but really I just thought movement would provoke him…

Also, I feel I need to point out that there are a lot of cows/bulls here. It is not at all weird to see them, but normally in a herd, walking to get water. So when they started saying, “There’s a bull!” I didn’t really care… But now I know, if a bull is running towards you, hide!