Oh yes, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry. Time is flying. Like every other Peace Corps Volunteer who's maintained a blog, I now too will say that the months are passing by and I am NEARING THE END OF MY SERVICE.
Just typing that makes me smile. When I'm done. I will have been a real-life Peace Corps Volunteer.
And now that I'm pretty well adjusted to Benin, I can say that not too much has happened. Neither exciting nor interesting events have occurred.
Really, I was just waiting for something "blog worthy." I can only blog about the heat, the rain, flowers, and food so many times before it becomes boring. Like a reporter, I was looking for something new and fresh. Something that would take my readers by surprise. Something that would make you say "just when he thought he'd experienced everything..."
Well ladies and gentelment. For your viewing pleasure, I submit this photo.
A few notes: the creature is actually bigger than it appears in the picture. It was AT LEAST a solid 6 inches :: Um... maybe more like 4- but it was 4 inches SQUARE! :: That was Glenna, a friend of mine visiting from the South who got to behold the sight of this creature. We disagree on size but not on presence. ::It was totally there; it was enormous!:: Glenna again.
Glenna is a fellow teacher and is currently on vacation. She decided to come up to Nati to peacefully pass her vacation with me. Tuesday night, we decided to make egg rolls (from scratch and they were delicious) and duck sauce (also really delicious). Making the duck sauce required honey which was in my house. I left the back of the workstation, descended the steps and happened to glance up and BAM. There this thing was. Just sitting there on the front wall of my house. It was so big, it looked like it could talk. I (quite literally in my temporary insanity) expected it to say "Hello there, Clayton." In a smooth, Sean Connery-esque voice.
I tell you, it was the first time I truly felt absolute fear and revoltion in my heart at something created by nature. In that moment, I experienced an overwhelming since of personal offense. Nature had created that bug and it had found it's way to the wall of my house to personally piss me off. I felt that I must've done something horrible and karma was saying "Hey Clay! Stop being such an asshole!" I had all sorts of mean thoughts about how assholish nature can be. Here, in front of me, was a 6 inch (4 inches according to Glenna) creature on my wall.
All I could do was stand there in pure horrified shock, turn around, walk into the house and inform everyone that we would not be making duck sauce because I couldn't get into my house.
Of course everyone flocked to see what the commotion was about and I felt validated when 6 other people were as horrified as I was. The immediate plan was to destroy the creature but in the end, I said we shouldn't because it wasn't harming me physically even though it had harmed my sense of security in the world. We left it alone and when I came back outside a few hours later it was gone. No, that did not make me feel better. When something that hideous disappears it creates more fear and panic because the awful truth is that I would rather sit and stare at it to know where it was and what it was doing than to not have any clue AT ALL.
P.S. MW, please excuse the language. What the fuck is it?
