Untukmu Para Pengunjung

I'm used to the lizards and the wall spiders in our house. They honestly don't bother me. I'm used to clearing all of the ants out of our bathtub before taking my morning bath. The other day I found a cricket in the sink and a cockroach in the laundry, but the icing on the cake was the snake that John stepped on in his barefeet on Friday night. It was in our living room - and we don't know if it was poisonous or not. Thankfully our friend Sam was visiting at the time. He grabbed one of our Maasai spears (we knew they would come in handy!) and used it to put the snake in a box, then bringing it out of the house. Sometimes you just feel like you're in Africa...

To be totally honest, I'm more afraid of dogs than snakes. I have a new running route that is relatively dog-free, but there are 3 dogs that sleep right outside of our house. They've chased me back in the house several mornings. Now John acts as my bodyguard, and we have a host of protective weaponry ranging from a broom to small rocks to a musical shaker (actually, I was thinking this morning that the mix of the barking, growling and shaker might make for an interesting alternative CD!) Maybe I wouldn't be so afraid of dogs if they didn't look so hungry. The thing is, people are having enough trouble feeding their kids - never mind stray dogs! The other day I saw a friend devouring a mango. He explained, "I'm starving!" and it was striking to note that he meant this literally.