And the rain shall bring...

The last two nights here, it has rained nearly the entire night. This is wonderful, because it cools things down immensely and makes it quite pleasant to sleep, because you are not constantly waking up from sweating. However, the rain, as I have learned over these short few weeks is a double-edge sword, because dun, dun, dun… it brings out the critters.

And oh the critters, crawlers and creatures that come out after the rains on this tropical island! For example, the last time it rained two nights in a row… I woke up in the morning to make breakfast and there was a spider hatching in my kitchen, with not even joking at least 100 baby spiders all over the sink and counter. That was a fun time, trying to clean and kill as many of them as possible. Luckily, I found the Mom and took her outside far from the house (I didn’t kill her because she’s the good kind of spider that eats mosquitoes). Then, that night when I came back to my house, there was literally and I am not exaggerating, 1000 ants coming out of a hole in the outside stairs into the kitchen. I got some bleach and went right to the source (the hole) and that seemed to take care of the problem. And then just after I destroyed the army of ants, I turned around and there was a toad the size of my palm sitting at the bottom of the steps. Now with him, I just let him hang out, because 1)I don’t want to touch him 2)As long as he’s just chilling there and not trying to jump in the house, eventually he will make his way back to wherever he came from.

After experiencing all of these things in one day, I thought I was prepared to handle most small, to medium sized creatures of this Caribbean island. Until yesterday. Again, it has rained two nights in a row, so when I woke up yesterday morning and made breakfast. As I was throwing something away, I noticed there was something rather big and brown behind the trash can. With a closer examination, I immediately realized it was a tarantula. And not just a small tarantula… this thing was seriously the size of my hand. The body alone was the size of my palm and with the legs it made it as big as my entire hand.

Of course I screamed and jumped back and if there would have been a strong enough table to support me, I would have climbed on top of it so fast, the legs of the table probably would have broken just from the abruptness of my actions. I didn’t know what to do, so I stared at the giant spider for what seemed like forever (in reality it was probably like 30 seconds) and then decided my best bet was to try to cover it with something and drag it across the floor to outside where I could somehow kill it with a broom or a shoe. Or maybe, once I got it outside I could just scream loudly enough for my neighbors to come over and help me with the execution.

None of these thing happened. I attempted to cover it, and it immediately ran away behind or under the stove (who really knows?) and out of my site. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I continued to make breakfast and turned the stove on, in attempts the heat might do something to it (kill it? Bake it? I have no idea). Last night I came home and there were no signs of it anywhere and none this morning as well. I have decided every time I go into the kitchen, I will go in with a broom and a shoe or anything else that might protect myself against a tarantula the size of my hand.

The truth is the rain here is beautiful. It cools the earth, it brings out the greens in the hills and when it is finished, I have never seen a sky more blue and pure. But what I have realized is the critters, crawlers and creatures are going to win. There is only one of me and thousands and thousands of them. What I really need is an umbrella and literally a double-edged sword to fight the great fight against whatever might end up in my kitchen after a night’s rain.



In other random news, not related to insects: My technology center is having its first fundraiser, with me at least, this Saturday. My friend Malia, another Peace Corps Volunteer from Wyoming is coming here on Friday to help out and hang out. I am excited to have her here and to see how successful the fundraiser is. I am sure there will be stories and I will write about them next week...