The things that come through my window

It's been about 3 weeks since I've been in my site and I woke up many morning trying to figure out what God was trying to tell me. I thought maybe He was telling me that a.) Find a new town, b.) Get tough, c.) relax, I'm just messing with you.

On the first night I was half asleep, laying on my back, covered by my mosquito net. I was snug, safe, and comfortable. I heard something hop through my window, ruffle my plastic garbage back, and flutter around the room. I heard this fluttering sound for what seemed like twenty minutes to half an hour, it sounded like a bird trying to make its way outside again. Finally, I heard it settle on the floor. I could hear each step it took since the mat underneath the thin rug is made of straw. My mind scrambled through the possibilities of what might be lurking on my bedroom floor, then I thought of the Camel Spider! If you don't know what a Camel Spider is then you can find many photos online, or you can ask Randy he'll be happy describe the gory details. A friend of mine told me that these spiders look like something out of a nightmare.

I started to sweat. I wanted to grab my flashlight next to me and shine some light on it, but I decided that if it indeed was a Camel Spider it wouldn't help me to see all its gruesome features. Even though the mystery of this creepy crawly thing was more terrifying than the reality of it.

Then, it occurred to me that the fluttering noise that I heard earlier made not sense if the thing was a Camel Spider. Maybe it was a bird? That would be the logical answer, but I was fixated on an image of a winged Camel Spider... I felt sick to my stomach. Right when I heard the thing crawling toward me, I sat up and yelled. This was an attempt to scare it away. It worked. The creature backed away, meowed, and found its way out my window. I sighed a huge breath of relief. Thank God, it was only a cat.

I got up to shut my window, turned back toward my bed and I saw a big spider on my floor and I let out a little squeak, a squeak like a scared mouse. Without even thinking, I threw my pants on over it... not the pants I was wearing, the pants that were on the floor. I threw the pants over the spider, got into my bed and securely tucked the mosquito net under each edge of my bed. I fell asleep from exhaustion.

I woke up the next morning and I realized that I had thoughts of terminating my service early because of a Camel Spider, an imagined one too... That was silly. A cat jumped into my room and almost scared the crap out of me, and a relatively small spider almost made me wet my pants. I decided that if that's the most scared I'll be during my service then that's not bad at all.

During the next several days I had an experience with a moth hanging out in my laundry bag, a cockroach hiding underneath my medical kit, the cat getting smart and coming through my window again, several times, even though it was closed. Once, I stood up from where I was sitting on my bed and found what looked like a dead, wingless, moth laying on its back. I let a dead beetle hang out in the corner of my room and found a swarm of mini ants devouring it, then to find no trace of it the next morning... AMAZING.

My favorite critter incident was when the window was barely cracked, (I should also mention that there's lace coving my window which acts as a screen) and a frog hops through my window and lands in my plastic garbage bag. I heard my bag crinkle several times. I thought it was the cat again, but I got up, flashed a light on it, and I saw this little creature with it's big beady eyes peering over the rim of the bag. I put my trash bag outside for a minute and the frog made its way out. I decided that God was telling me to get used to it, bugs are everywhere.

Congratulations if you read this entire post. I had to make up for not updating my blog for the last 3 weeks.