Post 12 Our First Wet Season - living with creatures up close and personal
- hadfieldjournal
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With the beginning of the rains in early November we found that the insects and crawly things really started to appear. Walking around the bed one morning I almost stepped on a small snake. Actually it was a harmless thing, also called a blindworm, and lived in the soil. In the corner of our bedroom a big brown toad took up residence, but we left him there to help keep down the insect population.
On lifting a milk jug out of the cupboard one morning I heard a rattling noise. I quickly handed it to Jim who fortunately was nearby, and he shook out a big spider with an equally big cockroach in its grasp. We began to learn an important lesson - look before you touch anything.
As the wet season set in we noticed lots of thick crunchy grubs with about a hundred legs moving quickly across the floor and appearing on the walls. While washing-up one evening, a big crunchy grub plopped down from the ceiling and curled around the handle of a cup.
At bedtime we put a woven grass mat down on the floor, but it could not be left down during the day or it would become mildewed by night time. We knelt on it to pray, but before I closed my eyes I always had a good look around to see there were none of those crunchy grubs heading towards it!
One night a frog came bounding across the bedroom floor; on another occasion I almost picked up a big brown toad thinking it was a piece of firewood!
By mid December the streets of the town were very boggy and cattle were passing the night outside our bedroom window under the shelter of the verandah-footpath, while the noise of the frogs was becoming increasingly loud and deep. Each evening, just at sunset an army of about twenty frogs would come hopping in formation along the back verandah and out into the yard.
What troubled us most were the itchy bites that were appearing on our bodies under our clothes, so we knew they were not from mosquitoes or sandflies. Eventually we discovered that a minute grass tick that looked like a fine grain of red pepper caused them, and nothing seemed to give relief from the itch that went on for days.
They kept us "up to scratch" - literally! We learned to avoid walking on green grass as much as possible, and understood why everyone kept the grass chipped away from their houses. This latter practice was also useful to help deal with snakes coming close to the house.
When Jim was out one day, I looked out into the patio from the back verandah and noticed a creature, almost three feet in length and with a thick body, walking towards the house. My first thoughts were that it was a baby alligator, but I realised that its head was a different shape, so I bravely walked out into the yard towards it. To my great relief, it slowly turned around and walked away. Later I learned that it was a type of large lizard called a ‘peni’ (pronounced "penny"
Snakes galore!
About this time we were beginning to get acquainted with the snake population. Returning from our open-air Sunday School, I nearly walked on a snake called a yoperojobobo, about three feet in length and a venomous type that was common in the Beni. While Jim was grabbing a stick and killing that one, I almost trod on another of a different type, so that was dealt with also.
On another occasion Jim was standing on the street corner near our home talking to an acquaintance. They both happened to look down at their feet as a snake went along the path between them. It certainly interrupted their train of thought!
Intestinal Worms
It was sad to see children suffering through neglect and ignorance. Living quite close to us was an indigenous family whose little girl aged three died after having been sick for some time. She was accustomed to eating earth, and her death was actually caused through being eaten with intestinal parasites.
The doctor said that round worms had eaten her intestines to the point of perforation. For some time prior to her death, worms were crawling from her nose and mouth. It was a terrible condition, and one of awful neglect. The indigenous people apparently did nothing for a child with a bad attack of intestinal parasites, and said it was a curse from God.
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