Creatures!

Here is the first attempted themed blog post. If you're reading it then I guess it worked haha. Since I have been here in Guinea I have had the opportunity to experience some really cool animals. Most notably:

Monkeys - Sometimes people keep small ones as pets. I also saw some fairly large ones crossing the road o my way to Telimele one day.

Chimps - Have never seen any but I can often here them howling in the forest behind my hut. I've gone searching for some several times but unfirtunately have not encountered any.

Snakes - actually a large black one, maybe a meter long in my hut one afternoon. Thankfully it promptly exited when I opened the door. I've also seen two large black snakes in the road and watched my neighbors pull a really long yellowish snake out of a tree and beat it to death with really long sticks. Also, the cat that sleeps in my hut sometimes couldn't see one day and wouldn't open his eyes. One of my collegues suspected that a cobra had spit in his eyes! Yikes!

Chamelon - Was lucky enough to see one of these guys climbing a tree one day. I saw him eat a fly which was really fun to watch! Also, apparantly some Guineans think that if you touch a chamelon you will die!

Ants - We have ants in the US but not like this. These ants bite. And it hurts a lot. They have invaded my hut once and cane very close another time. Sometimes they travel in thick lines or other times in huge swarms covering the ground. They eat all other insects and some other small animals like frogs. When they came into my hut I made sure my mosquito net was well tucked in so they didn't eat me!

Lizards - There are a lot of small lizards in Guinea. They're fun to watch. Sometimes they sit on walls and "do push-ups." I have also seen enormous lizards (maybe monitors?) crossing the road occasionally.

Vultures - These guys swarm the market area the day after market day. They are huge and very creepy and eat everything.

Bats - They live in the ceilings of most of our classrooms and deposit a fresh layer of "caca" on the floor every night. Sometimes they don't wait and drop poo on my head when I'm teaching. Not cool bats, not cool.

That takes care of all the interesting things I've seen so far. I've heard scary stories from other volunteers about giant bush rats but haven't seen any of those yet, Dieu Merci! We also have dogs, cats, squirrels (?) and a ton of cool birds. When I have access to faster internet I will update this post with some more pictures!