Crossing cultures with a spider

Crossing cultures with a spider
May 21, 2010

I forgot to write about the spider last night! I haven’t had a run in with a tarantula in a couple of years so I guess I was about due. Kerri and I were sitting on the porch at the guesthouse last night and all of the sudden she started freaking out and pointing at something crawling toward us. At first I thought it was a rat (yes it was about that size) because we had just finished talking about rats but then I saw all those hairy legs and I’m pretty sure I screamed and scrambled to get out of the way. A couple of the younger girls from the orphanage were hanging out at the house inside and ran out to see what the commotion was. They started screaming and jumped up out of the way as well, grabbing my waist and pushing me in front of them as a barrier. Kind of a bonding experience. Apparently fear of these things crosses cultures. Stephana was a champ. She grabbed a broom and started trying to shoo it off the porch. That took awhile though and I’m sure the entire scenario would have made for an excellent video clip, with all of us trying to help but also screaming and jumping out of the way as the giant, hairy tarantula attempted to avoid the broom. Stephana eventually managed to save the day; I won’t go into the fat of the spider.

Speaking of rats, my run this morning was also quite amusing. I started off walking with Stephana to meet her friend that she usually walks with in the morning. After that, I took off to run (“kouri” nan Kreyol) a few miles by myself. The first odd thing was when I kept hearing people yell my name “Jenny-fer” that I’m fairly certain I’ve never met before. I thought will all the foreigners running around I would be a little less conspicuous but I guess not. After that, this crazy (literally) guy started following me. I had to stop at one point because I wasn’t feeling well and he started trying to talk to me. I looked up to discover that HE was wearing a very nice dress and wouldn’t shut up. I told him that I didn’t know him and decided that that was a good time to turn around and head home. As soon as I did that, a massive rat came barreling across the street right towards me. I literally had to hurdle over it.