Creepy Crawlies

A couple of new found friends we have met in our house here in Managua. I remember complaining to M & L in Bogota why friends don't seem to care to visit us here, as opposed to Kenya, Denmark and the Philippines. M told me pointblank...and I can still hear the shudder in her voice...that maybe I should stop posting these kind of photos. Hmmm, she may be onto something there - I rather like that reason than them just not wanting to see us.

I thought Kenya would be more challenging with regards to these crawlies but no, we have more here than we ever had there. Although I have seen some strange insects in Nairobi perched just outside our window none of them were insects my nightmares are made of.

Back in the Philippines, apart from the occasional rats and a parade of ants here and there, what really freaked me out were the cockroaches and bathroom spiders...I would shriek like a little girl each time I'd see one. After that, I'd feel the sensation of something crawling down my back the whole day. Scorpions, centipedes and snakes were story book creatures to me until Nicaragua.

We do try to annihilate them every now and then - we fumigate every quarter - but at the risk of annihilating ourselves, we cannot do it more often. So, man being adaptable, I learned to check my shoes before putting them on, pat my pillows and raise the duvet before laying down, not walk in the dark inside the house (scorpions hide from the light) and always wear slippers.

As for the snakes (unlike other houses, we've only encountered one), that's what we have the dogs for. They bark and play with it until someone comes to kill it. One of the better reasons to keep the garden immaculate. We still have the occasional bathroom spiders (with spindly looooong legs) but amazingly no cockroaches. Speaking of missing crawlies....I haven't seen our resident Iguana for awhile now, hmmm.

Now, I look at them and they don't evoke the same emotion in me anymore. They are conversation topics amongst us here...'what do you have in your house'...kind of questions where people proudly recite the creepiest of crawlies you can imagine.

I myself feel proud to think that I have toughen up.

We still want friends to come and visit and see this as part of the challenge and experience here in Central America....and experience it no doubt they will.