Crikey! Look at the Size of that Sucker!

I would now like change from our regularly scheduled program and talk about some of the wild life that has been in my life. To begin with there are three dogs that live here on the Tricarico and Eldeen compound were I am also staying. These dogs are all Karamojan local dogs and look like mutts and coyotes. Mickey, named after Mickey Mantel is a bowel legged, tattered ear, black mutt looks like he’s been run over five times because he has been run over five times. He has been driven over, backed over, you name it. Foxy then is a reddish brown and fat. She also has the most ticks of the three. Last is Zorro the only good looking dog. He is slim and black with brown feet and a few spots. Zorro though is the most annoying of the three and also the worst behaved. The Wright and Akken compounds also have several dogs and periodically, usually at night and in the pre dawn hours of the morning, all they dogs will start howling. Kind of a ritual neighborhood shout out that is both nerve racking and sanity shaking. 

As for the creepy crawlies we share the kitchen with a large colony of cockroaches. These are just the little guys, about half and inch long or less. Also down at the clinic moving rocks and tearing down the building I have seen a half dozen scorpion’s witch I promptly kill and cut of their tails whenever I see them. Scorpion stings aren’t deadly but incredibly painful. Also I have seen some humongous dragonflies with 3 inch wingspans and wasps that are bright orange, red, and black. Also several centipedes which I understand to be the non venomous, as opposed to millipedes which are. 

Snakes here are very common. They have green and black mambas, hooded cobras, puff adders (which are the most venomous) and a large variety of non venomous snakes. The Karamojan believe that all snakes are venomous and apply the same treatment to all snake bites which is to grind some herbs and tie that to the wound. My second day here, Friday, Tim found a cobra in the clinic. It had curled up inside a folding table (a plastic one that folds in half) in one of the examining rooms. The uproar that followed Tim’s discovery was hilarious. Everyone fled the room but only to the next one so they could see what was going on. Then one of the guards arrived with a bow and arrow and promptly began shooting arrow through the table. The Karamojan next drove the snake out of the table and began trying to hit it with sticks. One lady went a stole a blind man’s walking to stick. The snake had been hit by one of the arrows and was trailing blood everywhere. The Karamojan chased the snake around the room, knocking over dividing curtains and tables, until they had beaten it to death. Then they removed the snake from the building. The Karamojan believe the snake’s venom is in the blood so they all refused to clean it up, so Dr. Jim hade to. Meanwhile a couple of the women who work at the clinic had taken sticks and resumed beating the dead snake for another ten minutes. Eventually calm was restored and the snake was measured at 4 feet. 

I’ve learned an interesting fact here. Roosters don’t just crow in the early morning hours. They crow all day every day. The worksite at the clinic is located around several bandas were people live and their chickens and roosters wander around the area. These damn roosters are driving me crazy. They crow and crow and crow. Every time I see one I throw a rock at it but unfortunately they’re not retarded because they’ve started to avoid me. Hiding in the bushes where I can’t see them and crowing. I will kill them yet. Mark my words.