El Diablo

Last night I came face to face with the devil himself. I had gotten up during the night to use the bathroom when I came across a monstrous creature! Leaving my room, I grabbed my cell phone, as it has a built in flashlight, and I proceeded to the toilet. Everything was going as planned. I walked in, placed my cell phone on a ledge so I could use both hands and have light, when all of a sudden I hear this hissing sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a creature stir in the corner of my bathroom and then I realized what was making the hissing sound. All I saw was a lizard’s silhouette in the corner before I jumped back 10 feet to safety, or what I thought was safety. A few feet outside the bathroom door, I attempted to catch my breath when I started hearing the hissing sound again! And as if its life was at stake, this create came bolting out of the bathroom right at me hissing away with all its might! I jumped back another few feet and the creature scurried into a pile of rubble near my hut. All I could discern was it was it had the silhouette and walk of a lizard, was black, and hissed. In the morning, I spoke with my family and they told me it was some harmless animal that lived around my bathroom and it’s not to be feared. My counterpart on the other hand, told me it was some creature that does hiss and it SPITS urine that is toxic if consumed. This makes no sense! So I have done some research on the internet and this is what I have found.

In other news, it’s hot. My counterpart and I met up this morning to go meet some more officials, as we are doing this all week. On route to the only high school in a city of 19 thousand, the power to the city is cut, which means no fans! We make it to the school and proceed through the usually waste-of-time greeting and then head to the headmaster’s office which is hotter and more humid than a furnace. He offered very kind and philosophical words of encouragement but failed to see me dripping sweat. I finally said thank you and stirred enough in my chair to warrant an end to the conversation.

Today I decided to buy some chickens. My host brother is taking me to the market after lunch and I have decided I want two female chickens from which I will have eggs and raise chickens. Two chickens will cost me around $10-$12 dollars and food for a month is only $1. If I sell the chickens in the market, I can get around $5-$6 for each. I think it will be fun to try and if I fail miserably, I think ten bucks is worth the experience.