My Gecko

Like my first trip to Uganda, I didn't see a lot of critters this time around. There were, of course, cows and goats and chickens. I saw and heard eighty times the amount of dogs than last year. Some people keep dogs as sort of watch dogs but mostly they just run around the streets and scavange and sleep and generally just get in the way. They howl at the worst possible times like 2 am and 3 am and 4 am...
In addition to the dogs I saw several geckos. They are much cuter than the computer generated version in the commercials. And they are quick. My favorite one lived in the common room at the EAC house, but the one in the shower was a close second. The only critter I met face to face that I was not fond of was the giant, man-eating spider we encountered one night in the common room.
We didn't actually witness it eating anyone, but I think it wanted to. Three of us were in the room doing various things. I'm sure we were each very absorbed in whatever it is we were doing until the largest blackish-brown spider I have ever seen ran into the room from the adjacent office. It stopped over the office door, effectively trapping us in the room. There was screaming of epic, hilarious volume and I'm pretty sure I gagged a few times. The spider didn't stay put for long and when he moved he had speed and then settled over the other doorway, the one leading to the rest of the house. At that point I had chills. This was like being in a sci-fi movie. Kelsey, amazingly, stayed comfortably in her chair. Ashley and I, who were doing most if not all of the screaming, moved to the opposite side of the room so we could keep an eye on Spidey. I kept checking for my little gecko friend hoping he would come save us, but he was off that night.
We alerted Lauren, the house critter-hater, knowing she would demand a response from someone. Erin the Fearless suggested we let him live to eat mosquitoes, but there was no way we were going to sleep in the house that night if that giant spider was lurking in the corners. Spiders bite people, too. I know this. Plus, they're ugly.
So naturally, we did what any girl in our situation would do; we woke up the nearest male who just so happened to be down with malaria. And also, he hates spiders too. But the time had come for man to be man so he chased it around the wall and whacked it with a shoe and it fell into the darkness behind the Christmas "tree" and no one knew if it was dead or alive for a while.
Trusting no one but the makers of OFF! with Deet, we grabbed a can and doused the area. You know, to be safe. Better safe than eaten by a spider. There was some immediate denial about the death of the spider. We had to find the body if we were to have closure. And just so you can picture this night clearly you should know that Kelsey didn't move from her seat until the spider's laser targeted her forehead. She stuck it out and held her ground until the bitter end.
We did find the big black ball of dead legs and massive body under the "tree" and checked periodically to be sure he wasn't faking. He wasn't. Sorry critter lovers.
In the nights that followed I was extremely happy to see Gecky every night. I loved him even more for occupying our common room and keeping the peace. And after all of that, I didn't even mind when I encountered a roach under my pillow as I got into bed one night. I just chased it off the bed and made sure to shake it out of my mosquito net and slept peacefully, knowing the world's largest spider was dead and that my gecko was out there patrolling the night.