Critters

 

The list of critters the children have brought me is never ending. From chameleons, to worms that look like half of a termite, to baby birds, to awesome looking praying manthis. The list is varied but none surprised me more than what they brought me Friday.

 

Jacki and the snake

Jacki the youngest girl brought me on a stick a dead garden snake. Working with children is not for the faint-hearted and one should be prepared for the constant surprises but that day my heart gave a little skip. At first, I thought it was alive but my kids assured me that it was dead. After close inspection, I saw that the head had been smashed by some sort of object, most likely a rock. Rocks are everywhere and they would be my choice of weapon if I ever encountered  a snake. Though, I don’t know why anyone would kill a harmless garden snake. Nevertheless, here was this snake and the kids were obviously enthralled by it. They even wanted to bring it inside, to which I strongly objected. At play time they wanted to continue playing with it, but after awhile Jordan, the other volunteer, told them to leave it alone.This encounter with this snake made me remember the other times when the kids had brought me critters.

 

 

 

Erick and his pet bird

Two weeks ago Erick, the eldest boy brought me a baby bird. According to Erick, he had caught the bird and was now going to keep it as a pet, for a little bit at least. He attached a piece of string to its foot to keep it from flying away. It was the cutest thing and I just could not believe he had actually caught it. Erick took it to the playground and everyone got to play with it. After a while, they let it go and I was relieved because they wanted to feed it rice and later I found out that supposedly kills them. So it would have suffered a terrible fate had we kept it.

 

 

Isaya and the stange worm

A couple of months ago, a tree behind our house fell down and the reason this tree had died was because these worms had basically eaten it away. There were a gazillion of holes in the tree and a bunch of white worms that looked like termites. I am not a scientist so I have no idea what these little critters are. When the kids heard that the tree had fallen down and that there were worms in it, of course they ran to investigate and they brought me back one so I could see it. Isaya is a 7 year-old boy, and of course he loves crawling critters. He was brave enough to carry it to me so I could see it. The one that he brought was near death I think, because there was this liquid coming out of its bottom. Later, it was eaten by the village dog, George Bush who we call Bushie. It was a sad fate but at least I got some pictures before it was eaten.

 

The Praying Manthis and I

We had just gotten back from a walk when I spotted something on the village statue. To my surprise it was a praying manthis. Now, I do not know what you think of manthis’ but I find them pretty fierce looking. These are the only bugs that I am scared of. Of course, this is silly because they cant sting you or bite you, but I once saw a video about  what they could do to other bugs and it terrified me, I have been deadly scared of them since. I know its silly but I still felt my hart stop when I saw this little critter. The only manthis’ I had seen were brown but this one was multi-colored. It was beautifull. All I can say is that the african manthis is so much cooler than the  American one and this comes from a girl that is scared of them. But don’t take my word take a look and compare.

So it seems the kids and I have something in common, we love critters. It was so much fun experiencing these animals with them. Learning about God’s creation with them was an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thank God for nature and all the wonders he has made.I will always have this memories and I cant wait until we get to heaven to experience them again with the kids. All the wonders we will see together. I really cant wait, and maybe you will find me playing in the dirt with a praying manthis.