Caterpillars and other creepy-crawlies...

As many of you know, I have been working virtually non-stop for the past three weeks, so I haven't been getting out of the office much. Consequently, there really isn't anything new to report about my own life. (Oh, other than that I made a smart decision not giving my phone number to this guy who works for the UN Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE). Apparently he has been calling this friend mine every morning and waking her up.) Yeah, that's how dull my social life has been.

But, anyway, I thought this might be a good opportunity to talk a little bit about all the creepy crawly things that wind up in our house here in Asmara. Number one by far is caterpillars. I have honestly never seen so many caterpillars in all my life. They are everywhere. We find at least one in our house every day and sometimes more. And they're not small. They average about 2 to 3 inches long and maybe a 1/3 to a 1/2 an inch in diameter. Of course, the worst is when I accidentally step on one when I'm walking barefoot in the dark. Think furry and squishy. Ewww!

We try to take them outside when we find them in the house because we think they are turning into moths that are eating our clothing (and, of course, we have no idea where to find mothballs in this country). I usually dump them out the back door in our little yard. But because this is usually at night, I tend to want to stay inside, so I dump a lot of these caterpillars right outside the door. Well, now, I am not sure if these are the caterpillars we put out there or if they are others, but we now have approximately 20 caterpillar carcuses right outside our backdoor. I don't know what their deal is, but they're all dead and pretty gross. They are also in various stages of decomposition. Some times I can't tell the newly dead ones from the live ones. But the carcuses that have been there a while are all dried and shriveled up.

In addition to caterpillars, we also get an occasional gecko in the house. I actually really like the geckos, and because they move so fast, we typically let them be. They eventually find their way out. And, in the meantime, they're entertaining. Diane says she has a disabled gecko at her house; the only color change it can make is to speckles.

I have been told that in the past both rats and cockroaches have been spotted in our house. I'm sure glad I haven't seen either of those yet. I also haven't seen a cockroach in a restaurant or a hotel, which sounds like it is kind of an amazing feat. For example, Diane tells me that when she sits near the wall at this "Chinese" restaurant near our office she often leaves with cockroaches in her purse. Ew!

Finally, we have this cat that has moved into our backyard. People don't keep cats as pets here, but there are tons of wild ones. Some look like housecats in the states, but the one that lives at our house does not. I feel like she must be descended from one of those native Egyptian cats or something. Anyway, she's kind of creepy looking and super demanding. In order to get into our kitchen, you have to go out the backdoor and then in through another door off of the backyard. And whenever we do this, that cat is right there. She immediately starts in screaming and begging for food. And, of course, I'm such a sucker that half the time I give in and feed her. But she's never satisfied.

Unfortunately, the caterpillars we get in our house are not nearly as pretty as the one in the picture above. I took that picture while on a hike outside of Asmara. On the upside, the brown variety we get aren't as big as this one was; it was at least 5 inches long and almost an inch in diameter.

Hopefully my Eritrean wildlife photos will eventually include more than insects, but for now, I thought you might enjoy these. So, on that note, I thought I'd leave you with a photo of a beetle that I took while in the west. We found this one on the steps of the Zoba (state) administration office in Barentu. I had to take its picture because it was so prehistoric looking. It looks like it should be indestructable, but I have a feeling that probably isn't the case.