It finally happened

The moment that I knew would come and didn't really expect finally showed up last night after dark just before dinner
Its night fall and there is very little light from the moon. I have my trusty headlamp which is on its last two AAA batteries and I have trying desperately to keep my head from exploding. I have been sick since last week and it is resulted in a constant fever, body aches and one giant headache. So I have been drinking lots of water and just before dinner I go to my room to grab some water.
Since the end of the wet season I have had frogs EVERYWHERE. Literally dozens of them at all hours of the night in ever corner of my room. I don't mind this anymore because a)their small and b) I am going to kill of them later when they get in my pepinere so I figure karma is coming why rush.
I bend down to my water container and suddenly I realize that the thing that it is twelve inches from my face is not a frog, but a wriggling, scaly reptile of a length that I didn't stay to find out. After going a whole year without having a snake in my room (seeing them everywhere else) it finally found a way in-thru my open back door.
I ran to my front door and yell
"Mbodi Mbodi!! Mbodi inder suundu-am!" ("Snake! SNake! Snake in my room!)Usually people have a hard time figuring if I am saying snake or mosquito but since I am not prone to yell and wave my arms about the insect variety, my 3 brothers, 2 male village friends, host father and uncle all show up in record time all carrying clubs but not machetes which at the moment I thought was ridiculuous because this is an excellent moment for a machete.
"Adama where is it?" My brother asks. I gave him my head lamp and then gave my room a bigger berth in case the snake was faster that 6 Senegalese men.
"The canari." I said using the wolof term for the clay pot for storing water.
"What? Where?" Finally I used the pulaar word for the pot and they found it.
Unfortunately because I am not very wise near the canari is not only my water filter, water bucket, and gas stove but also several empty bottles of bleach and one glass bottle for storing peanut butter. Excellent hiding place for a reptile.
I let the experts handle it and all I hear and see are murmurs and shadows coming to gether and then shouts as they collectively jump backwards. I hear glass break and know there goes my jar. Oh well.
Finally someone smashes its head and they bring it outside. Its only about a meter long but its body is still wriggling even though its head is mostly flat.
"Touch it Adama!'
Thank you boys I will pass.
However then they quickly dig a whole in front of my room drop the wiggling snake into the hole, cover it up and pour water on- apparently this will keep the snake from coming back. At this point I'll just shut my door all the time.
My brother Buena came up to me and was like "Adama you had cobra, if that spits at you, you will go blind! Don't go near them and shut your door at night!"
Thank you Captain Obvious.
There you have it folks.
I have had:
Goats
Sheep
Chickens
cockroaches
Spider Crabs
Scorpions
frogs
One monitor lizard that lived in my duche area for a few hours
And finally one cobra.

I draw the line at monkeys. No monkeys. If I have monkeys in my room you will be hearing the story from me in person because I will be at home. Monkeys are serious business and I am not monkeying around. (couldn't resist sorry.)

I also came into today to charge my phone (sorry mom my phone is lame and died) and I managed to find the one Alhum that wanted to road race another alhum. These are cars that are piled so high with crap that they lean like their going to tip over and they are going as fast as their duct tape, u-haul, brake-less, gear-less, spit and prayers machines will go. Nearly died.

Then I go to Kolda and I get off, head straight for the bean ladies because after life flashes before your eyes in Africa you want the best possible meal which in the morning is a bean sandwich and a cup of kinkilibob. However as I was walking I was stopped by the sight of something I hadn't seen in Kolda. I mean I had seen it on the road but never IN Kolda.
Four huge trucks filled Senegalese military. The last two cars have people with rocket launchers. I've only seen those in Museums and on GI Joe. They are not very big for the amount of destruction they can cause.
Following of this was a tank, a real live tank. That sounds stupid but I don't think I have ever seen one that wasn't in a Museum. Completely operational there is clearly someone driving it and then the person on top with the walkie talkie who is chatting up and watching the street life. It just blue my mind.
As volunteers we get pretty desensitized to the fact we live in a third world country. Its a coping mechanism really because it would be depressing to remembering this all the time. You get used to the limited diet, the threadbare clothes (because your clothes are threadbare too), and the generally unreliablility of technology and the unreasonable social norms that exist. Then stuff happens and you realize Yep I am in Africa.
Scary stuff like military strikes and high concentrations of gendarmie. Dengue fever outbreaks. Malaria within your family. Car hits you. Snakes in your room.
A swarm of ants invades your hut and covers the floor so you can't see it. (DO NOT MESS WITH ANTS)-this happened to a volunteer recently near my site.
Sad stuff like babies dying, people not being able to afford medicine or treating themselves with stuff that isn't medicine so they end up making themselves sicker. Girls who get pregnant and then drink poison (that their MOTHER gives them) to kill their babies so they can live without the stigma of loose woman but end up killing themselves.
Angry stuff like teachers refusing to teach or politicians not doing their jobs.
It all builds up and we need to cope so we integrate and then any of the above happen and remind us that there is a reality year- life sucks a lot.
Just another a day in Africa. There is no shortage of need for change.