I've always loved animals. Some I like more than others, such as horses and dogs. The others, well. Insects are not my favorite animals, but as long as they don't try to get in bed with me or share any sort of personal space, I'm not terribly bothered by their existence. Slippery and/or legless things can consider themselves included in the latter group.
Here in Morogoro, on campus, I am surrounded by life. Not exactly National Geographic Serengeti quality, but they are here, whether I like them or not. I was rather displeased to find a centipede in my shower the other morning. I spotted him during my morning safety check (there are no snakes around the campus area, but that doesn't mean I'm letting my guard down), uttered a sound somewhere in the vicinity of “uck,” and left to find the hostel steward who casually flicked the centipede out of the shower and said, “No problem!” before leaving me in peace. No problem, huh.
Two days ago a big, black millipede wiggled across the road while I was on my way to school. I don't know much about our hundred or thousand-legged friends, but I do know a few of them are dangerous. I respectfully gave way to the millipede, just as I had refused to touch his wormier-looking cousin. Ants form streams of shining black across paths and roads, slithering parades that should be observed and then stepped over with a quickness. Butterflies rest and fan their wings gently on rocks and asphalt alike. Grasshoppers are also unwanted bathroom friends, tiny fruit flies and mosquitoes buzz around at night looking for different types of prey on which to feed. I count myself among the lucky few who are generally unappetizing to both. Small geckos and lizards dart up walls and tree trunks.
During the evenings the crickets and cicadas sing. Combined with roosters, hens, ducks, wild birds, yowling skinny cats and the nightly chorus sent up by the campus's dog population this can all add up to quite the racket at bed time. Speaking of ducks, on my walk home from the office yesterday a tiny yellow duckling waddled across the open-air hallway I was threading my way through, looking lost yet determined. I hope he's found his way to safety, it's a jungle out there.
Larger animal life, personal property and veterinary science subjects alike, populate the fields. When the soccer pitch isn't being used by students one can find goats grazing and keeping the pitch groomed. Donkeys search for short grass wherever it may be found, disdaining the tall elephant grass for the finer stuff located around the dormitories. On my first day here I was finding my way back to the visitor's hostel from the student cantinas, turned a corner around a dormitory, and found myself among four fat fellows grazing among the yards.
The veterinary science facility owns six horses; all of whom I've counted, identified, nearly assigned my own names to, and look out for each morning. I nearly fell over on Monday when I witnessed turnout. Unlike the farm where I lived and worked for a year, instead of taking the horses out one by one and placing them into carefully assigned paddocks, the keepers open the gates to the Vet compound and let the horses out. Onto the road. Where they have free rein (pun intended) to find their own grazing, just like the donkeys. One stallion and broodmare like to graze by old hay barns next to our office building. She's old and looks to be pregnant again, white hairs and a bit of rain rot ruffling her bay coat. Her filly frequently lays down and suns herself along the red mud driveway. This morning on my way to tea break, the grey stallion (a rather appropriate color sometimes called flea-bitten) let me approach him to pat and scratch his face. Even though he lacks muscle found through steady training and can use a bit more careful care on his coat, he looks well-enough fed and contented. Just petting a horse can make my day a good one.
It seems all these creatures know when my borrowed camera is out and at the ready, for they only appear when it is stowed in my bag. I have two and a half weeks left on campus, and hopefully I will be able to take pictures to share of several of the critters here, especially my horses.
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