Dangerous African Wildlife

1. Ducks- There is a really mean duck that lives at my house. He is gigantic and always fluffs up his feathers when he sees me. He can tell I’m afraid of him because he won’t run away when I shoe him. Most of the time it’s not too bad, but the other day I was outside alone and he was coming at me so I hit him with a big stick the family uses to shoe them. Normally he would run away, but instead he chased me all over the yard. Anytime I tried to hit him he would fly up in the air at me. I ended up hiding behind benches and trees until I was able to sprint inside, but it was really scary and I thought for a second that I was going to die by duck. Now he knows he’s the dominant one in our relationship and waddles at me all the time. I’m scared to go outside alone.

2. Ants- African ants are deadly. I thought I hated ants at home, but I really hate the ants here. They come in all sizes, but the worst are the giant ones. Some are almost an inch long. Those are the ones that sting and bite, which is actually really painful. They are also really hard to kill. They’re fast and run in a zigzag, then don’t die when you step on them. When I got to my homestay there were a whole bunch of baby ducks, but now there is only one. I didn’t know what happened to them but I found out that these ants swarm the ducklings while they’re sleeping and sting them to death then eat them. My host family said they could kill a human if the person didn’t move. Seriously? I miss the vegetarian ants.

3. Mosquitos and Moutmouts- My ankles and feet are torn up right now. I’ve got a lot of bug bites and they itch soo badly. Somehow they even get you when you wear pants. Moutmouts are these really tiny bugs that bite you and leave a flat red circle (usually arms) or a small bleeding prick (legs) on you. They don’t really itch though but they transfer filaria, so probably have that by now. The good news is that filaria doesn’t really do anything to you until 40 years later when you go blind, but I’ll be treated for it in about 2 years so I’ll be fine.