Thoughts from the village

I was going to entitle this entry, "A bat in the latrine, a snake in the house, and a scorpion in my room" but I thought that was a little long. So here I go, some assorted thoughts and conversations:

Me: "There seem to be bats inside the pit of the latrine."
Francis: laughter, "You don't need to worry about that."
Me: "But what if I'm going to the bathroom and the thing flies up and successfully comes out and hits me?"
Francis: more laughter "It cannot."
Me: "are you very sure?" thinking... I'm still going to have trouble squatting over this hole when i can hear the wings of some animal flapping around below me...I'm sure the thing may somehow get lucky and make it back out of the hole, and then there will be much screaming and running.

A few days later:
a thought as I used the pit latrine. "I just felt the wings of a bat as I was squatting. I'm outta here. What I'm trying to do isn't that important anyhow."
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Another conversation as we were busy plucking peanuts in the garden:
Robert: I smell snake
Me: Like a dead snake or a live snake? Please say dead one, please say dead one, please say dead one...
Robert: A live one.
Me: Crap. How do you know what it smells like?
Robert began rummaging around the ground (This guy is crazy, is he looking for the snake with his hand or what??) until he finally found the ants/termites that were also busy in the garden.
Robert: It's these ones which the snake eats and then makes that smell.
Me: Oh Ok. So what the heck are we still sitting here for? Shouldn't we move away from the "live snake smell"? And why are you laying the baby on the blanket just near the area and leaving her there as we move on to the other part of the garden? Maybe it's not a dangerous snake that smells. Maybe they only feast on insects and not human beings. I have a lot to learn.
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Francis: Oh yeah we killed a snake in your house while you were gone.
Me thinking: Oh, nice, thanks for letting me know. Oh what? It's not a dangerous one? Well that's reassuring?
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I went to my bedroom to get some thing. It was dark, I was using my flashlight. Curious to know whether a certain spider had shifted from where she had been earlier, I shined my light on the wall. Is that a gecko? Then it moved, and I looked closer.
Oh, that's a scorpion, at least it looks big so it's probably not deadly, but it's still a scorpion in my bedroom. I guess there's a first time for everything. "Francis! come here."
Francis: Oh, that's a scorpion. That thing can punish you. You need to be careful, if that thing bites you, you will feel serious pain up until this time tomorrow night. 24 hours.
He proceeds to grab a broom and tries to kill the thing and fails, but eventually gets it to the ground where it it killed with a hammer.
Me thinking: I'm sure i'll sleep well tonight. At least I have the mosquito net, and you better believe I'm going to tuck that thing in well tonight.
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I wanted to include other thoughts and conversations that didn't involve creepy and crawling things, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.
I normally don't like reporting these types of things, because, let's be honest I would like visitors to keep coming, and I don't want to scare them away, but there just happened to be so many incidences in one week that I couldn't keep quiet about it.
I still love the village and I'm still planning to stay there until God calls me somewhere else.
I thank God for the constant protection He grants me, and the way He is caring for me and removing fears from me. He's a good Father.