Tales from the Bush: Part 1 - Dinner and a Murder

I'd been in my village only a handful of days when I had my first evening visitor. Typically you don't receive guests after dark in Zambia, but this guy didn't care about cultural customs. Unfortunately this got him killed.

When night falls I become much more wary and paranoid while at my house. This is a result of the possibility of meeting some of my more testy and unpleasant neighbors under the cover of darkness such as a variety of venomous snakes, camel spiders, feral dogs, etc.

So, as I was cooking dinner on one of my first nights in the village, I heard a chewing sound coming from the floor of my cikuta. The noise continued until a small hole began to appear. Neither the cat nor dog were disturbed by this. I, on the other hand, was.
Inching my way closer to the slowly expanding hole, I shined my flashlight into. Immediately I saw a round eye with a small, black pupil. Of course I thought snake since one of my biggest worries about living in the African bush is encountering one of these reptilian neighbors at night in my yard.

When under this assumption what is the first thing any sane person does? Well, my first reaction was to sprint to my house, grab a long stick, Leatherman, and some string and begin making a makeshift spear.

I marched outside, ready to face my "guest." I stretched out my arms, gripping the spear, and jabbed tentatively into the hole. After the first strike, the blade at the end of the stick came loose, wiggling back and forth, no longer firmly attached. A few more pokes and misses with the spear and I decided to be brave. Unlashing the Leatherman, I crept towards the hole. Making a last, mighty attack, Stabbing one more time, I began widening the hole to confront whatever creature awaited.

I spied my nemesis. Using the tip of the knife, I scooped my mangled guest from the hole. I had just defended myself, to the death, against a dung beetle. Feeling silly and a little sad, I gently laid out the beast that had caused me so much worry that evening. Now, instead of allowing my preconceived notions if Africa - that danger and vipers and warlords are lurking in every dark evening - I now patiently wait to determine what might be making that sound and even help those little dung beetles chewing through my floor to emerge.