The Rest of the Safari Story...

The "other" story, behind the majesty of all we experienced out in the wild, we also experienced quite a surprise when we returned from our evening game drive that first night. After eating a truly scrumptious meal, the girls went to their dormitory for a nice night's sleep. In the distance, Patti and I heard squealing and screaming. We quickly learned that the entire dormitory was full of spiders -- in the beds, on the pillows, on the walls. They weren't small, either. The spiders were yellow and furry with white "rings" on the legs. THe workers told us they were harmless and to view them as "friends." Needless to say, the girls weren't interested in making new friends that night! We sprayed enough Deet to kill a whole village of spiders and killed the ones we could get to with our feet. Once we felt certain we had gotten them all, Patti and I literally tucked the girls into their beds, one by one, with the mosquito nets, which we sprayed with one more coat of Deet to be safe. As we were leaving them, one girl discovered a spider on her pillow and she was out of there! Patti stayed in the dorm with the rest of the girls, and I shared the tent with my student. The second day, the camp managers had the dorm fumigated, which seemed to work. So, lots of "spider drama" on night one, which I told the girls we'll laugh about for years to come! The student who stayed in our tent for two nights said something that I thought summed up the entire thing, "I like nature; I just don't want it to touch me!"