Africa is scary!

I have been have grumbling since I first got here that there weren't any animals around like you see on the Discovery Channel. No Lions, Tigers, or ... ok, i won't say bears, cause there aren't any...actually aren't tigers in Asia? Anyways, no cool stuff like Lions! There are your typical animals in the national parks, but in most of the land there are nothing but domestic animals and a few monkeys (which I've only seen once when i first got to Uganda). Then things livened up a little when I saw a cobra, that's right, a COBRA! at the pool. Fortunately it wasn't actually in the pool but was hiding behind a fridge in an outdoor kitchen. I got to see it (from a safe distance) come out from behind the fridge and strike at the nearest worker. Luckily it didn't get him and he rewarded the cobra by jamming a metal rod in it's back. Ok, scary snake sighting number 1... Luckily (knock on wood), no scary spiders yet... Me and spiders do NOT get along...

Ok, the cobra incident was a few weeks ago and I didn't have my second scary animal episode till yesterday. So i was laying around my house reading because I didn't have any work that day and my supervisor didn't contact me. Plus I was just tired. I had my back door open because it was a beautiful day (80ish, sunny, cool breeze...in november!). I absentmindedly walked out back to check on my solar charger. As i stepped through the open door, I was suprised by movement just to the right of me. I looked over and running away (cause it was scared of me naturally :) ), was what I swore was a crocodile! I silently screamed many curse words in my head as I jumped back with my eyes super wide and suprised. On second glance, I realized it was just a HUGE lizard. Had to be about 3-4 feet long. Scared the #$*@ out of me and put me on edge for the rest of the day. I had noticed a big hole in my yard earlier and just assumed that it belonged to some sort of hedgehog type animal I saw once. Now I'm going to stay FAR away from that hole! I wish I could have gotten a picture of this lizard cause it was seriously big. Now I'm convinced that that lizard is conspiring with the geckos in my house to take over in a coup! ... ok, it's easy for your imagination to run a little wild out in the village... I'll let you know when I wake up to a Cheetah in my bed! :)