The gecko.

Let me tell you a little story involving three girls from America, a gecko, and a small bathroom.

We're in East London, helping with a VBS.  Diana, Neysia, and I are staying with the du Preez family (two parents, five children) - we're living out in a flat that's separated from the house.  It has a small bathroom, a toilet and sink separated by a partition that folds up accordion-style.  Neysia went in to use the toilet, and I was sitting on the couch that's about four feet from there.  She came out and said, "There's a lizard in there."

I'm pretty sure I said, "No way!"  And when I went to look, sure enough.  A lizard (more specifically, a gecko) on the ceiling.  

I only know that it was a gecko because the boys had caught one at the church building the day before (it had also been on the ceiling).  Gill (pronounced like Jill, she's our host mom) told us that they bite humans when you make them mad.  I already don't have strong affections for creepy crawly things, and that information just made me like the gecko even less.

I thought Diana would be much braver than I was feeling at the moment, so I asked her to come see if she could catch it while Neysia and I stood on the couches.  She got a hanger and a big piece of construction paper that one of the kids had painted on at school (a cow and flowers, I think) and tried to scoot it back out of the open window it came from.

But alas, no luck.  At one point it ran quickly and Diana started screaming, so Neysia and I did too.  We called up to the house to ask Gill to send one of the boys down (ages 10 and 8, I think), but she wouldn't for some reason.  But Chantelle (the oldest daughter, age 20) heard us screaming and came to save us.

When we told her there was a gecko in the bathroom, she just rolled her eyes and smiled.  Apparently there are a lot of geckos here.  Anyway, she also tried to usher it out of the open window - but 10 minutes later, it went into the light fixture and up into the ceiling, never to be heard from again.

That doesn't mean that we weren't hesitant to use the bathroom last night though!

Thought you would enjoy that.  I'll get you pictures of the gecko later.

And more info about East London and the VBS coming up soon!