After writing my last post half asleep and being about to go to sleep I felt like I needed to address one more thing that pretty much everyone that I talked to beforehand brought up- BUGS. More specifically, spiders.
Since I got here in winter and the string of warm days have been broken up by freezing cold days like today I haven't really encountered many insect issues. However, one of my first days here I was playing outside with the children at the Jardin and one of the kids shrieked and ran away from a really creepy looking spider (it had pinchers and was a bunch of different colors). I tried not to panic, since it was the first bug I had seen and didn't want to scare the kids. So I went and got the spanish-english dictionary that was my lifesaver for the first week and asked one of the tias if there were a lot of poisonous insects, especially spiders, in Chile. I was told yes, many, especially in the poorer areas like where I am volunteering. There is one especially poisonous one. So I bring her to where the spider was and she took a little step back at first, telling me that yes, it was the most poisonous spider and went to kill it immediately. goody! I truly had a few hours where I was considering never returning once summer really kicked into gear and there would be more spiders. Also, bees are going to be everywhere here. These are the important questions that I should have asked about beforehand- not housing and my placement and the other volunteers. As of this writing, I have only discovered one spider in my room- on my bed- one of the first nights here. It didn't look too dangerous, and I managed to kill it on a sheet which i then proceeded to take off and shove in a corner until the cleaning lady came and changed the sheets so that I am once again using spiderless sheets. But suffice to say, I look around my room with my freakishly good at spotting spiders/bugs eyes before going to sleep every night. I would like to point out though, that at this bug discovery I didn't immediately hop on a plane home- so HAH to all you doubters to my ability to live among terrifying bugs...
Since I got here in winter and the string of warm days have been broken up by freezing cold days like today I haven't really encountered many insect issues. However, one of my first days here I was playing outside with the children at the Jardin and one of the kids shrieked and ran away from a really creepy looking spider (it had pinchers and was a bunch of different colors). I tried not to panic, since it was the first bug I had seen and didn't want to scare the kids. So I went and got the spanish-english dictionary that was my lifesaver for the first week and asked one of the tias if there were a lot of poisonous insects, especially spiders, in Chile. I was told yes, many, especially in the poorer areas like where I am volunteering. There is one especially poisonous one. So I bring her to where the spider was and she took a little step back at first, telling me that yes, it was the most poisonous spider and went to kill it immediately. goody! I truly had a few hours where I was considering never returning once summer really kicked into gear and there would be more spiders. Also, bees are going to be everywhere here. These are the important questions that I should have asked about beforehand- not housing and my placement and the other volunteers. As of this writing, I have only discovered one spider in my room- on my bed- one of the first nights here. It didn't look too dangerous, and I managed to kill it on a sheet which i then proceeded to take off and shove in a corner until the cleaning lady came and changed the sheets so that I am once again using spiderless sheets. But suffice to say, I look around my room with my freakishly good at spotting spiders/bugs eyes before going to sleep every night. I would like to point out though, that at this bug discovery I didn't immediately hop on a plane home- so HAH to all you doubters to my ability to live among terrifying bugs...
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