Bueller

Bueller?...Bueller?

The other night we had power and decided to take a break from African life and watch a DVD just to wind down a little bit. We have a cell phone here that we use to communicate with the rest of the staff and just other people we need to talk to around Mekelle, and some creeper just kept calling our number. Finally, after 15 minutes of phone calls, we decided just to turn off the phone. So, Mindy gets up and turns on a light and at the same time we both see this lizard run across our wall. It’s a gecko. Really? Africa has geckos? I thought they were only in tropical places, not at 8,000ft above sea level in the mountains of Ethiopia. But yes, we had a gecko in our house. The movie was paused and the next 30 minutes were dedicated to gecko wrangling.
Geckos are FAST. It basically ran along the wall and hid behind a desk in the corner of our living room. I’m not sure how the roles were decided, but Mindy grabbed the camera and started recording the action while I grabbed a plastic cup and set to using my cat-like reflexes to catch this gecko. I would get close and it would run away, so I’d just chase it along the wall and attempt its capture. After two tries I got close and ended up tearing its tail off (oops-don’t worry animal lovers…geckos tails grow back). After some coaxing, and after giving it the endearing name “Bueller”, I finally had it pinned to the wall under a cup. But how do you go from cup on wall to the floor? There is an awkward transition at the corner of the wall and floor where the gecko could escape, so there was no way we were going to give it that chance. Mindy, being the recent college grad, tapped into her fountain of knowledge and suggested the construction paper under the cup tactic. It was successful and we moved cup, paper, and gecko to the floor, then put a large heavy glass bowl over the top, just for good measure. It was then that our sympathetic nature kicked in and we felt bad leaving it under a plastic cup where it would clearly suffocate. Then came the next stage of planning how to remove the cup, and replace the bowl without letting the gecko escape. We decided to lift the bowl and swiftly knock the cup over. After a few deep breaths it was time for the attempt. Failure. We lift the bowl, knock over the cup, and Bueller was liberated from his plastic prison and on the move along the floor in our kitchen. Being the mature and cool-headed people we are…we let out two ridiculous screams, ran across the living room and jumped on top of two chairs. It was soon after we questioned the credentials of our guard, who did not come running.
So Bueller was on the move again-but lucky for us this time he was on the ground and attempting an escape under our door. After he got out, we followed him a few feet and placed a large glass bowl over him to foil any more attempts he was planning to enter our house. He lived in that glass bowl for 24 hours as we decided his fate. It was good timing that the next day was Joel’s 23rd birthday. Along with a delicious chocolate cake we made from scratch AND at high altitude, Joel received Bueller, with instructions that if he wanted to release him, it would have to be done far away from our compound.
No more gecko experiences as of yet, but if any of Bueller’s extended family decides to show up, they will be named and you will definitely be informed.