Things I'm grateful for: Spiders can't jump

Or fly for that matter.

I think this is why cockroaches are so damn scary, at any moment they could fly right at you. On the other hand, this spider on my wall next to my desk poses little threat. It does keep moving around in circles, odd I know, but it won't jump at me... this makes it much less scary.

I am also grateful for geckos, lizards etc. They eat spiders. I love that. Actually that might be a bit of an overstatement. I recently SAW one eating a spider, yeah, not AS pleasant as it sounds. Still, I am not opposed to the one that lives in our shower (who has yet to be named), because in theory, he will eat the massive spider I saw the other day. Of course in reality, I am fairly certain spider was twice the size of the gecko, so perhaps he won't be the spider-eating machine I want him to be. It's okay, he's kind of cute, so he can stay.

My friend Stu has informed me that I wouldn't last for a second in Indonesia (where he is currently teaching/pretending to be a rock star) as his girlfriend's home has a variety of my least favourite creatures. Just when I was beginning to feel rather proud of myself for adapting, or, well trying to adapt.

I have begun to get rather overwhelmed by the amount of fumes I am exposed to on a daily basis here... mosquito spray, Lindsay's hardcore - for use by veterinarians only - flea spray (we have turned this into our multi-purpose bug killing spray), cigarette smoke, and exhuast. I think we take for granted how clean cities are in the 'developed world' (for lack of a better term). I am still amused when people say: "Toronto, what a CLEAN city!" I mean Edmonton is clean, but Toronto...? I guess it is all relative right? I could maybe learn to deal with the massive amounts of garbage everywhere, although after it rains, it is pretty gross, but the fumes are starting to get to me. My eyes are ALWAYS bright red, and the air is just so thick. I recently heard from my friend Andrea who is traveling in India. She just arrived in Delhi, and her description of the city sounded exactly like Accra, granted on a smaller scale... [not that Accra is small by any means, but DELHI, yeah, you just can't compete]

In other news, I made friends with a cab driver this morning. He told me I looked 18. I guess certain things are universal, ahaha... laugh it up folks. He drove me through this part of Accra I'd never seen before, called New Town. It is Muslim and looks exactly the same as any other part of Accra. The only reason I clued in (before he said something), was because names of shops had references to Islam instead of Christianity. I'll have to post some pictures of this to give you a better idea of what I am talking about, but briefly, shops tend to have a religious reference - pretty much ALL shops. They include things like: "God is Great," "God's Will Beauty Shop," etc, etc.

Today is of course Thursday, and after several weeks of coming close to dead last in the quiz, we are determined to change things up. I personally am beginning to lose momentum, which is entirely understandable as last week's questions were plain ridiculous. I think perhaps aiming for the top ten is a reasonable goal...

I don't have much else to report. Saturday is a big day because I am getting my hair done in corn rows... could go either way though, so I am crossing my fingers.

With that I think I will sign off. Have an enjoyable Thursday wherever you are in the world!