After I removed the third toad from a place where it didn't belong last week, I thought it was time to write something about the animals here at Shanti Bhavan.
Starting with toads: they usually lurk around in the high grass and especially when it's raining and at night you can see them jumping around or just sitting in the middle of a path. Two volunteers I know have already stepped on one, one of them barefoot....
That's one of the reasons I always use a flashlight at night! My most memorable experiences with toads are as follows:
One time, when I was teaching the 4th grade, I saw a movement on the floor to the right. When I looked closer, I saw half a toad, the rest of it disappearing under the foot of a shelf. At first I thought the toad's head was crushed by it and it was still moving (creepy, right?) but them I found the small hole in the foot where the toad got stuck. It did a pretty good job in getting stuck, because when I pulled gingerly, I was not able to free it. Therefore I got some of the 4th grade boys to help me lift the shelf and - the toad was freed. There was already enough commotion when the toad was still stuck so I just picked up the confused toad in my hand and dashed with it towards the exit while it was struggling in my hand. There I put her on a nice piece of grass and went back to my class where everybody was staring at me ;) Same thing happened last week, only in a different classroom. How do these things always get in there??
The other time I encountered a toad in an odd place was even more confusing for me. I got up early one Sunday morning, getting ready to catch a bus to Bangalore. While I was standing in front of the mirror shaving, I heard a splashing noise in the toilet behind me. Taking a closer look, I saw a toad swimming in the small pond in the toilet! I mean, how did it get there? It must have swum all the way through the pipes. Although I was not exactly thrilled to carry a wet toad outside early in the morning, I tried to grab it when it suddenly tried to jump out of the toilet. However, a few moments later I was walking out of my room with the dazed toad in my hand, bumping into one of the Indian teachers, Ms Helen, who got pretty scared :D
Again I put the toad somewhere in the grass in front of the teacher's quarters, hoping the snakes wouldn't get it immediately. Snakes? Yes, snakes!
In the book that the founder of Shanti Bhavan wrote, he describes the place as "once being a snake and scorpion-infested piece of land, somewhere in Tamil Nadu". This has changed, of course, with the guards killing every snake and scorpion they can find which I can even understand - given that most of the species here can kill you in less than half an hour if you don't get antitoxin immediately. For some reason I haven't seen any scorpions during my time here, the kids tell me that they are mostly really small and they don't come that close to the school building. The smaller boys sometimes walk around in the nature (high grass, trees and bushes) surrounding the school, looking for everything that's dangerous and exciting - it' just what boys do at that age :). I went with them on one of these trips once, but except for some giant spiders we didn't find anything.
I had, however two encounters with snakes so far. The first time I was taking a shower, when I heard a hissing sound right above me. My bathroom has one window at around the height of my eyes and there is no glass or anything that closes it really - just a mesh to keep out the mosquitoes at night. Looking up I saw an impressive snake crawling along the window sill and I was kind of reminded of a visit to the zoo. Except that this was the real deal, there was only a mesh between me and the snake (with a small tear at the bottom, luckily too small for the snake) and I was standing in the shower completely naked....I was staring transfixed at the snake until it was gone.
The second time is not as exciting, just a snake crossing my path as I was walking back to the room. Have I already mentioned how weird it looks when snakes move on an even surface? They are surprisingly fast, too! (That's the reason I couldn't take a picture) Even though they probably leave you alone if you don't do anything, I felt a bit uncomfortable in my flip flops...
With a few words about lizards we will have all of the reptiles covered ;)
Lizards run around outside (they are greenish-brown, like the ones in Germany) and in my room and the school building (these look really funny, sort of a pinkish-white color and when they're small you can see through their skin!). Actually, the are kind of cute :)
The only strange thing about them is the noises they make...they can be really loud and sound like some birds! Makes you jump in your seat when you are in the schoolbuilding at night and suddenly there is this noise right behind you...
Indians don't seem to like them that much, I was walking to the teacher's quarters with Ms Nirmala and when we entered the building there was a lizard walking on the ceiling. Ms Nirmala stepped aside and warned me that it will mean bad luck if it falls on my head - good to know, right?
Apart from that there are tons of insects that the toads and lizards are happy to eat. They are mostly the same as in Germany with a few exceptions that are so big that they look like mutants. If you don't believe me, look at the picture of the millipede I took in Hampi - we have these at the school, too. Also there are way to many mosquitoes if you ask me, they are really aggressive and will bite you even through your trousers and shirt.
We have lots of birds, there are really interesting and beautiful ones among them. Really annoying are the crows, first of all they are really loud and can make it difficult to fall asleep sometimes. On top of that they enter the dining hall at breakfast and lunch and try to snatch away food - they are quite cheeky! The sparrows are much cuter, they jump around on the ground picking up crumbs :)
Let's see, what else do we have? Oh, squirrels! They are really small, grey, cute and run up and down the palm trees all the time. You can't get a picture, they are just too fast...
Have I mentioned Chelsea, Chester and Buddy before? They are the guard dogs, at least Chelsea and Chester. Buddy is a pug that is not very intelligent and does all the funny things pugs do. Some kids love him, the little ones are scared of him because he barks a lot.
Chelsea and Chester are two Dobermans that the guards patrol with at night. As Dr. George told me when he was at the school, they are supposed to be "very ferocious" but with all the kids petting them they are just like normal dogs around people they know. It's a good thing they know me, because I usually am the last person in the school building at night and at 11 o' clock, the guards will unleash them to run around the school building and check if there are people that shouldn't be there. I got scared quite a few times when the power was out and I suddenly felt a dog snout coming out of nowhere ;) What really surprised me is that these dogs actually eat rice and vegetables! (picture below)
Stray dogs are found all around India, tons of them in the big cities, and we also have a few of them on campus. They are usually no problem as they will just go their way. We had an issue with one aggressive dog some two months ago who attacked Ally and so all of the volunteers walked around with baseball bats for a while at night.
Shortly after I arrived (which means a long time ago) one of the dogs got puppies, which the kids of course found and played with (see pictures below).
I think that's it for the animals here, I put together all the pictures I could find, hope you like them :)
Starting with toads: they usually lurk around in the high grass and especially when it's raining and at night you can see them jumping around or just sitting in the middle of a path. Two volunteers I know have already stepped on one, one of them barefoot....
That's one of the reasons I always use a flashlight at night! My most memorable experiences with toads are as follows:
One time, when I was teaching the 4th grade, I saw a movement on the floor to the right. When I looked closer, I saw half a toad, the rest of it disappearing under the foot of a shelf. At first I thought the toad's head was crushed by it and it was still moving (creepy, right?) but them I found the small hole in the foot where the toad got stuck. It did a pretty good job in getting stuck, because when I pulled gingerly, I was not able to free it. Therefore I got some of the 4th grade boys to help me lift the shelf and - the toad was freed. There was already enough commotion when the toad was still stuck so I just picked up the confused toad in my hand and dashed with it towards the exit while it was struggling in my hand. There I put her on a nice piece of grass and went back to my class where everybody was staring at me ;) Same thing happened last week, only in a different classroom. How do these things always get in there??
The other time I encountered a toad in an odd place was even more confusing for me. I got up early one Sunday morning, getting ready to catch a bus to Bangalore. While I was standing in front of the mirror shaving, I heard a splashing noise in the toilet behind me. Taking a closer look, I saw a toad swimming in the small pond in the toilet! I mean, how did it get there? It must have swum all the way through the pipes. Although I was not exactly thrilled to carry a wet toad outside early in the morning, I tried to grab it when it suddenly tried to jump out of the toilet. However, a few moments later I was walking out of my room with the dazed toad in my hand, bumping into one of the Indian teachers, Ms Helen, who got pretty scared :D
Again I put the toad somewhere in the grass in front of the teacher's quarters, hoping the snakes wouldn't get it immediately. Snakes? Yes, snakes!
In the book that the founder of Shanti Bhavan wrote, he describes the place as "once being a snake and scorpion-infested piece of land, somewhere in Tamil Nadu". This has changed, of course, with the guards killing every snake and scorpion they can find which I can even understand - given that most of the species here can kill you in less than half an hour if you don't get antitoxin immediately. For some reason I haven't seen any scorpions during my time here, the kids tell me that they are mostly really small and they don't come that close to the school building. The smaller boys sometimes walk around in the nature (high grass, trees and bushes) surrounding the school, looking for everything that's dangerous and exciting - it' just what boys do at that age :). I went with them on one of these trips once, but except for some giant spiders we didn't find anything.
I had, however two encounters with snakes so far. The first time I was taking a shower, when I heard a hissing sound right above me. My bathroom has one window at around the height of my eyes and there is no glass or anything that closes it really - just a mesh to keep out the mosquitoes at night. Looking up I saw an impressive snake crawling along the window sill and I was kind of reminded of a visit to the zoo. Except that this was the real deal, there was only a mesh between me and the snake (with a small tear at the bottom, luckily too small for the snake) and I was standing in the shower completely naked....I was staring transfixed at the snake until it was gone.
The second time is not as exciting, just a snake crossing my path as I was walking back to the room. Have I already mentioned how weird it looks when snakes move on an even surface? They are surprisingly fast, too! (That's the reason I couldn't take a picture) Even though they probably leave you alone if you don't do anything, I felt a bit uncomfortable in my flip flops...
With a few words about lizards we will have all of the reptiles covered ;)
Lizards run around outside (they are greenish-brown, like the ones in Germany) and in my room and the school building (these look really funny, sort of a pinkish-white color and when they're small you can see through their skin!). Actually, the are kind of cute :)
The only strange thing about them is the noises they make...they can be really loud and sound like some birds! Makes you jump in your seat when you are in the schoolbuilding at night and suddenly there is this noise right behind you...
Indians don't seem to like them that much, I was walking to the teacher's quarters with Ms Nirmala and when we entered the building there was a lizard walking on the ceiling. Ms Nirmala stepped aside and warned me that it will mean bad luck if it falls on my head - good to know, right?
Apart from that there are tons of insects that the toads and lizards are happy to eat. They are mostly the same as in Germany with a few exceptions that are so big that they look like mutants. If you don't believe me, look at the picture of the millipede I took in Hampi - we have these at the school, too. Also there are way to many mosquitoes if you ask me, they are really aggressive and will bite you even through your trousers and shirt.
We have lots of birds, there are really interesting and beautiful ones among them. Really annoying are the crows, first of all they are really loud and can make it difficult to fall asleep sometimes. On top of that they enter the dining hall at breakfast and lunch and try to snatch away food - they are quite cheeky! The sparrows are much cuter, they jump around on the ground picking up crumbs :)
Let's see, what else do we have? Oh, squirrels! They are really small, grey, cute and run up and down the palm trees all the time. You can't get a picture, they are just too fast...
Have I mentioned Chelsea, Chester and Buddy before? They are the guard dogs, at least Chelsea and Chester. Buddy is a pug that is not very intelligent and does all the funny things pugs do. Some kids love him, the little ones are scared of him because he barks a lot.
Chelsea and Chester are two Dobermans that the guards patrol with at night. As Dr. George told me when he was at the school, they are supposed to be "very ferocious" but with all the kids petting them they are just like normal dogs around people they know. It's a good thing they know me, because I usually am the last person in the school building at night and at 11 o' clock, the guards will unleash them to run around the school building and check if there are people that shouldn't be there. I got scared quite a few times when the power was out and I suddenly felt a dog snout coming out of nowhere ;) What really surprised me is that these dogs actually eat rice and vegetables! (picture below)
Stray dogs are found all around India, tons of them in the big cities, and we also have a few of them on campus. They are usually no problem as they will just go their way. We had an issue with one aggressive dog some two months ago who attacked Ally and so all of the volunteers walked around with baseball bats for a while at night.
Shortly after I arrived (which means a long time ago) one of the dogs got puppies, which the kids of course found and played with (see pictures below).
I think that's it for the animals here, I put together all the pictures I could find, hope you like them :)
As I said, they appear in the strangest places...
That's the one in my toilet :D
Some sort of gecko
A chameleon!
The only picture of a lizard I got....
Yes, that thing over my bed is a spider...and the shining thing are its eyes...
Why not take a closer look?
This grasshopper is way to big!
About to steal some food....
This little guy got something already
Chelsea, one of the guard dogs
Chester eating rice :)
Puppies!
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