Backyard Creatures & Liberian Thanksgiving

African Emperor Scorpion...evidently it's venom is considered mild

I just check the last time I had uploaded a blog about Liberia and its been more than a year. I could list down a few reasons for that but probably the most important could be a lack of inspiration. The last couple days have been fairly interesting so I get back to blogging more about Liberia which I intend to do more.

Its November now and the rains have finally subsided which were the heaviest since I arrived in the country. According to our estates statisticians they are one of the heaviest in a long time and we are not completely out of it yet since there are sporadic showers in the evenings and nights but for all accounts were are moving from the rainy to the dry seasons. Incidentally, Liberia only has two seasons being so close to the equator…the rainy season which lasts for about 5 months and the dry season for the remaining 7 months.

I make no bone about the fact that I love rain…perhaps it reminds me of my hometown but more on that on a later blog. With the rains now subsiding, it meant that I can start playing futbol again. It’s been tough to get a good cardio workout for the past few months since the rains started. The kids that I usually play with left for their summer school vacation; it’s funny that their vacations fall during the rainy season yet they call it summer but it’s probably just another example of cultural ‘inspirations’ from America.

Me holding the Potto

When the kids got back from their summer (lets just stick to that for simplicity) vacation, it were the months of the heaviest rainfall so they stayed away from the field although that’s precisely the time I love playing the game. I can understand their hesitancy to play in the rains considering the fact that it’s a real challenge for them to clean up after a mud-soaked slog on the field in contrast to me having a hot shower and washing machine and a drier for the clothes.

Amazingly adapted to living in the trees

It's back was firmly ridged which it evidently uses as a defense mechanism

The grip of the Potto

This week they finally started playing again and it was a relief since jogging is a poor alternative and can get onerous. A couple days ago as I walked back from the field, it was around 7pm and dusk had just settled as I saw a black shadow moving right beside my foot. It took a couple seconds to register in my brain that the shadow was actually a black scorpion.

Albert showing off the Softly-Softly

I ran back to my house, loaded my camera and back again to get a few pictures of my first encounter with a scorpion. Scorpions do exist in India (and the US where I lived for 7 years) but I have never seen one so it was nice to see one in Africa. While I ran to get my camera the security guard around made sure it did not disappear into the bush and this agitated the scorpion which was in its striking position. A few snaps and I made sure that we pushed it away from the road into the bush without harming it. I hope it remembers me if I happen to unknowingly step on it in the future.

Noticing my keen interest in photographing creatures, my security guard asked me if I wanted to see something. I asked him what it was and he said he caught a “Softly-Softly” the previous night and described it as an animal like a monkey. My first reaction was that it was a Bushbaby. He went back to the guardroom and pulled a small plastic bag and drew out a small little creature that I had never seen before. Unfortunately, it was lifeless seemingly a result of a fatal blow to its head. Albert, the security guard was gleaming as he informed that he caught it from the tree yards from my house and was looking forward to a feast the next day.

Another backyard creature...smaller than a dime or a new Rs 5 coin

Sadly it’s become an occurrence that’s too frequent and I wonder if this bush meat concept is desensitizing me. I held the animal in my hand and it was a real pity since it’s such a beautiful creature with amazing features adapted to its nocturnal lifestyle. A quick search on the internet suggests this creature to be a “Potto” and ranges all throughout tropical Africa.

Albert had a very interesting narration of its grip. He reckoned that the grip of this creature is so strong that once it holds on to anything it wont let go. He even suggested that if it happens to mistakenly hold a limb of a monkey and does not voluntarily let go this could easily kill the monkey. This story was repeated by Abu, my driver the next day. Seems like a folktale to me but the point was well taken that it does indeed have a very good grip.

Night seems to be when the animals step out around my yard since the security guard also mentioned of seeing a civet which they call raccoon (American influence again?).

Can't forget about the mosquitoes from the yard. That's the
swelling from a single bite

Talking of American influence I could not leave out the recent Liberian Thanksgiving holiday. Most would believe that this holiday is unique to America but it’s not true because Liberia has one too. The antiquity story suggests that after several battles between the settlers and the natives, they all agreed to peace and set aside a day for thanking God for what they had. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Liberian version also falls in November (first Thursday on November). Surely there is some American influence there.

The story I got from most Liberians at work was slightly different. For most, the day is now associated with going to the church for service and giving your best produce to the church as a gesture of thanksgiving. The produce is then auctioned off and the money generated is used to feed the needy.

For some others the day is just a holiday and a reason to rejoice just for that. That certainly was the case for me. I took the opportunity of this day off to go the beach with a few friends. The beach, called as Caesar was fairly routine, but the real attraction of the place was its beautiful lagoon.