Ants Part I

Uganda is home to more types of ants than I have ever seen before.  They can be found crawling on nearly every possible surface, indoor and outdoor... tiny ones, big ones, red ones, white ones, black ones, multi-colored ones, harmless ones, evil ones.

They are industrious and organized, strategic and completely undaunted by any effort to barricade or contain them.

I hate them.

One night, my guard woke me up, urgently calling from outside my bedroom window.  I stumbled outside in a confused haze and he alerted me to a column of fearsome ants which was marching up the wall of my house and pouring into my bathroom.  Some of them were safari ants.

Safari ants travel around in large groups.  It is best not to interfere with them, but just stay out of their way.  Legend has it that they can even consume a goat if it is tied up.

My first interaction with safari ants was in Naivasha, Kenya when we camped with Core Group.  The ants gave us no rest... all you need to do is stand in one spot for a few seconds and they skitter up your ankles.  They do not bite right away, but they take their time, get in position, and then seem to signal each other.  Then they all chomp down at once.  And it hurts a lot.

After further inspection, I found that some ants were in fact entering through my shower and circling the periphery of the bedroom.  But their little line made it as far as my cats litter box and then all the ants seemed to be turning around to go back where they came from.  I called everyone I knew, but nobody answered their phone.  What could I do, it was the middle of the night?  My guard had no advice.  The best I could do was shift my bedding and kitty into the guest room and try to go back to sleep.  It is not easy to sleep when you fear an ant invasion. Every itch becomes suspicious and it is hard to talk yourself out of the sensation that things are crawling all over you...

The ant attack never escalated beyond that.  A few of them bit my ankles and a few of them bit my kitty in between her toes.  But overall, we emerged triumphant. 

It was a regular occurrence to come across ant columns crossing foot paths like this.  You just have to leap over and hope for the best.  Yet, on a few occasions, they still found their way into my shoes, which led to some very ungraceful and frantic dancing on my part.

I hate them.