A Few Days in The Bush

     It was wet. The rain came in waves. It bucketed down and rattled the roof, and everything felt slightly damp. Outside was soggy and a bit slimy here and there, and you had to dodge puddles and the mud.

     And I have to mention the wildlife. There were leeches that got on you, crawled up legs or attached to arms from bushes, and you didn't know they were there - the slimy, disgusting things - until you or someone else noticed the blood on you or your clothes. Blood stains on good shirts and pants.
    The locals took it all very calmly, grabbed them, pulled them off and rolled them into a ball to pitch back into the bush somewhere.
      "They're all right," they said. "Nothing to worry about."
       My skin still crawls at the  thought. And there are still itching lumps where they fed.
     Midges swarmed around my face and any exposed skin, and I flapped at them ineffectively. They wanted to bite too. Oh - for the Aerogard.

     There was a snake living in the roof. You could hear the slithering through the ceiling. No one seemed to mind. They never saw it - it was better than the rats, was all they said.

     The folk were lovely, and so pleased that we had come. It was nice to catch up with them all, and meet the new baby. So hospitable. It made me blush for my distaste of things rural.

     It was a different world.
     Made me glad I live in this one.