New Friends, I Think Not!

Today I was at a session with my fellow PCV's from the area having a link session with our technical advisor. He had organized the Department of Social Welfare office for us so we could have some air conditioning for this full day session.

The Philippines has many wonderful qualities like beautiful scenery, people dedicated to social justice, wonderful and caring locals with heaps of unique cuisine. It also has bugs, spiders and snakes.

There was a bathroom attached to the DSWD office but it was in two pieces. You walked into this small room (which had no light) with the door open, made a left and walked 3 small paces because it is so dark. The light switch was on the right. I didn't really look into that area because I wanted to close the door; I didn't want anyone hearing me pee. As I turned to walk into the actual bathroom I saw multiple large bugs scurry towards a dark area in bathroom and as I looked a smidge closer I realized they were cockroaches and some were at least 1 – 1 ½ inches in length. I got totally freaked out and started screaming and running towards the door to get out. I thought I needed to push the door out to exit the area but after slamming into the door twice with my body I realized I needed to pull it. I was out and my technical advisor and another male worker were coming towards me. Our little link session was in shock and they were still in their seats. I was almost in tears for 2 reasons: being a big baby and from the shock. Thank god we were on a break because then I got to walk around for a few minutes to relax. Then everyone started poking fun at me and had a big laugh. Jerwin (my tech advisor) was also freaked because he thought I was being attacked or something.

I really don't like cockroaches. I have seen lots of water cockroaches in Havasu but these were the ones from movies; big, thick, ugly and dirty. Just thinking about the situation makes my skin crawl. Every time I think of my freak out Men in Black comes to mind and Vincent D'Onfreo's character who is the bug man and I shiver. So it was really yucky and yes even I still freak out. I heard the other cluster got a discussion on the expectation of seeing cockroaches and how common they are in the Philippines and not to freak out like I did.