would you rather?

would you rather fly or have lightning speed? would you rather lose an arm or a leg? would you rather marry FDR or teddy roosevelt? would you rather get a job after college or spend two years living in a mud hut eating rice?

so the other night, this question came up to my family. it was night time and as usual i was sitting on a mat chilling with the bros when my sister binta starts screaming and runs out of the house. turns out there was a toad that hopped in after her and scared, she ran away. so now there is a toad in the house but no one will go near it. as it happens, everyone from my siblings to my host mother and aunts and uncles are afraid of toads and frogs. my tocaram asks me if i'm afraid-i say no, it's a toad. so i go into the house, pick up the toad and walk outside. i chase my brothers around for a bit until they start to wimper and then take the frog over to the livestock area and put it down. i come back over to the mat, wipe my hands clean and pronouce "there, it's over". the rest of the night all my host moms and aunt could tell me was how brave i was.

puzzled as to why exactly my family, and in fact a lot of pulaar villages that i know are afraid of toads i asked my family. everybody it seemed had their own reason, "their eyes are weird, don't look at them in the eye", "they only come out at night and make lots of noise", "they hop everywhere, they don't walk", "they pee on you". so all of that may be true, i said but they eat bugs like ants, termites and the stupid little ones that have no name but dive bomb into your eye at night because of your head lamp.

so, i asked would you rather? would you rather have a scorpion in your room or a toad. a resounding "scorpion" was the answer. this flabergasted me. "so let me get this straight, you'd rather have a scorpion-something that could give you excrutiating pain, that hides under things so you can't see them- than a garden toad?" "yea, banel you can kill a scorpion." apparently toads are immortal, something i have yet to tell the many toad corpses in and around my village. "okay, would you rather get stung by a scorpion or peed on by a toad?" "stung." "STUNG?!" "yea, toad pee is very bad." "you're crazy!" "no, banel. toads are very bad."

they may be bad, but my hut's been free of bugs for a month. plus, i'd get peed on everyday before i took a sting to the foot. that's my rather.

cheers and happy toad hunting!
jaime