A little over a week ago I was woken from my deep Benadryl induced sleep to the sound of something bouncing between my walls. I opened my eyes and watched as a bat flew into my curtain and then continued to watch as he climbed to the top of the curtain to hang. At first I was intrigued. This wasn’t the first time I have seen a bat in Costa Rica. When I came here on a school trip my senior year of high school, I actually fed a baby bat with a bottle. I found bats to be interesting animals, and I wasn’t frightened at all by this bat who had seemed to make himself at home in my bedroom. That all quickly changed. I don’t know if was the white of my eyes watching him, but something attracted him, causing him to fly directly at my face. I panicked and ducked under my covers. Not cool bat, not cool at all. In that moment, bats when from being an animal that I found interesting and cool to being an animal that I despised. He had invaded my personal space, and I was not happy about it. I stayed under my blankets until I felt as though I was running out of oxygen. I quickly emerged from the blanket and reached up to turn the light on. I heard the bat fly back up into the roof. It was three in the morning and I proceeded to sleep the rest of the night with the light on.
I was surprised when I woke up that morning and my host family hadn’t realized that I had the light on in my room. The three bedrooms in my house are all aligned in a row on the left side of the house. None of our bedrooms have ceilings so when one room has a light on it flows into the other room. However, I hadn’t bothered anyone with my light. While eating breakfast, I tried to explain to my host mom that a bat had flown into my face. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the word for bat so I was explaining how it was fury with wings, but not a moth because it has big ears. That was all the explaining I could do before I had to leave for school.
Later that afternoon I came home to an empty house. My host brother, Francel, was staying at his grandmother’s for the night and my host mom, Zeneida, was in Turrialba and would be getting a ride home with my host father, Alejo, in the sugar cane truck late that night. I knew they wouldn’t be home till at least 10. I sat in my room and heard things fluttering about in the roof. I was sure it was the bat. I began to research bats on the internet, and didn’t like what I found. Through this research, I learned that a sleeping human might not wake up to a bite from a vampire bat because their teeth are so small. I just imagined myself sleeping, while bats feasted on my blood. I spoke to a friend at home in the States who informed me that her family had a bat in their house the week before and the man who came to kill it told her family to all go get rabies shots. In this moment, I forgot that rabies doesn’t exist in Costa Rica. The last case of rabies was over 60 years ago, I believe. I had also learned in my research that bats could spread rabies just by being in the same room. There doesn’t have to be any physical contact. Through all my internet research and chatting I had convinced myself that I was sleeping in a room that rabid bats like to use as a playground at night. I picked up my blankets and pillows and made a nice little bed for myself on the couch in the living room, which is the one room in the house that does have a ceiling.
When Zeneida and Alejo came home they were startled to find me sleeping on the couch. I explained to them about my bat incident the night before. By now, I had looked up the word for bat so there would be no confusion about what I was trying to describe. Zeneida shook her head and said; “I don’t think there is a bat in there. It was probably a moth.” I tried to explain that I had seen it climb and fly at my face and I was positive it was a bat. Alejo got a ladder and looked up into the roof, he sprayed bug spray, and promised me he saw no signs of a bat. He said he thought that maybe some white-bellied birds had made a nest in the roof and that was probably the sound I was hearing. I wasn’t completely convinced but I carried my blankets back into my room and slept in my bed.
I had almost forgotten about the events that took place over a week ago. That is, until last night. Last night we had a huge thunderstorm that knocked out the power. I was sitting in bed, reading with my head lamp when all of the sudden something swooshed down from the roof, into my face, and then onto the curtain that serves as my closet door. I screamed. It was 8 o’clock so everyone was in bed. My scream got them out of bed. I kept my flashlight on the bat and when my host family opened my door I exclaimed, “I told you so!” They all laughed and Alejo grabbed a piece of wood and beat the bat to death and carried it out of the house. Alejo got the ladder and looked up in the roof. He said he didn’t see anymore. At this point I was too worked up to sleep. My heart was pounding after experiencing, for a second time, a bat flying into my face. Francel, stated that he would be sleeping in his parents room and I told my host sister, Carol, that I would be sleeping in Francel’s bed in their room. Carol and I were lying in bed talking about how scary bats were when we suddenly heard something hit the wall that separates my bedroom from hers. Carol sat up and asked me if I heard it too. I said yes and we grabbed our flashlights and went to check to see what was making the noise in my bedroom. Carol opened the door and just as she did another bat came swooshing down, flying at us and then turned and landed on my bed. Carol and I both screamed and Alejo came out of his bedroom, this time with the machete. The bat took off flying again and Alejo swiped at it with the machete and it fell to the ground. Apparently all he had done was tamper with its ability to fly because it scurried out of the room towards the rest of us in the living room. Carol, Francel, and I jumped on the couch, screaming. Because the thunderstorm had knocked out the electricity, we were chasing the bat with our flashlights trying to keep an eye on it. The bat scurried behind two chairs in the living room as Alejo followed behind it, whacking the ground with the machete. Finally he hit the bat, putting an end to its scurrying. However, our battle with the bats was not finished. Zeneida, was scanning my room with the flashlight, when another bat came flying down at her. She screamed and jumped up onto my bed. Alejo ran back into my room, machete in hand. Again, he only managed to hit it in flight, making it fall to the ground and scurry out of the room like the previous one had. Francel, Carol, and I assumed our positions, standing back on the couch, screaming. The bat scurried under the TV stand and Alejo swiped his machete beneath it, back and forth until the bat finally scurried out allowing him to get a clear whack at it. He picked up the two dead bats with the end of his machete and then teased me saying it would a good breakfast in the morning. I was not amused. Alejo did another search in the roof and said he didn’t think there were any more. I was not convinced. He had already said that once and then twenty minutes later two more came out of the roof. Carol, Francel, and I sat up in the living room for about 30 minutes waiting to see if anymore bats would emerge from the roof. No more came out, so Francel went to sleep in his parent’s bed and Carol and I slept in her room. I think that I am going to continue sleeping in Carol and Francel’s room until Alejo can somehow assure me that there are no more bats in the roof.
Here are some pictures to recap my evening:
Carol and I on the couch....
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario