I freak out whenever I see bugs around me. One of my strict orders to the gardener is to make sure he kills all visible bugs, on the windows, hanging on the trees, crawling on the floor. When I am at the farm and I see one bug, it’s either I call Edmund or the gardener to smash it into oblivion. If we let the bugs loose, all they would do is multiply.
Occasionally there are bayawak sightings in the back area we call jungle. I am not scared firstly because I never dared walk to that area and I haven’t heard of any man bitten by a bayawak. On the contrary, I’ve heard of men going to the jungle hunting down bayawak for barbeque. They claim it tastes like chicken meat.
With nature comes all sorts of creatures. That’s what my husband tells me when he sees me fuzzing over the presence of bugs. “Talagang ganun, nature yan”.
My imagination of farm living is being able to walk around freely without fear of rabid dogs. I imagine myself sitting on the grass, rolling over like a little girl and just enjoying the surroundings. I have memories of me climbing on the roof, laying down on the cold galvanized roofing and staring at the moon and the stars. I imagine myself doing that again, in the farm, not on a roof, but laying down on the grass.
It seems I can’t do all that. There are snakes lurking around our small farm. And they are pretty long and large. Last week they caught a two meters long snake circling the chickens. Last year the gardener claimed they caught something bigger than this. Mas mataba daw.
My husband didn’t have qualms about touching the snake. Medyo buhay pa ng konti baka tukain sya.