Pili's in the Toilet

While the caption of this blog entry may sound to some people a little inappropriate, pili is the word for gecko or lizard here in Samoa.

I thought this warranted a blog entry. Since the word pili covers both geckos and lizards I will refer to them as pili’s in this entry. Everyone has them in their houses here. They like to live near the lights, but they also live in random other places. I have one that likes my umbrella. My umbrella sits in the corner of my house. It is always closed up when not in use. Every time I go to use my umbrella, I open it up and I have to shake out the pili that lives there. He always comes back… I have one that likes my computer. Every time I have my laptop on, I always eventually find him sitting on the top of it.

Pili’s come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some are smaller than my fingernail. Some are so huge when they run across my ceiling it gives me a start. One of them sounds like a cat sometimes he’s so big. Some are regular gecko coloring. Some are a bronze color and a few are a metallic blue color. They make noises too. Sometimes it’s a clicking noise and sometimes it sounds almost like a bird. When I first came to Samoa it took me awhile to realize what that sound was. I like pili’s. They eat the bugs in my house and unlike spiders, they don’t freak me out. Frankly we could use more of them in the states, especially in Seattle where spiders are so prevalent.

I have grown accustom to pili’s hiding out in random places. But this last find was my favorite. Yesterday I went to use my toilet and there was one inside of the bowl. I shooed him away thinking it was funny he was there, but maybe he wanted a bath. This morning I got up from bed and headed into the bathroom only to find him there again. I don’t know, but I think I have a case of a pili much like the one in the umbrella; he has found a place he likes and he isn’t going to be easily removed. I have to start checking my bowl now every time I want to use the bathroom…

Anyways, pili’s are a part of our lives here in the PC. We all have them. Some people give theirs names. There are a few that I recognize and with Bob’s promptings have given names to. One is missing a tail; his name is Nubbins, in honor of my finger. The big one looks like one of my students that is big, so he is named after that student. But that’s it.

One previous volunteer told me a story passed down from other volunteers. When you are a trainee one of the things you do is a volunteer visit. For a few days you stay with another volunteer and see how they live. As a trainee it’s fun to get to know some of the people you will be friends with over the years. As a volunteer, it’s fun to mess with the trainees. Well, by mess I mean we like to think it would be fun to mess with them. Bob and I once thought it would be funny to get 10 puletasi’s made from the same material and have them all hanging and then each day look at the same 10 puletasi’s and debate which one to wear. We would of course never do this, but it is still fun to think about it. One volunteer, however, did do something along these lines. When the trainee came out to visit he found the ceiling of the volunteer sectioned and grid-ed off. The volunteer pretended that he had sectioned off his ceiling and documented which pili’s went to which section and how often. He even wrote down a fake log book he had documenting all the movements of the pili. Needless to say, I think he freaked out the trainee. But, it was in fact all a joke.

So, I guess the whole point in this story and this blog entry was that I was bored today and thought I would type something up about the funny new pili that lives in my toilet.

Until next time…