Battano (Arbuckle)

So as I enter my bedroom to snatch a pair of jeans lying on the ground to throw on, I notice in the unlit room some, small blob near the waist of my jeans. I immediately drop the jeans, and proceed to flip the switch, flooding the room with a dim light. What is this mysterious blob which I had seen lying in the pile of clothes on the floor? It looked at the time like a large prune, which would be interesting as I have yet to see a prune in this country. Upon further inspection I find the mystery blob to be a young, little, knock-kneed just out of the womb bat! Whoa now!

Battano (Arbuckle)

How did you get here?! Yes most, if not every evening I go to sleep with the not-so-pleasant of bats flying around outside or between my ceiling panels and roof. Yes I have had bats in my house that I tactfully smack out of my house with broom, not before getting smacked in the head once or twice (I guess their sonar wasn't as good as they thought?). But this little guy was a petite, moist, furball who would stretch out when being bothered and there were serious parts of me that was hoping it would jump up, bite me, and I would be the second-coming of Batman (the first coming was real). This little guy managed to find his way in to the small crevice between the back of my backpack and where the shoulder straps enter, so my work was cut out for me to get him out even though he moved at a sloth's pace—I didn't want to hurt my new little friend. Now, I must admit, I didn't have the desire or energy to take this little guy under my wing as just like Principal Figgins on Glee, I believe that Vampires are real and are soon going to take over this world. I carefully picked up Arbuckle (his name for now) and brought him outside...oh so sad I could see him shivering in the cool air away from my dirty pile of clothes! Well, as you can see from the snap, I took advantage of his inability to move at this stage, because I placed him on the cool cement next to a bitanno (500 shilling coin about the size of a nickel). After Arbuckle's little photo shoot, a small bed of dried leaves and mulch was made for him in the corner of the patio in hopes that he would warm up and fly off...

The next morning he wasn't there. I choose to hope that he dried off, spread his wings, and is thriving out in the real world. So yes, I think that is where this story goes. He now lives amongst his brothers and sisters and who knows yet if he left me a little gift of gratitude giving me an uncanny ability to fight crime while wearing skin-tight black clothes and having a better voice than the most current Hollywood Bruce Wayne.

So to my friend Battano (Arbuckle), my hat is off to you in your new life in the skies and away from the piles of dirty clothes in my room. And I must say I assume that my immediate decision to put the jeans on without inspecting for any more creatures is in fact a message to me of how used I've become to having spiders, cockroaches (in fact when I enter pit latrines I choose to talk to the cockroaches as if they are equals rather than getting terrified), bats, stray cats, goats, chickens...the list goes on...to having all of these species living side by side with me. Oh joy! (