A moat surrounds our school. In it there are fish, frogs and other animals you might expect to find anywhere in America. But then again this is not America. Another creature lives or lurks you might say about the moat. I don't know what the Thais call them exactly, so I will call them monitor lizards. They look like giant lizards or baby alligators. They are a scary sight. About five feet long from tooth to tail. You may have seen pictures of them on my website: http://photos.yahoo.com/steven_c19 . If you spot one in the moat you probably won't see it for long because they submerge into the green murky water, and they can swim quickly. They not only can move quickly in water, but as I discovered first-hand, they can go swiftly on land as well.
My Australian friends who teach at the school had their first encounter with one on the way to home to the bus stop. We all take the same route every day. We walk out the back gate of palace grounds and then turn the corner and walk next to the moat. On that particular day an ambush was waiting for them. Andrew spotted it in the bushes only a few feet away. He froze. Mark didn't notice at first and kept walking. Lindsay, another teacher who has been here a year, was walking behind them. Andrew said something to Mark like "Watch out, mate! Lizard! Giant Lizard!" Then Mark saw it and reacted instinctively. Lindsay claims she has never seen someone jump so high and so far before. He jumped from the sidewalk into the street and maybe nearly got hit by some cars. I was not there, so I don't know. Then it ran off. I heard this story so I half-expected to meet a monitor lizard some day, but I was not prepared for where and when it would happen.
Months later I'm waiting for my class to arrive. It's typical for Thai kids to be late to class. They aren't counted tardy, and I am thankful they were late that day because it decided to show up to my class uninvited. The first floor of my wing has a roof, but it's open to the air. It's basically outside. I teach on the second floor of the wing which has two classrooms. I was walking around on the first floor for no particular reason when it happened. I was very startled. Okay, I'll admit it. I was freaked out. I was ready to jump three feet high. But I got out of the way, and I don't know what got into it, but it began to climb the stairs. Maybe it wanted to learn English. But I doubt it.
At this point I was thinking what am I gonna do? I'm not prepared for this. No one told me that monitor lizards come to class. I could just picture my students arriving and then screaming like frightened masses in a Godzilla movie. Some of my class have been freaked when a little gecko climbs around on the walls. How traumatic would it be if they see little Godzilla running towards them? They might be afraid to go to my classroom ever again.
So I ran to get the nearest people I could find. I spotted the janitors. I shouted "Lizard! Big lizard!" They didn't get it. I didn't know how to communicate with them. So I just motioned for them to come. They looked puzzled. But I insisted they come look. They followed curiously, and they must have thought "farang ba" crazy foreigner! What is he so excited about? Then when they saw the monitor lizard wiggling around and struggling to climb the second set of stairs they began laughing. I started laughing too. They must have been just as surprised as I was. We all stood there for a moment. What do we do about this? Then one of the men got a broom, and then he climbed up the stairs and swatted at it. Then the lizard turned and came down the stairs. The man jumped onto the railing and let it go by. Then it was running around, and it nearly went into an empty classroom. One lady was so scared she jumped onto a cafeteria table. I thought that might be a good idea. I was ready to jump onto a chair when the man with a broom chased it off towards the playground. I looked around the corner to see if would come back, but it had vanished. A second visit remains an unwelcome possibility.
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