Tukay Attack.

This whole last week we've been working on different maintenance projects here at the Akha Youth Development Center, mostly painting the girls and boys dorms. We have a wonderful family (The Campbells) here from Seattle helping us accomplish all of these projects.

Yesterday we were moving lots of dressers out of the back room in the girls dorm when we came across a batch of Tukay eggs that were all hatched. Each egg was about half the size of a golf ball. After seeing the eggs, we realized that our fun was just beginning, and that the male and female were close by as well.

In Thailand, all of our Thai friends are terrified of these large lizards called "Tukays", and have told us that if they bite you and latch on, that they never let go. If THEY are afraid of them,  of course translates into making us foreigners afraid of them as well. Here is a photo of them to give you an idea of what they look like.

Over the last six months, these lizards have been in high demand. Malaysian scientists have been buying them for over $1,000 each, trying to find a cure for HIV.

Not too long after we found the eggs, we found a big pile of poop, telling us we had at least one nearby. We found the mother behind a dresser, ready to fight with her mouth wide open like the photo above. Rusty had a stick in his hand and was yelling for me to go and get Gee (our Akha friend who can do anything). Before Gee could arrive, the protective mother leaped off the wall right on Rusty's crotch trying to attack him and protect her babies. Rusty panicked and hit the mother tukay with the stick in his hand and send her tail flying off onto the ground. The rest of us were screaming and running around trying to get some distance from it. The tail mind you, continued squirming around on the ground for the next 5 minutes, and the mama slowly died. I kind of felt like we had just killed Bambi's mother, but my hatred for amphibians quickly returned, reminding me that her babies will do just fine without her. Lizards don't breastfeed after all. : >)

Gee finally showed up, disappointed to see the tail flapping around on the floor, but full of laughter at all of the panic in the room. Rusty, Gee, and Kurt worked together and successfully caught the male lizard, but he ended up being too small for any good money.

Our poor little male tukay.

If ONLY I had captured this on video, I would be able to show you, and watch it over and over again for my own personal enjoyment.

On my way back to my house I came across the biggest earthworm that I've ever seen, so I thought I would take a little photo of him too.