Oh No!!

It was so horrible!!! I went downstairs to get some water from the filter. The hostel's so quiet, I think I'm the only one in the building. Even the Catholic priest on the first floor is gone off somewhere.

So, I went down to get water and to get to the filter you have to walk past the entrance to the hostel. The gates at the entrance are closed to keep stray dogs out, but not locked - for some reason they love kicking the bins over, don't know why they can't just rifle through the contents of the bin without tipping all the trash out on the floor.

As I was leaving the filter and nearing the gates, I noticed that all the birds in the area were at the gate shrieking their heads off. I guessed something was up so I slowed down my crawl even more (still on bed rest from last week's surgery) and I saw this nasty, ugly grey eagle trying to snatch an owl. The owl was clinging desperately to the gates and trying to get in through the bars away from the eagle.

I was scared shitless!! I thought I was going to drop the bottles in my arms and have a heart attack on the spot.

The eagle dives in through the bars after the owl who is injured and lying on the corridor just to the right in front of me. I ran back to the filter and locked myself in there.

All the little birds had gone absolutely loco by this point. And the crows had started cawing their heads off too. I'm alone in the hostel and didn't have my phone with me.

The only saving grace is this is bright morning not night, I don't know how I'd have stood it if it was night. My not usually superstitious African self would have called my mum immediately to ask if it was an omen I guess. Maybe I should still call her, daylight or no. I digress.

After another 10 minutes (I guesstimate) of the shrieking and cawing, the sounds die off and things are getting quieter. So I sneak out back on to the corridor and see only one little bird left.

I imagine the eagle got tired of all the noisy distraction and flew off with its prey to have it's breakfast in peace and quiet, or maybe a bigger bird dived in through the open roof and swooped it off. I really don't know, but things were at least blessedly quiet.

I quickly limp up stairs clutching my bottles to my chest. What I need now is a shot of extra strong, extra sweet coffee to steady my nerves
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