the landmark gecko v. roach decision

i woke up early this morning, alone in my dorm room at our teachers college, a bit startled by an unusual scratchy crunching noise not unlike the sound of a cautious footfall on a dry leaf. i was pretty sure the sound was coming from inside, perhaps near the corner of the room. upon investigation, i discovered something quite magical. here in uganda, i have encountered cockroaches and geckos aplenty, but this morning i bore witness to the hilarious predatory union of the two. my friend the gecko was clinging to the wall behind a neighboring bed with his little gray-green jaw clamped down tightly on the head of an enormous cockroach. as if this wasn't enough to get me excited, the gecko was "jump-chomping" on his prey's miserable face - leaving his back feet planted on the wall, he would raise his front feet, torso, and roach-filled maw up in the air and, with all the gecko force he could muster, let it come crashing down in one crunchy, heroic bite.

i have beaten, burned, drowned, eaten (inadvertently), and/or crushed many cockroaches in my day, only to see them later run away, after i believed they were long dead, to have another 1000 babies in my cupboard. based on such experience, i was convinced this wretched beast before me was still very much alive, perhaps merely playing along with the gecko, mildly inconvenienced in the same way you or i might feel when we've been roped into a conversation we never wanted in the first place with a person who does not respond predictably to standard and widely understood social cues. sure enough, i left the two of them alone for a minute to put my camera away and i returned to find only the gecko remaining. the cockroach was nowhere in sight, presumably back on task being filthy somewhere dark. apparently, our young gecko finally got the hint.