No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

On a routine trip to the commissary here on camp to pick up some milk and toiletries I had a unique experience. I was at the cash register and no one was there to help me. Finally the checkout girl comes running up to the front of the store to help me. Another worker runs to the front of the store and through a door to the back carrying a long pole with a duster on the end of it. I asked the girl what was going on and she told me that there was a big animal loose in the back of the store.

I asked her what kind of animal. She told me that it was a crocodile. Now I have been in camp for almost two years and I have never heard of a crocodile around camp. So I asked if could go back and check it out. This should be something to see. So I headed to the back of the store to see what a crocodile was like here in Sumatra. I saw one of the workers on his hands and knees with the aforementioned pole poking it under a cabinet. After a minute or so out pops a 5 foot long monitor lizard. He ran down a long hallway at top speed. Instead of taking a right out the door he took a left into the expired product section of the back area. He again hid under some things. The workers all were standing on the top of bags of rice with their mops and brooms trying to prod him out from under the items. He finally came out and ran right by me out the back door. I thought that was a rather unique experience.