The Clunk of the Iguana

While sitting at my desk after a morning class just left the room, I heard a scream. A group of at least 20 students and staff were crowed in a tight circle outside my room. My classroom door opens directly to an outdoor hallway (basically a narrow concrete covered walkway that surrounds an open courtyard with a few trees and patches of grass) so I walked outside to determine the cause of this commotion. I soon joined the group and stared at the sedentary lizard that had just slid off the tin roof of my classroom and fallen 10 feet to the ground. Apparently iguanas are tough creatures and can withstand a fall of 40 feet without injury, but still, the fallen iguana attracted quite a crowd for the five minutes that that constitute our passing period at Colegio Americano.

I continued with my day, and probably would have forgotten about my fallen neighbor, but he didn't let me; he (or she) didn't move. More than five hours later, as I prepared to leave school, the iguana was still there. Except now he had a friend (maybe a mate), a larger iguana sitting right next to him in the same spot outside my room. A brutal demonstration of iguana supremacy soon followed. Seemingly out of the blue, the bigger iguana grabbed the fallen iguana by the tail and tossed him back and forth, body slamming the poor guy for a few seconds until the smaller iguana finally decided to move and tried to run. The dominant iguana splayed its dewlap, craned its neck in an obvious display of dominance, and took chase. The chase took only a few seconds and about 50 feet, but certainly added some excitement to my afternoon.

I soon learned that the clumsy iguana would regularly cause some disruption to the already crazy string of distractions and tangents the happen during my typical day at Colegio Americano. For example, the following distraction happens regularly. As soon as I finally have the student's attention and I am about to prepare them for an inspiring investigation into the themes of our short story, CLUNK - the bang of an iguana falling from the branches of a tree onto the tin roof of my class reverberates throughout the room. Instantly, the children erupt in laughter and the clumsy fallen iguana takes the attention of my class and a year off of my life. So, the clunk of the iguana has been welcomed into my routine here, and I accept it as part of my first year of international teaching experience in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Pictures are needed to accompany this story, photos of my classroom and school are overdue on this site.

APPENDIX
MORE IGUANA INFO:Male green iguanas have a special flap of skin called the dewlap. Male iguanas can raise their dewlap to appear bigger than they really are, either to intimidate predators, or to impressive females. Both male and female green iguanas can store fat under their jaws and in their necks for times when there is not much food available.
SEE ALSO: wikipedia and google images for more information on your new favorite reptile, the iguana