One cold day in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, my family was getting ready for a trip to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is an island off the coast of East Africa. We were so excited because we’d never been there before. On our way, my brother thought he saw something, or someone, lurking in the bushes. ‘’Mommy, I think I saw something in the bushes!’’ he screamed. Mom then asked my older sister to close the windows, lest he saw things again.

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Two hours later, the weirdest thing happened. My sister said that she heard strange sounds coming from outside the window. Then just a few moments later, she said that she too saw something lurking in the bushes. Mom then assumed that they were hallucinating and of course didn’t believe a word they said. To her, this was just another prank they were playing.

So, as we continued with our journey, my dad, who was driving, said he too saw something. He described it as a yellow and red eyed creature, with really pale skin. But he didn’t know exactly what it was. Creepy. My mom was now fed up with everyone, and when we stopped for a break, she got out of the car and yelled, "Hello make believe creatures; my family thinks you’re actually real but I don’t, if you are real, please come out.”

Five seconds later, nothing! "See! There is nothing to be afraid of!” she said. And then she saw it. A pale creature running towards us. We got into the car and drove off as fast as we could.

After 10 minutes, we got to our destination; the yacht taking us to Milele Beach Resort was there. The place was beautiful. After checking in, we were given a tour around the resort and that is when we saw the creatures again. We started running, and when I looked back, I saw the tour guide laughing. When we got to the reception, we asked about what we saw — about the creatures.

But in our state, we had her confused as we were still panicking. Once we calmed down, she told us the whole story.

"The creatures belong to the resort, they help keep snakes away, especially at night,” she said. 

"That explains a lot,” I said, ‘’But why do they look like that?”

"Because they have lived in the bush for years and don’t want to get out,” she answered. "Oh!” we said in unison. We then settled down and enjoyed our vacation.