Once when visiting Senegal alone, and lodging in a 'campement' in Abene (small shacks with a central restaurant) I became interested in their goats, which a lad had charge of, and he put them away each night under the water tower. I offered to do this for him one evening (if not locked away, it was possible someone in the village would steal them!)
I gaily led the two goats into the small shed, and gaaaaaagh! a giant hairy spider was on the wall right beside me! I screeched and ran, and Erica the owner came zooming across to find out what was the matter. She laughed like a drain and so did Léon the goatherd. I wonder to this day if that spider was venomous or harmless. But I fled nonetheless!
Yet random snakes in the yard, and scorpions in the sandy earth of the goat's field never bothered me one bit. The two Senegalese (Wolofs) used to sum all this weird behaviour up with "Toubabe!" (ie, daft white person) which always made me giggle.