As many of you already know, I sleep shrouded in a light green (some might call it pistachio) reppelant impregnated, mosquito net. My host family thinks this is a silly practice especially during the summer months when there aren´t nearly as many mosquitos around. For this reason and also out of sheer laziness, I have not been as dilligent about checking to make sure that all parts of the net are touching the ground. This would prove to be a mistake.
1:15 AM
I was asleep. I rolled over and was immediately jarred awake by an intense stabbing pain in my back (think of your worst bee sting times ten). I reached around to try and remove the offending creature but was again bitten on my left forearm. Bewildered and belligerent, I jumped out of bed and switched on the light. I examined my arm and to my relief found only a small red bump. I then proceeded to scour my bed and the surrounding area for a good half hour. After finding only moldy sheets of loose leaf and various dead bugs, I reluctantly decided to lay back down. Because I had not seen it, I assumed that the creature must have been a very large ant (most of which bite) or a spider of some sort.
The Aftermath
The bumps on my arm and back began to swell until they reached the size of about half a tennis ball. I then began losing feeling in my lips and a horrible sour taste flooded my mouth. About 15 minutes later I began to lose feeling in my hands and feet. At this point I became very tired and fell back to sleep.
In the morning, I told me Host-Mom about the mysterious bite and my symptoms through my still tingling lips. She told me that it was probably a scorpion because only they have the magical power of numbing your extremities. She also explained that I should have woken her up because Claudio, our next door neighbor, was stung a few months ago, and it was serious enough that he had to be taken to the emergency room.
¿What have we learned today?
-If in need of a good tranquilizer, a scorpion will do in a pinch.
-Scorpions are not nearly as hilarious as snakes or spiders.
-Always be on the look out for something trying to kill you.
I would like to dedicate this blog to my Father who bought me the yellow wind-up flashlight I´ve used to hunt for many a spider, cockroach, and now scorpion.
Post Script: February 15, 2008
I discovered my assailant in the corner of my room being feasted on by hundreds of tiny ants. I can only hope that if there is a God, he´s already set aside a nice, warm, little corner of scorpion-hell.
