Scorpions

 

It seems I never took my own
scorpion photos so this one is from 
the internet and looks similar
to those we found while
taking apart the hostel building.

Coming from the cool and sometimes cold climes of Northeast Ohio we were not familiar with many tropical bugs and critters. In previous posts I’ve covered our introduction to cock roaches. Helping relocate the mission station in Sanklaburi expanded our experience, this time by introducing us to scorpions.

World renowned for looking fierce and backing it up with a fierce sting, I was not eager to meet up with a scorpion. But as it happened, I soon learned they were plentiful, tucked into the tight spaces under the floor boards and in other nooks and crannies in the hostel building we were dismantling. Prying up any floor board would be likely to expose a scorpion trying to rest but wondering why he was suddenly exposed and his world was being destroyed. Upon seeing the first one or two, I was mildly startled. But it was soon apparent that we were the threat, not them, so I soon joined the rest of the tear down team in flicking them aside and moving on.

However, both Marcia and I also received a lesson in the power of a scorpion sting at the expense of Ben Dickerson. As mentioned in the previous post, Marcia and I were staying at the Dickersons new house on the edge of the new town of Sanklaburi. The house was mostly finished but electricity had not yet reached them. Ben had wired the house though, and had a gas powered generator that would power some lights. With a gasoline motor, the generator was placed outside the house so the noise and exhaust would not be an issue. At bed time, Ben would go outside and shut off the generator. So when it was “lights out”, it was “lights out” for everyone in the house and there is nothing so dark as the sudden dark after having lights on for a while.

So it was that bed time arrived one night. Being forewarned it would soon be dark in the house, Marcia and I had each performed our bed time bath room rituals and had retreated to our bed room. Suddenly the generator went silent and it was pitch-black dark. We were still fumbling with covers and trying to find our assigned bed positions by braille when we heard Ben let out a wail. In quick succession the painful wail was followed by hollered instructions, “Doris, bring me the ___________ !!!! (fill in the blank for some kind of medicine that would work on a scorpion sting). Of course, being a husband and wife of long experience, it took Ben several tries, all quite loud, interspersed with moans and wails and accompanied with jumping up and down on one foot to finally communicate that he had stepped on a scorpion and was in urgent need of help. Doris for her part, was communicating with limited success that she couldn’t find the flashlight and wasn’t entirely clear on just what medication was needed and where it might be found.

There were several minutes of general commotion but finally some ointment was found, the pain subsided, the jumping on one foot was stopped and bed time quiet was restored. Please don’t judge us too harshly, but Marcia and I got a good chuckle out of all the commotion. But at the same time, we were both very grateful it hadn’t been one of us that had stepped on the scorpion and Marcia still remembers a restless night wondering if any scorpions were sharing the bed with us. Though we would have further run-ins with scorpions as time went on, we vowed to respect their sting and keep our distance if we could.