This has been a scary week. A few days ago a sharp pain in my hand rudely awakened me. A scorpion had stung me. I felt a sharp pain in the hand that was hanging over the side of the bed. On turning on the bedside solar light, I saw a small scorpion scurrying away across the room. For some time I’ve been afraid that this would happen. I see them from time to time when sweeping the floor or moving furniture but up to last night I had never been attacked. The pain was formidable. There was no more sleep after that 2AM encounter. For a full day and a half the pain was intense, like the blade of a knife stuck in my hand. Then I could see that the bite had become infected. I went down to our local government clinic and was given antibiotic pills to take for a week. Now it is much better, not hurting any more and showing signs of healing. Last night, waking up at about 3AM and turning on the light next to my bed, I spotted the critter next to my bed. I was able to grab by walking stick and crush the creature. His hunting days are over.

Two days ago, some young warriors were passing by the house and sited a very large snake just entering the house through the narrow opening between the

roof and the top of the wall. They managed to kill it with rocks. It was very fortunate that they saw the animal and were able to kill it. This was the second Red Spitting Cobra that we sighted and killed in a month. These snakes are very lethal. Just a couple of weeks ago we killed another one next to the church. These animals are really big, thick and about four and a half feet long.

From Wikipedia; The venom of this species, like most spitting cobras, contains a mixture of neurotoxins and cytotoxins. Bite symptoms include slight pain around the wound and numbness of lips and tongue. Although it rarely causes human fatalities, survivors are usually disfigured. In September 2011, a snake keeper from the Eastern Cape in South Africa died shortly after a red spitting cobra sprayed venom into his face while he and a friend were photographing the snake. Some of the venom was believed to have entered his nasal passages and led to anaphylactic shock. His asthma is believed to have contributed to the fatal reaction.