Scorpion in the Bathroom | 08/07/08

Scorpion the bathroom. August 7, 2008

So today was a pretty good day. We finished up our seminar at the hub site. This morning we had sessions which talked about our host families and how to appropriately adjust to certain awkward situations. Lunch I had rice with pork and some tea. Will meant to order fried noodles with pork; but he said “mee bei cheng sak chido” which he said noodles, rice, fried and pork. But the waiter left before he got to correct it and ended up with the same order as me. Then we walked down the road for a while, and I was able to find a good deal on a decorative but functional clay pot that is made for holding and burning mosquito coils. We finished up the afternoon with some current volunteers sharing some of their experiences and then left around 3:30 on the mini bus to head back to our training site. Oh, our village group won a competition with the skit we put together at the seminar (which consisted of a super mix with new lyrics to ‘Camp Onawana, the theme song to ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ and ‘Baby Got Back’ filled with experiences that we’ve already had here) and the prize was a package of chips ahoy cookies, which we gladly ate on the 45min. trip back home.

I helped make the stir fry tonight, which was pork and green beans with garlic, a bit of fish sauce, some oyster sauce fried in cooking oil. The dish is called “sahn dayit”. (These quotes of course are all my phonetic pronunciations/spellings of how the words sort of sound). Will basically fried up some French fries for an appetizer, which they call “dom lom”, but instead of salt and ketchup, they dipped them in sugar, which actually was pretty good too.

I felt pretty special tonight as we’re becoming more welcomed as part of the family I believe. We got the invite to watch T.V. in the main room in which we have not yet been invited. Will stayed out on the hammock, but I took the opportunity to see this portion of the house we had not seen yet, and watch a little Khmer news. . .which I couldn’t understand. I also got to see many more photos of their family and Sopeap showed me all of those. I also learned she has a younger brother living in the states; Washington DC to be exact.

After I had enough television I decided to bathe (gnoot tuk). I went to my room, grabbed my sarong and bath caddy, and headed downstairs to the bathroom. I was going through my usual routine which consisted of hanging my sarong, t-shirt and eye-glasses on the hooks and put the bath caddy down next to the water holder. Out of the corner of my eye (without my glasses on) I noticed this rather large-ish dark blob (note I am rather blind, my contacts are -6.00 if that means anything to any of you who wear glasses; basically I cannot read a book without my glasses unless it’s 2.5” from my face) –

Anyhow, I told myself to remain calm and slowly step away from that dark thing. I grabbed my glasses and then sawr the ugly creature remaining still, on the ground. (I wish I would’ve taken a photo of it, but that just wasn’t in the cards). I looked at it a little closer and it was about 4.5” long and a blue color, with pincers and a long ugly tail. I thought to myself, hrmmm is that a little crab or craw-dad of sorts? I put my sarong back on and walked out into the kitchen and called for Sopeap and motioned for her to ‘come here’. She came in and I pointed to the creature and said, “Knyohm ah-cho-chet whatever the heck that is”. (Knyohm ah-cho-chet translates to “I don’t like ______”). Anyhow, she went and grabbed the hatchet and slowly dragged the thing into the kitchen. I yelled at Will to come down and take a look at this thing. Oh – and let me add here, that I am quite proud of myself in how I reacted during the whole situation. I didn’t scream once, remained very calm and quickly got help from my host mommy. Will came down and looked at it and said, “Whoa that is definitely a scorpion!” And THAT was the moment when I began to freak out (inside my head). Ignorance is bliss right? Ha. Craw dad.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scorpion in person. I think I’ve only seen them on T.V. I know my friend Erin in AZ says they have them down there….but this one was a big-un. Anyways – Sopeap motioned at me to ask me if it had stung me, and I said ‘no’--- thank god. She then took the hatchet and cut off the stinger, and then Daro grabbed it and burned it in the back yard.
Time out. I’m still reflecting on this. I CAN’T BELIEVE THERE WAS A SCORPION IN THE BATHROOM. HOLY CRAP. I mean I can sort of believe it, but I’m definitely still a little bit on the jumpy side. Sheeesh.

Anyhow…. So I guess you take your chances wherever you live: Big Sky, MT – Grizzly bear country, Pierre, -- SD rattlesnakes in your garage. vs. Kampong Chnnang Province with scorpions in your bathroom. Moral of the story: watch where you step?
So yes. That’s the story of the night. Prior to the whole bathroom incident I was actually pretty excited about the simple fact of how special I felt for being invited into the room where the T.V. was. Ha.

Anyways… when the next story comes, I’ll be sure to sit down and type. Mom & Lynn – don’t worry ~ we’ll be okay. Although, I will accept any prayers to keep any and all scorpions away from my presence. Yikes!

Over and out.
Stephanie b.