Scorpionzilla!

Having promised that I would spend some time showcasing the animals of Pamuzinda, I was thinking of which animals to feature, and it occurred to me that an awful lot of stuff here can really hurt me - and would love to do so, given half the chance.

So the next few posts will feature those creatures I have met in the last 7 weeks that can really hurt me. And where better to start than with scorpions? Because. . . . we got scorpions here - and like most things in this part of the world, they sure grow big!

On Saturday (yesterday) we hosted a wedding in our permanent marquee. As I will show in later blogs, we host lots of weddings (3 in the 7 weeks I have been here so far) and we have managed to get everything looking pretty snappy, if i say so myself. Below is the dance-floor as it was last night:

However . . . . while the guests were gangum-styling and macarena-ing, the staff behind the bar were oblivious to everything as their attention was taken up by a somewhat unwelcome visitor:

We managed to coax him onto a piece of standard A4 paper, just to give some idea of his size, and I placed a standard ballpoint pen next to him. When I say 'placed', what I mean is I threw the pen next to him from about 5 feet away!

I find the fact that his pinchers are hairy is a little disconcerting, don't you?

This is a side-on view which shows quite clearly the sting and poison sack:

I even played 'chicken' with him in order to get a bit of perspective . . . .

But the strangest thing of all is this: big as he was, his sting was just a fraction of the pain, suffering and agony that would have resulted from a sting from the little fellow pictured below . . .

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get something to show perspective, but this little fellow would have been not much more than the first 2 knuckles on my baby finger if his tail was stretched out. And his sting is much more painful that the sting of the big scorpionzilla pictured above.

And where was this little chap hiding?

In my bath!!!!

How scary is that? Imagine the result if I had come along and sat down in the bath in one of our power shortages, and got stung on my dangly bits? Hmmmmm? Well, I would have become instantly fluent in Swahili and Urdu, as well as suddenly being able to execute the most advanced karate moves and ballet jumps on the planet!

A really sore sting, as one of our staff can testify.

Soooooooooooo - if any of you ladies out there are getting injections in your lips to enhance your natural charms, and are looking for a cheaper solution . . . . give me a call.

This could be a whole new venture for us - 'Pamuzinda scorpion lips'. Has a certain ring to it, and lends itself to a great logo and marketing campaign! No?

Have a nice day!