Thursday, June 14, 2007
Aftermath
The escapades of the night before left us exhausted and our throats burning, but we rose as usual and awaited the arrival of Emma Stella. We wanted to cleanup as much as possible before she got to the house but did not get too far. Our meeting her at the door and telling her to keep her shoes on intrigued Emma Stella. She seemed a little confused but was still able to tell us what shoes is in Swahili and followed us into the house. The mess of ants was a bit of a shock to her, as it had been to us but she took it in stride and got quickly to work. It was a nice lift to our spirits when she began to sing as she worked...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We wanted to help out with this Shida Kubwa (big problem) and told Emma Stella that she was the chief and we were her team of cleaners. To this she gave a hearty laugh and we all pitched in to start cleaning up ants. Boiling water and scrubbing surfaces; it was as if this were common place and Emma Stella was a machine. In no time the house was spotless, or rather, antless.
I had removed the snake the night before but we were able to show it to Jeremiah and Emma Stella and learned that it was a spitting cobra. Terrific, I’m glad I wear glasses because they shoot for the eyes. Of course our little friend didn’t have a chance in hell of spitting on me as I attacked it with the working end of the “squeegee mop thing” that Emma Stella cleans the floors with.
Around lunchtime our friend Adam came by; Adam has lived his life in Haydom and was interested in the amount of ants we had in the house. But with the work ethic of Emma Stella, the ants were gone. We were not without something for him to look at though as we found a 3 inch long Tarantula sitting on the front patio. Boy were we excited to find that not only do we have Carnivorous ants and poison spitting snakes we also have massive poisonous spiders with centimeter long fangs living in little tunnels with multiple doors in our front yard. We should open a petting zoo…well maybe just a zoo.
We wanted to help out with this Shida Kubwa (big problem) and told Emma Stella that she was the chief and we were her team of cleaners. To this she gave a hearty laugh and we all pitched in to start cleaning up ants. Boiling water and scrubbing surfaces; it was as if this were common place and Emma Stella was a machine. In no time the house was spotless, or rather, antless.
I had removed the snake the night before but we were able to show it to Jeremiah and Emma Stella and learned that it was a spitting cobra. Terrific, I’m glad I wear glasses because they shoot for the eyes. Of course our little friend didn’t have a chance in hell of spitting on me as I attacked it with the working end of the “squeegee mop thing” that Emma Stella cleans the floors with.
Around lunchtime our friend Adam came by; Adam has lived his life in Haydom and was interested in the amount of ants we had in the house. But with the work ethic of Emma Stella, the ants were gone. We were not without something for him to look at though as we found a 3 inch long Tarantula sitting on the front patio. Boy were we excited to find that not only do we have Carnivorous ants and poison spitting snakes we also have massive poisonous spiders with centimeter long fangs living in little tunnels with multiple doors in our front yard. We should open a petting zoo…well maybe just a zoo.
