A Scorpion

My initial tour of Monkey Point ended at the school house where all the kids were getting handouts from some church-charity group that was there.  They were all getting backpacks and notebooks and stuff (and interestingly, recorded versions of the bible in english and - who would have thought - Farsi... I'll talk about these bibles later).  I was sitting around enjoying the sun, and watching all the absolutely adorable kiddos getting their presents and being excited.  Some of the older kids were bored and wandering around outside.

Suddenly there was a big to-do, and a few of the kids ran over to Pito and I.  They were holding sticks like chopsticks, with a writhing scorpion between them.  From my memories of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," I had imagined scorpions to be the size of lobsters or something... but apparently they're not.  They're closer to the size of the palm of your hand.

Nonetheless, the kids and Pito were running about - apparently the sting of a scorpion is extremely painful and can even cause pancreitis - things that are no fun to deal with when the doctor comes to town only once a month.  They pinned the scorpion against the floor and started hacking at the tip of it's tail until it's stinger had been neutralized.  Then it was all fun and games.  They all thought it would be great to have me play with the thing, so I had to take it in my hand and let it crawl around.  AAAhhhhh.  They were right, however, in that it was utterly harmless at this point.  Unfortunately, my camera wasn't with me, so the pictures are on the cameras of the church-charity people.  Maybe I'll get them, but I doubt it.