Friday 21 September 2012

Cocoa, prayers and scorpion stings

Every Sunday evening us wazungus (white folk) meet to pray. At the moment there are just four of us and yet this has been a special time together. Last time, as we sat drinking cocoa, chatting about recent events and preparing to pray, the night guard brought in a local lad who had been stung on the hand by a scorpion. Nick and Lynne have a simple hand generator and electrodes are placed on the site of the sting and the point the poison has reached. The guard turns the handle and slowly the pain subsides. It is thought that the electric current denatures the protein in the poison. But  this wasn't the first time as a similar thing happened the previous Sunday evening when a lady was brought in having been stung on her foot. Scorpion stings are not uncommon and can be serious so this ‘treatment’ at Nick and Lynne’s may be life-saving. I have yet to see a scorpion so there's no photo of one, but below is the generator contraption. I wonder what will happen this Sunday evening!?

1 comment:

  1. I wonder if you'll get to try it out at some point... I remember they used to call us 'Mazungu' when we were in Malawi. In the end I started calling people 'Mfeepa' back (which meant black man) and it creased them up.
    Loving your updates.

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