Peanut Surprise

It was just our typical day in India, or so we thought...

After staff worship Kati and I had some free time, so we decided to get in our morning walk.

As we were walking outside of a village, we were stopped and called over by some friendly villagers. They were working in a field off the road picking ground nuts (peanuts), and wanted to share some with us. So being the kind people that we are, Kati and I joined them in the field.

As they fed us peanut after peanut, Kati and I decided to get down on the ground and help them work. We would grab the peanut plant out of a pile and pick the peanuts off.

I went to grab another peanut plant, saw something black, and felt a quick sting. I stood up quickly in shock over the pain. The pain started rushing through my finger, then my wrist, then my arm, and up to my shoulder. I immediately burst in to tears from the unbearable pain.

Noticing we were a mile away from the school, I didn't think I was going to live. I knew scorpion bites were very dangerous and I was very scared. Meanwhile, Kati was looking at me confused as to what just happened. She was afraid that I had been bitten by a cobra, because she had not seen what stung me. Through my tears I told Kati I had been stung by a scorpion. So Kati decided to send us running for help.

While we were running, it was only a matter of time until Kati stopped a motorcyclist passing by and threw us on the back of the bike. The man asked to see my finger and began squeezing my finger to stop the poison from spreading. He dropped us off at the school and we ran into the compound to find help. Immediately I was thrown into the school van and rushed off to get help.

We arrived promptly at the nearest doctor. The doctors office was a hole in the wall that was very run down. I was nervous by the way the place looked already, but then when he decided to give me a shot... I FREAKED out. I tried to refuse the shot, because of all the warnings of needles in 3rd world countries, and I did not see him take the needle out of a package. Kati sitting by my side reassured me that I had the choice of the poison spreading through my body or a small chance of HIV...

I chose the HIV...

No just kidding, Kati saw the man open up the package the needle was in.

She held my hand and told me it was going to be alright.

After the first two shots, the pain started to subside. My finger and arm had already swollen up to their max capacity. Unfortunately, that is where the shots and the swelling just began. He sent me home for a couple of hours with two needles and medicine. If you are wondering what the two needles are for, this is where all the fun begins!

Not only was Kati my hero, but she also got to be my doctor...

She had to give me two more shots in my butt.

Really, its not funny, even though we were laughing.

It was a long painful day, with lots of emotion, scare, and shots, but I walked away ALIVE with an experience I will never forget.