It seems that although my wife and I are not working at the moment and are not really doing the “tourist” thing here in Kenya…we always manage to find ways to keep ourselves entertained. This can be difficult assuming we and everyone within 10 Kilometers (it seems) has no electricity and a large percentage of folks have no water either. One great benefit of this is that it allows us to play with our daughter a lot more and often than we previously did. We brought all of her toys with us here to Kenya and they have been a real boon! Add to that the portable DVD player reserved solely for non-electrical Sesame Street DVD Days, and we really consider ourselves fortunate.
Today was a great start of a day! There was sunshine, it was not too cold finally and I was able to make a cup of coffee by boiling water on the propane stove and then using a coffee press instead of the standard coffee maker I have been using. The coffee press I have at home that was bought in the States was a really good one and makes excellent coffee. The one here…not so good as it leaves a fair amount of grit in ones teeth and does not quite “seal” when plunging. That is ok, as I guess I do not mind chewing my coffee down…just cannot chew my milk down for sure.
Rayna slept in late (until probably 9:00am) and woke up in a phenomenal mood! Giggling, wanting to play; she even went to the toy bag on her own and started bringing me toys. She does not normally do that. So, I took the toys and we started playing. We played for almost an hour and had an absolute blast! We practiced the new words she is picking up (Daddy, Mommy, Kitty, “Woof”, “Moo”, tickle, Grandma, Nana, more, yes, no, etc..” and stacked rings and blocks ad nausea. We fed her morning cereal and she got a second wind and started tearing at the toys again. Throwing things, crawling and falling everywhere…
She crawls behind where I am sitting so I turn to watch her play. She has picked up a pack of gum and throwing it randomly. She throws it one last time, picks it up…and I will remember this for the rest of my born days. Her head rolls slowly to the right with a look I have never seen before but understood as a combination of fear, curiosity, and pain…within seconds of getting eye-contact with her Daddy she develops a blood-curdling scream that has never been heard before either. Her Mommy was in the shower and couldn’t figure out what in the heck I had done. As I knock over the chair to get to where she is, I notice there is a cute and fuzzy caterpillar on the floor. Caterpillars do not bite, do they?
In the United States, caterpillars are cool little worms that kids catch and let them turn into beautiful butterflies. I am relatively sure as hell they do not bite! Matter of fact, I have never heard of a caterpillar accident in my life other than squishing one a bit too hard until the juice comes out… However, my experience with “African” caterpillars is quite limited. Seems these really cute caterpillars, when molested, act very similar to a porcupine; when I looked closely there were probably a hundred spines stuck all over my daughters hand, fingers, and thumb. Now what the heck do I do? Not much experience with porcupine caterpillars…so I guess I will call someone. So, I call a local friend of ours, Sonia, who has raised children and grown up here. I briefly explain to her what has happened and she asks me what color the caterpillar was. I said “red” but let me check…once I came back and told her it was brown/black and not red, she said “oh no…”
I don’t like “oh no’s” much. When I say it around my dog, she almost literally pees right where she stands as the fear of wrath grips her. Oh no is never good… So, she says she is going to make a call and call us back. During this time, I remember my first aid kit I made up and got the plastic tweezers out of it and proceeded to pull out as many of the caterpillar “hairs” as I could. The daughter was not appreciative of it, but figured it had to be done. We get a call back and were advised to soak her hand in warm salt water to relieve pain and act as an antiseptic…so that is what we did. In addition, the wife found the number to the local clinic in Karen and gave them a call. I had already downplayed it a bit until I heard my wife say “…Honey, how quickly can we get there? They will see her right away…” Oh no (again). I say we can be there in 10-15 minutes. I hear something in my head talking about potential anaphylactic shock (I am horribly allergic to bees, hornets, and wasps) and get my butt in gear.
We made a record in getting our crap together, in the car, and on the road. As we are driving down Bogani road, the car starts acting kinda weird but I guess I didn’t let it warm up completely. As I turn North onto Karen Road, the damn thing stalls on me…and does not want to restart. Oh no (again!) So, 20 minutes on the side of the road trying to figure out why the choke has stuck closed, and it is hot, and the fans are not running…crap! Fortunately, one of the Askaris (security guards) nearby actually has some mechanics wire that I can use to wire the choke open, so 20 minutes and KES150 later we are on our way, chugging and bucking the entire way. It only died one more time but at least it got us to Karen Surgery…
I hadn’t noticed, but by the time we got there my daughter had fallen asleep (this has to be good, right?) We were seen right away by the good Dr. Basil who very quickly scanned our daughter, looked at us with a sly smirk and asked “well, it looks like you have done all the necessary things…what do you want me to do?” Seems there is nothing to worry about after all…they just itch and if not taken out in time can sometimes get infected like any other organic material stuck in ones skin.
Now, we thank God that our daughter is not going to suffer serious consequences from the big, badass caterpillar! We are left at the house without transportation until we can get our borrowed vehicle fixed, which sucks. However we are grateful for everything. We always hear about not drinking the water, lions, mosquitoes, cholera, TB, HIV, drought, famine, etc…who ever heard of killer caterpillars?
Peace,
Dude
FBO
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