52 – Many ways to get stung

Sting - kongwa2london.comOur school sports field had a hut for changing in and one day I was the first to walk in, I suddenly found myself flat on my back. In the far corner, a hornet which looks like an upside down question mark with the sting hanging some centimetres below its body or was it an African killer wasp, we hadn’t been introduced. It shot across the room and hit me like a bullet between the neck and shoulder. My classmates dragged me to safety, while my shoulder erupted in agony. I survived to tell the tale, but many have not.

At the end of the road from our house was a golf course; my friends and I used to hunt for golf balls. We would retrieve them from the green, sometimes before a player had finished with it. The dangerous part was when we reached into the holes; you never knew what surprise was in store for you. Scorpions, spiders and snakes. There was also a chance of finding a crocodile or two in the water hazard.

Not a week went by without something nasty giving you a nip. I had ticks, fleas, leeches, mosquitoes and ants bite me, but have been lucky enough not to contract malaria or get sleeping sickness from the tsetse fly. Life wasn’t boring, but some insects could bore into you.

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