More Life Experiences

January 25, 2010

Today at the end of the school day it had gotten chilly. I grabbed my jacket and left the room to supervise my third and fourth graders as they cleaned the meeting room and the library. Back and forth between the library , meeting room and classroom I went for ten minutes, guiding student. I joined multiplication practice with the students who were finished with their clean-up jobs. The student in charge of the flash cards quit her job and I reached up to take the cards from the top of the book shelf in order to take over.

I felt a wiggle under my jacket on the back of my left shoulder. Gross. I clamped down on the fabric of my jacket and pulled it away from my body in a loose fistful. I flipped the collar inside out, slowly releasing my grip to see what critter was in there, if any. I saw a small, black-segmented worm moving slowly. What was that? It had no head. I stared at it for a few seconds until I realized, along with all of the third and fourth graders at Monteverde Friends School, what I was looking at – the tail of a black scorpion, which was tucked nicely in my jacket.

This is when I lost my cool. I yelled. I squealed. I didn’t let go of the wad of fabric that was between the scorpion and me. 21 students and one very calm co-teacher instantly swarmed me. I had no idea how to get myself out of this situation. I looked at Tedi with panicked eyes and pleaded, “Help!” He helped me slowly wiggle out of my jacket and took it outside.

My heart raced for ten minutes. A parent told me later in the day that this year will be scorpion heavy because it is so dry. When I shared my concern about allergic reactions (my elbow is swollen, hot and tender today with two bug bites, despiste the antihistamine) she assures me that very few people have reactions to scorpion stings. “Sometimes your tongue can go numb,” she adds as an after thought.

I have resigned myself to the fact that while I am here in Monteverde I will get stung by a scorpion. It will hurt a lot, totally freak me out, and then be over.

I can’t believe I have to add “the time I found a live scorpion inside of the jacket I was wearing” to my list of life experiences. I have not missed NYC or the states since my first night back. If anything, the thought of life there saddens me. Until today. Oh, how I crave not having to tap out shoes, shake out clothes and peer under sheets. I miss not having to wash slug slime off the greens left by a tough little visitor who has survived three cold days in the fridge.
This too stings for a bit, but will pass.