Along Came a Spider

SIM (Serving in Mission) missionary Christiane Fox posted the following story on her African Nurse blog. Check her site out here.

This is why thousands of us are not missionaries. Fear of bugs and snakes...and huge ugly spiders.

Christiane writes:

Ok, so I JUST killed THE MOST disgusting and BIGGEST spider that I’ve seen since I’ve been in SUDAN... and it was IN my HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhh... now I’m all twitchy and creepy and feel like there are more lingering around every bottle or book in my hut! :P Seriously it was BIG... and not one of those flat black ones.. it was HUGE and stood OFF the ground like a full inch – the body was ROUND (not flat like all the others) and was so big it actually had a PATTERN on it!! Black, white and brown... and it had eyes... RED ones that reflected in my head lamp light!!! SOO Creepy!

Anyway, he was on my table, casually chilling out on the side of one of my big clear containers that holds all my spice containers... so I prayed (out loud, b/c that’s the only way I can cope with these crazy things), grabbed my “fly” swatter, and swung as hard and fast as I could... I hit it, but as I suspected, couldn’t kill it b/c it was TOO big for the swatter’s force – I worked up my nerve and peered underneath my table cloth were, again as I suspected, it was clinging to the underside (creeeeepy). So I took a deep breath and unleashed the wrath of my “doom” can on it, where it ran (even now I’m getting the shivers) to the far under-side of my table... I could see it’s grotesque legs twitching from where I was squatted, so again – with the doom pointed at this horrid creature, I sprayed until I was certain he would not be long for this world. :) Within 10 seconds the dizzy eight legged monster dropped to the floor, trying to flee for its life, but it was no use... for I was NOT going to let it get away (lest it be a very sleep-less night for me!)... I hit it two more times with my “fly” swatter before I was satisfied enough that it was dead. So I scooped it up onto my swatter and, with MUCH adrenaline pumping through me, gingerly maneuvered through the mosquito net at my door (keeps the bats off my porch), and out of my hut to go and get some well deserved praise from whoever was still awake in the dining hall! It was show-and-tell of the most disgusting kind :)

Needless to say I am just a little proud of myself :) (but still looking over my shoulder!)

Note: This is NOT the actual spider that Christiane is writing about.