SUBJECT: Creepy Crawleys and Furry Things

AUTHOR: Grammie Patti is a nurse, and is currently working with her husband and two daughters and their families (Gates & Burgdorff), in a medical aviation program in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

DATE: September 8, 1997

The evening our student missionary, Leif, was struck by a poisonous snake, a total of four snakes were killed in our village. It seemed that the devil himself was out to discourage and frighten us that night. But the Lord intervened, and Leif had the best recovery that any of our patients has had to date. Betsy has written the details of this case, so look for her letter on this Web site for the whole story.

A couple of days later some of the natives brought us a huge live 9' 10" boa constrictor. Now ladies, imagine a

Mr. Hiss - 9' 10" Boa Constrictor

huge creature like that tied to a post underneath your mango tree where you wash clothes. Every time someone came by, he would puff himself up and make a horrible whooshing sound and strike out at you. Believe you me, every evening before going out to the out-house I would shine my flashlight on him to be sure that he was still tied up!

Which brings me to another subject: Not the haunted house but the "Invaded Out-House." Now during the daylight hours it is bad enough when you can a see the creepy-crawleys. But at nighttime they are "creatures of another color!" I'm not sure why mother nature has to call during the dark hours, but she seems to delight in doing that to me. I cautiously open the door and shine my flashlight all around before entering. And with good cause. As the light shines, the critteres scamper for shelter, and the bats start fluttering back into their secret places down under. When I can't see any more spiders, cockroaches, etc. I feel I can enter. Just as I do, a huge toad jumps toward me, and with heart pounding I retreat...he follows. Once again I try to enter, and this time with no creepy critters, frogs or bats I proceed cautiously with my mission.

One more out-house story. One day I saw Ted and Leif headed for the out-house equipped with a long pole which had a string with a loop on the end. They also had a flashlight. Now what in the world were they up to? I wondered. I couldn't believe what their mission was. Now hold on...they were coming to the rescue of a large lizard that had fallen to the bottom (don't ask me why they were looking down there in the first place!) After an hour in that hot, stinky little out-house, out came the triumphant rescuers with that string around the lizard's neck. They ran to the river to give the poor critter a much needed bath. Then after about an hour Leif sadly announced that his lizard had died. Poor little critter.

We have had a jaguar visiting our village for over a month now. As far as we know, she has killed 14 dogs from our village alone. She also visits across the river where she apparently lives and has killed some on that side also. She is very brazen and comes right up to the houses and even tore down a thin wall where a dog was sleeping and got him. Betsy and Ted have a huge window in their house just above the stairs that lead into their house. We had no way of knowing if this jaguar would eat small children (as the dog supply became diminished) or not. We persuaded Ted to board up that window. One of our close neighbors had their dog attacked right in their little breezeway. Another had the jaguar climb right up their stairs onto their porch. One night she climbed the stairs to the school and was spread out like a queen on the porch! Such brazeness is frightening and intimidating. We had asked the military or the police to help the village out. They just laughed at us and said "that jaguar doesn't bother us!" Well, about 2 weeks ago a new crew came aboard, and their attitude was much better. One of the young soldiers (19) decided that he was going to get that "tiger" as they call jaguars here. So a couple of nights ago the jaguar killed another dog, ate

The two policemen who killed the "Tiger" (Jaguar)

half of it and dragged the rest off a little distance. The young soldier built himself a perch up in a tree close to the half-eaten dog and waited all day. Around 6:00 PM we heard a loud bang and then minutes later another shot. A neighbor came running and told us that they had gotten the "teef" or theif as you know it. What joy! The children put on shoes and long pants and the gang was off to celebrate the death of our enemy. I decided to wait until morning (I fear those snakes). The children came back wide-eyed and excited as they told me about the huge animal. With glee we will now give her remains to the few dogs that are left here at Kaikan. Of course we praised the military man and one of the villagers that helped him. He is a hero for sure.

Ted and Leif were tired of being hit in the head every time they climbed the hill to go to the church or the airstrip. A huge branch was starting to fall and it seemed that each day it got lower and farther out into the trail. So Ted and Leif, with machetes in hand, started out to clear up the problem. All of a sudden they both came tearing down the path swatting at their head and arms. They had invaded a wasps nest. Not to worry. Armed with a torch they marched right back to the war zone and set fire to the nest. End of that problem...or so we thought. Not too much later Dad, who is making a new trail which is straighter and not so steep, came back with the same story. He had inadvertently disturbed another nest.

This jungle seems to hide all kinds of secret weapons which we humans are prone to come upon. Even in the sanctity of our home they come and invade. One morning Betsy came to breakfast with her lower lip all swollen. She looked so pitiful and was in so much pain she could hardly talk or eat. After a few days of hot soaks and charcoal poultices and Ampicillin the wound broke open, and a large quantity of ugly pus came pouring out. It took many more

Ted's hand after the spider bite

days before complete healing came about. Then a little later Ted presented with an ugly looking sore on his ring finger. Every day it got worse and swelled up to about twice the size. To complicate matters he had been using a chisel and had punctured that finger and the one next to it. So we weren't real sure just where the problem lay...the puncture wound or the bite. To make matters worse we had no way of knowing what had bitten him. Some of the natives thought it was as centipede. Anyway. Day after day we soaked that finger and put on charcoal poultices and topical antibiotic. Then to our horror he started to get swollen lymph nodes and red streaks up his arm. We started a dose of Ampicillin, but after a couple of days it was no better, so we put him on Keflex. We continued with hot soaks and kept up a continuous poultice of charcoal. When we would take off the poultice we began to see signs of improvement. Finally after many days the wound broke open, and out poured the infected material. When it was done, he had a huge hole in his finger. The red streaks and lymphs returned to normal. We thank our Heavenly Father for healing. Would you believe that just a few days later Becky woke up with a bite on her finger! We wasted no time in putting on a charcoal poultice, leaving it on constantly. I'm happy to say that hers never developed the seriousness that Betsy and Ted's did. All this at night and in our homes!

Trisha, the Captain's daughter, came last week and

The Scorpion that bit Trisha

showed us a huge black scorpion that had bit her. She had put her hand on her window sill, and hidden behind was that scorpion. Again we applied our faithful charcoal poultice, gave her the famous Especifico P.Pessoa, which is a mixture made in Brazil to counteract poisons from various and sundry creepy-crawley-critters. Some of these scorpion bites are deadly, and I haven't learned yet which ones they are. I was prepared for the worst. We prayed for Trisha and asked for wisdom to treat her. God heard, and after a week she is without any symptoms except for the mark of the sting on her finger.

We are awakened nearly every morning from 3:00 a.m. on by the (wonderful?) sound of the howler monkeys. It is incredible how loud one monkey can be. It sounds like a whole clan of them. They start out very softly with a Uh, Uh, Uh sound as they gain momentum. When the air sack is filled they let it go and my, what a racket! Some are very proud of their sounds and go on and on and on just like the Duracel batteries. We need to inform that advertising company and let them come and record this! It would surely sell.

Until next time this is Grammie Patti signing off.

You may write to Grammie Patti at: gates@andrews.edu

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