Rock You Like a Hurricane

So I’m walking through the rainforest during a cyclone… Okay, so actually it is the remnants of a cyclone that was headed to Madagascar, in other words 5 days of heavy rains. Plus it’s the rainforest, so it would likely be raining anyways. The paths turned into waterfalls and the trip was a soaking wet yet fun time. So we eventually get to the small town we are staying the night in, before I head back home and the rest of my group heads on to the east coast city of Tamatave over a week long hike. The group was a collection of local farmers’ groups, aid workers and some out of town folks, inspecting the rainforest for deforestation and investigating possible tourism routes. So while sleeping in my tent in the forest, I wake up at 2:30 am to a searing pain in my face. After frantically trying to douse it with water or figure out what the pain is, once morning dawned I was able to find the culprit: a scorpion, still curled up in my tent. So I tell the locals I am with about this, and they take the scorpion and put it in a bottle of locally-brewed rum (taoka), and tell me that when the scorpion dies the poison (mild) will mix with the alcohol to form a medicine; the antidote! Of course, they point out that the sting is not deadly, but since it was on my face it was merely extremely painful. On my nose was the sting, and my sinuses were burning all day as I hiked home. The “antidote” was supposed to be spread over the pain… I think the alcohol was just supposed to numb the pain. Whatever it was, it did not provide much relief, but by the next day I was perfectly fine and had the added souveneir of a scorpion floating preserved in a bottle of alcohol. Really a win-win situation, and a good story to boot. Ah, Madagascar.