Confronting my biggest fear… while naked

Last Tuesday morning, the power was out again. My house is made of concrete and has no paint so despite having windows it is still very dark inside our house during the day. That being said, I got up, got a bucket of water from the well in the back, which my host mother complemented wonderfully with a small pot of boiling hot water so its not freezing, then headed to the bathroom to take a bucket bath like I do every morning. However, this morning a hopefully rare surprise awaited me. As usual I scoped the bathroom for spiders, scorpions, rats and cock roaches. Seeing none in the dark, I de-robed, hopped in and began to lather up.  I squat in the shower to prevent lot of splashing since the shower curtain has holes in it. It is important to mention the squatting since my delicate parts were close to the floor in this vulnerable position. So while naked, squatting, and soapy, I see something crawl quickly to my side, inches away from my right foot. I look over and see a TARANTULA bigger than my fist!!!!!  Without thinking, I screamed and jumped over the toilet, slipped on the floor since I’m soapy remember.  As I’m about to open and run out the door, I realize, “Holy shit, I’m naked!!!” So I have to grab my robe which is now eerily close to the tarantula that is crawling its way up the wall. That being said, I grab my robe, shake it vigorously (in case he has friends hanging out in there), and wrap it around me. Then I run to my room grab my super-size can of RAID and RAID bomb the shit out this monster.  Imagine a mushroom cloud of raid. There is no way, I’m not getting cancer because of this. Despite the Raid bomb, this damn thing still lives and slowly creeps its way out of the bathroom. It’s obviously struggling so I stomp on it. Then my host mom walks by and stomps on it again to make sure its dead.

The funny thing is I did not realize or did not want to admit that I had just bathed with my biggest fear, a fucking tarantula until my host mother said, “Pico caballo grande!” Finally, validation from the woman who constantly tells me that all the spiders in my room are small or skinny. Trust me, they’re neither. Furthermore, they call Tarantulas, Pico Caballos or horse biters here because when they bite horses, they paralyze them!  So yea, I had a dangerous tarantula in my bath, inches from my lady parts that could paralyze me with its venom. I can't think of worse place to bit by a tarantula than my lady bits. 

In other news, with the help of the sun, I accomplished an integration goal this weekend.  I got into a cab which happened to have 2 other Peace Corps volunteers in it that I do not know and they both thought I was Nicaraguan!!! That is of course until I opened my mouth and spoke Spanish in my distinctly American accent, lol. Oh Nicaragua, how I love you.