another one involving the bathroom.

seriously, people.

what a week it was at the zoo house.

i had my first run in with a molokau (poisonous centipede). and wait for it... i didn't just run into 1, i ran in to 2 of the critters. 2 in 2 days. 2 too many. yuck. excuse my language, but these guys just suck. they pinch you hard and it feels like a bee sting. i'm not convinced they help out mother earth at all except for being fakahela (annoying).

don't worry. i didn't get pinched. the first one i ran into i sprayed with good 'ole mortein black label and the second one... well that's a story i think you should hear.

my friend dominica was visiting. we were enjoying some cold water and talking about what to do with my 90 bananas that are all now ripe when i decided to go into the shower to hang up a towel.

i step into the shower area and look at the floor.

a sound then escaped my mouth that was sort of a cross between a half scream and a dog being tortured. this was quickly followed by, "no, no, no, NO!" and curled up on the floor is this guy. he's sitting perfectly still so i think he's dead. dominica does too. we grab the mortein again and spray him. he unrolls to show us just how menacing he really is. sick.

  

to give you an idea of how big he was, he measured from the bottom of my hand to the tip of my middle finger (about 7 or so inches long).  

dominica then says "get me the biggest knife you have". and i walk back into the kitchen area and find a butcher knife. we stop for a picture.



and then doms charges the bathroom like a bull. knife above her head, she goes into the shower area and chops mr. molokau to bits. as she is doing this she is giving me advice on how to deal with these guys in the future (doms has been in tonga for 3 years and will be returning to america in january). she tells me that they can actually regrow parts (excuse me? huh?) and stay alive for a long time, so it's very important that you chop up the molokau into very tiny pieces. meanwhile, i'm still making the yelp/scream/dog noises and have my hands on my face and am secretly trying to decide how i am going to sleep in my bed because i now imagine hundreds of molokau crawling through the walls. and there isn't much i can do to stop the molokau from coming. the only thing i can really do is be prepared. the weather in tonga has been very humid and very wet, so i'm thinking that's why these little demons have made their new home in my house. so i've decided that i am going to continue to sleep with a butcher knife next to my bed.