While picking up folks for church at Talin on Saturday, I saw a huge brown tarantula crawling on the ground outside. (They are common and we have seen many, especially in Talin, but still, it’s a tarantula! So each time we see one, we still get all excited, and yell “Tarantula”!:-)
But this time, I just calmly said, “There’s a tarantula”, and randomly pointed ‘over yonder’. Since they are so common there, I was sure it would be no big deal, but one lady who was already in the truck nearly panicked, thinking it was INSIDE the truck! I got out to get a close up of it and reassured her that it was OUTSIDE the vehicle!:-)
So we all started watching him crawl around, no one really getting too close, though. About that time, Abuelita Rosa arrived and I showed her the spider. She immediately wanted to kill it and began looking for something to kill it with. With nothing more than the flip flop she was wearing to use, she pulled it off and gave the tarantula a big whack! For a moment, my heart just broke into pieces over her worn out flip flops that she was wearing to church. But I couldn’t think on that, because on the other hand, all I could think was, “Does she really think she can kill a gigantic tarantula that is twice the size of her flip flop with just a whack of it?????” I had to laugh to myself, but also admire her bravery!
No, it did not kill the tarantula, just made him run and hide deep in the grass. So yes, he is still out there! But, You GO Abuelita Rosa!! (And yes, I’m going to buy her some new shoes:-)!!! It was certainly an exciting way to start our church service that day!! What a great life it is here in the Amazon!!!
