Ants in Africa
We lived more or less in the heart of Africa... I don't remember anymore why we stopped and went out of the Landrover, it was close to where we lived. I believe we thought we had hit something hidden in the grass. The road was nothing but two tracks in the high grass.
Within a fraction of a second, my wife and I were covered by thousands and thousands of ferociously biting red ants. We had inadvertently stepped in a hidden column. We jumped a meter high and away, trying in the same second to undress and to get rid of the nasty animals. It is inimaginable. They were crawling and biting everywhere. Even the most modest of women would be naked in a second, trying to swipe the monsters away.
The (happily) few Africans present nearly died with laughter. Some ants of the tropics are really dangerous, and could even kill an adult by the sheer number of poisonous bites, but these were just little red biters, very annoying but rather harmless. It is just that there are so many of them. After we wiped and sweeped the worst away, we started to see the humour of the situation, too. It should have been quite a sight - except a few geriatric priests and even more geriatric nuns we were the only white people around, when our first boy was born, hundreds came from many miles away to see the miracle of a white kid. Now they had a splendid look at a young white couple, naked, jumping, turning, sweeping, brushing and wiping each other to get rid of the little buggers. We are not prudish, there are worse things in life. So the best thing was to try to preserve our last bit of dignity by laughing with them, make our clothes carefully ant free and dress again, giggling as if we always jumped naked around after we got out of the car.
My wife and I only share our fading memories, but these still makes us laugh. No pain, no gain: it was all worth it.
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