bees

We had a large nest of bees in our roof (between the iron roof and the ceiling board) at the end of the house and they were really becoming a problem.  They were aggressive and even stung one of the children who was playing at our house last week.  This type of bee is dangerous -- they are so-called "African killer bees" because when they get angry they will swarm and aggressively sting a person and can easily kill someone.  So we needed to get rid of the hive quickly and asked Nelson, the handy-man, to help us.

So, armed with a bottle of Doom (bug spray), Nelson and a student named Kennany brought a ladder over after dark on Tuesday (around 6:45pm) to start the job, and David joined them.  They waited until after dark because the bees are more docile at night.  The plan was that they would spray Doom into the roof to kill the bees, then remove the iron sheet from the roof and clean out the hive.  First, when they went up the ladder, it snapped and collapsed under them!  Thankfully no one was injured and it was only the bottom portion of the ladder which snapped off, so the rest of it was usable and just barely reached our roof.  Then, when they sprayed Doom into the roof and lifted the metal sheet, the bees were not dead yet and began swarming angrily.  

I was inside the house with Elijah and Ketzia, having just given Elijah his bath.  He was playing around the house and winding down for bed.  Suddenly I heard the bees in the roof -- they were so loud it sounded like they were roaring the whole length of the house.  I immediately thought, "That doesn't sound good..." and I was just starting to grab Elijah when David came rushing into the house and said "You should get under a mosquito net so you don't get stung!"  He checked the back bedroom (over which the hive was located) and it was FULL of angry, swarming bees so he slammed the door shut.  I scooped up Elijah and Ketzia and took refuge on our bed under the mosquito net, bringing Elijah's portable DVD player with me so that he would be willing to sit still!  We lay low for a while.  Some bees found their way into the house but thankfully most of them were contained in the back bedroom. 

Slowly the Doom took effect, and eventually the men were able to start scooping dying, drugged bees into a large bucket.  They emptied the hive and collected all the honey (which was sprayed with Doom, but the Zambians said that they would boil it and eat it anyway... not sure what I think about that!). 

Amazingly, in the middle of everything, Elijah fell asleep and I put him into his own bed... and he never even stirred when the men nailed the roof back on!  Thankfully even though the bees were angry, Nelson and Kennany only received a few minor stings on their hands and David didn't get stung at all.  Now I am trying to air out the back bedroom so that I can furnish it for the guests coming to stay with us later this month!