The Scorpion collector in the refugee camp
I live with 1402 scorpions in one room in refugee camp Kakuma. I see scorpions as the second biggest threat in the camp, after malaria. And I want to reduce the number of scorpion stings in Kakuma. I therefore started to collect them, put them in boxes in my room and study them. My dream is to make a museum for scorpions where people will enjoy watching this beautiful creatures in Kakuma refugee Camp! My name is Godfrey Sangu, 38 years old and I am from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am married and a father of one kid, but I left them behind. I fled from my country to Kakuma in 2017 due to insecurity. There was a massive killing of people more especially men and I was forced to leave my family in Congo and ran for safety. I live alone in Kakuma. I crossed the border into Kenya in January 4th 2017 to Nairobi. I spent a few days in Nairobi lodging but life became hard because I ran out of money that I was carrying and there was no any other person I knew to help me out again. As I kept deeply thinking in the lodge because I was remaining with just a few hours to be kick out of the lodge, I chose to go and explain myself to the hotel Receptionist. There I found a kind-hearted lady who advised me to report myself to the UNHCR office. I did not hesitate, I went to the office of the UNHCR and luckily I was received with the open arms. Thereafter, the UNHCR relocated me to Kakuma. I found Life in Kakuma different from that of Congo. For instance, there is harsh environment and life gets hard at some days when the little food received from the UNHCR get finished before reaching the date for another food distribution. But I just push on with life because the important thing was that I have security. Moreover, I like a few things about Kakuma. There is unity and togetherness widely practiced all over the camp. People live happily regardless of where they came from. However, the biggest fear I have lived with in the Camp was the fear for scorpion sting. In my country it was rare to hear or see the scorpion but when I arrived in the Camp I was cautioned to protect myself from scorpions. Besides, I witnessed people being killed by scorpions. To me, scorpions became the second biggest threat after malaria that kills people easily in Kakuma. From there, I started thinking deeply on finding solutions to curb the scorpion bites or stings. I wanted to reduce the cases of scorpion bites in Kakuma. This made me so curious to study scorpions. One day my neighbour killed a scorpion. I requested to be given that scorpion to have a look at it. I looked at it keenly and it was unique at my sight. Afterwards, I developed interest to keep scorpions. Therefore, I started collecting and keeping scorpions in my house. I began keeping one scorpion, then two, then three and after reaching seven, I realised that there are different types of scorpions. I have already identified 6 types of scorpions but according to the researchers, there over 2700 types of scorpions in the world. I have developed a passion for keeping scorpions and I spent most of my time collecting scorpions from the neighbourhood and other parts of Kakuma. I have now 1402 scorpions in my house. want to ensure that scorpions are kept in one place to save people from getting hurt. It is not easy to feed scorpions. I struggle daily to give them food. For instance, I collect cockroaches and feed them to the scorpions. However, the biggest challenge is that I do not have a separate rooms for keeping the scorpions. I keep them in the same room but I have divided this room to have one side for the scorpions and the other side for myself. It is risky but since I'm a passionate scorpion keeper, I always ensure that I'm safe. Scorpions are not like any other domestic animals, they can sting even the owner. So I have to be careful always. I also teach my neighborhood on some of the techniques used to protect from the scorpions. Moreover, I think keeping scorpions in one place is important to me and also to the community because it reduces the number of scorpions around the neighborhoods and this in turn reduces the cases of scorpion stings. Additionally, when scorpions are kept in one place, people do not live in fear. They feel protected and sleep well at night. Now in my area since I started keeping scorpions I have never heard of a scorpion sting and this is what I wanted. My dream is to make a museum for scorpion where people will be coming to enjoy watching this beautiful creatures in Kakuma refugee Camp.
