Not for the Squemish

Warning: This post tonight is not for the faint of heart!

I had such a day today. Started off running around with the usual interruptions to the tasks I had set out before me today (editing the technical report of our workshop as well as finding some vernacular literacy books and getting them in shape to email to one of the nuns in a Catholic Diocese who wants to do mother tongue literacy in their education programs).

One of the interruptions came when the young woman who helps us in the guesthouse with the cooking and cleaning asked me for some ibuprofen for a headache. No problem - I have a very well-stocked first aid bucket, which we keep for such a time as this. So off I went to the storage area where we keep the well-marked first aid bucket.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the lid. Someone had mistaken the clearly marked first aid bucket for a trash (garbage) can! Worse yet, they had thrown their leftover canned meat (the African version of Spam) into it... and I know who it was because I remember seeing them eating from these cans of meat... and it was nearly 3 weeks ago that they were eating of these cans. So, imagine, leftover canned meat in a sealed bucket, in temperatures in the high 30s (C) (90s F). Not a pretty sight. I have never in my life seen so many maggots and so many maggot eggs. Like I said, this is not a post for the squeamish. Quite a bit of stuff had to just be thrown away, but because of where I live, much of the stuff that is in that bucket is not available locally, and is therefore quite precious. So Mary and I took some of the latex gloves from the kit, a big bowl of bleach water, and started wiping. Thankfully, almost everything in the kit is sealed in plastic, or in glass or plastic containers, so it's pretty easy to wipe it all down. A lot of the bandages and things like that couldn't be saved, though, and they had to be thrown away.

After we wiped everything with bleach, I set everything out in the sun to dry, and to hopefully kill anything else that was left on them. It's amazing what the African sun can do - did you know the UV rays from this hot sun can actually purify water and make it safe to drink? But man, while were were cleaning stuff, it was truly disgusting. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. Some of the cardboard packaging for various bits were completely covered in maggots and their eggs. Ewww.... makes me feel gross just thinking about it! I took a shower this afternoon and completely scrubbed myself from head to toe in antibacterial soap, just because I felt so gross from it all!

It took us much longer than I anticipated to get this stuff all cleaned up, so I ended up working through lunch... and no one bothered to save me anything to eat :( So then I had to come home and cook lunch for myself.

Sometime in the midst of all this, I realized that I had fallen victim to the Nairobi Eye, a small beetle which lives in these parts and looks like this:
They're just tiny little things, and I'm normally somewhat aware of them, but somehow, sometime in the last 24 hours, one landed on the back of my neck, and I squashed it. If you didn't want to read everything on the link above, I'll give you the long and short of it - if you squash them, their blood is poisonous, and causes a burn sort of thing on your skin. It's not serious, just stings like a bad burn. Apparently it goes away in a few days... though I just read online that you're supposed to wash all your clothes and bedsheets etc so it doesn't spread the poison to other parts of your body... sigh... well, it's 1am and I'm not about to get up and wash all my sheets and clothes! I've already washed the little "burn" with antibacterial soap and water and put some antibacterial cream on it. Are you seeing a pattern with my antibacterial soap today?! But don't worry, it doesn't hurt that much, just a little irritating, and I'm sure I won't even feel it in the morning.

However, I had quite a respite from living in Africa this evening - one of the folks who rents a house from our organization (a Christian businessman) took me and Jackie, along with Annamarie (who is his office manager) out for an amazingly posh dinner tonight! We went to the fanciest restaurant in town, and had a wonderful meal! We even had dessert and cappuccino. We sat there on the edge of the River for a few hours, just laughing and talking and enjoying good food. It was a real treat, since I really couldn't justify (or afford!) that restaurant very often! It was nice food, and better service than you get in most restaurants here, but it's really the company that makes for a good night out, not so much the food and wine! It was good company, and we had a few very good laughs. I'm really starting to appreciate the South African sense of humour :) And the best part of the evening was that I didn't have to pay a cent - our friend even drove us in their company's air conditioned SUV! It was so nice.

Then I came home, and it was right back to Africa again - just now, as I went to arrange the pillows on my bed, I felt something a little funny inside my pillow case. Then that something funny started to move! With a bit of a squeal, I dropped the pillow on the floor, and saw it start moving again. I ended up having to pick up the pillow and shaking out the pillow case - lo and behold, a 6 inch long lizard jumped out of my pillow case!

Oh yeah, did I mention the baby cobra that was killed in the yard yesterday? All of our local staff were saying, "ooohhhh, one bite from him and you are finished." I might start wearing my rubber boots in the evening as I walk through the grass to turn off the generator...

Hopefully I'll have something other than snakes, bugs and lizards to write about tomorrow!