I was sitting and listening to the Doctor giving us instructions during training so many months ago. He was talking about various things we need to be aware of and take care of, malaria, skin infections, parasites, and things of that nature.  Our medical kits were stocked full of stuff from pepto to dental floss. Little did I know that besides taking the antibiotics to treat skin infections I would need the needle above all else. The doctor instructed us to use the needle to extract parasites. I thought he was crazy, but had heard stories. Volunteers that have been in country are more than familiar with these little guys.

I first got one after being at site for three months then another one a few weeks later. I did not know what it was, my foot hurt like I had a splinter or something. Our neighbor Séance was over and I had him take a look. It was a parasite sure enough. I handed him a needle and he went to work. It was on the bottom of my foot so I couldn’t see him work. He was very used to picking them out. He himself gets them. Actually it is very common. I have seen kids picking them out. Once he delicately plucked it out after digging a hole in my flesh he burned it over a lit candle. Death by fire is the only way. How did I get them? Was my health so weak that I am vulnerable to attack? Or is it wrong place at the wrong time. What about my skin infection I still have? Is that keeping me from finding off these pests? To make us more uneasy Frank, one of our many neighbors, told us that the parasites like to live under our bed, because they like dry places. UNDER THE BED! 

Martin, our language tutor, helped Faith extract her first one. She pulled out the other three all out of her pinky toe. By the time she got them all, her toe looked like an exploited mined field. The technique to evict these guys is simple. Dig down into the skin toward the little black dot with a little ring around it. The black dot is the mother and the light colored ring surrounding her is the egg sack. Yes, eggs. When you reach the nest you squeeze it like a zit and burn it all. The black dot is a little worm looking thing. When it is not gotten to quickly on discovery it can grow rather long. Yes, I have seen them long.

By the time I went to Tamatave in late October I had had four, which matched Faith’s count. We were neck in neck, a race for chocolate. At the end of November, who has the most wins a big box of yummy chocolates that I will pick up in Tamatave. Well, I took out five this morning. It was a blood bath. These guys needed to be taken out days ago. It was nasty, they were well developed, the parasites were long and thin, the eggs were individually identifiable a.k.a. in a later stage development. There was pus, blood, skin, eggs, and parasites. My toe was like a road under construction, skin mayhem. I was going for genocide, but I probably have more, actually there will be more. I haven’t seen the last of them. So, my count is nine to Faith’s four. I am in the lead, yea me, I rather lose.

I was told by a health volunteer that these guys like to hang out in pig feces. That is what we use in our compost. We have a new piggy friend living behind us. Armond, our Malagasy partner, raises a pig every year. He kills it and sells the meat on independents day June 26^th. Hearing that pig get slaughter at two o’clock in the morning was dreadful. Next year we will not be around. So there is a lot of pig manure around.