Hay There

August 28th, 2009

So, about that bad karma.  Today I’ve been up since 3:00 and it wasn’t due to the usual suspects. (Those being roosters, cicadas, and people using the bathroom.)

 At three I woke up because I heard the crinkling of candy wrappers underneath my long-sleeved thermal shirt. Candy wrappers!

I thought that it was all a little strange-especially since I don’t eat candy and didn’t eat any candy the night before. Did Trent eat a buttload of candy? Leah? How did it get down my shirt?

I rolled over on my back. Crinkle, Crinkle. Weird. I touched one of the wrappers underneath my white shirt. It moved.

I ripped off my shirt as fast as I could to reveal four large, one-inch-in-diameter beetles, scuttling around my skin.

The did not leave willingly-they had to be picked off one-by-one and one was systematically killed for souvenir purposes. I decided not to wake up Trent or Leah. If they were infested with beetles, ignorance was bliss, and if they weren’t, it would be annoying to be woken this early.

Sleep for me however, was a lost cause. I grabbed Trent’s copy of the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback and began reading. I was four chapters in by the time the sun began casting light on the steaming jungle that surrounded us. The beetle that I thought I killed was gone. All evidence of the night before, destroyed.

In addition to assisting with the construction of a new latrine and kindergarten foundation, we saw more than five hundred people at the traveling clinic. Some cases were quite serious- locals were showing signs of cancer and the early intervention could have saved their lives. Others just needed some help with pain management. Although most of this work is temporary, it’s good to know that we’re helping in a small way. The group is a pleasure to be around and moral is high.

I need to find a story. Now.