Still an Idiot

So I’m still paying for my stupidity back on Sau Vicente. (The whole walking through the flood fiasco). Shortly after arriving in Praia (I’m on the island of Santiago for the next three weeks to help out with the training of the new group of volunteers) I developed what I thought was a severe case of athletes foot. There were some tiny little poison-ivy-esque blisters on the bottoms of my feet, and they itched like you couldn’t possible imagine. Heeding the Peace Corps medical advice, I liberally applied the pomade di pe (foot cream) that comes in our medical kits. Usually that helps the athlete’s foot itch, but this time it didn’t even make a dent.

Well it has quickly become clear that this is something more than a bad case of foot itch. The little blisters became really really big blisters, and hurt so bad that it pained me to walk anywhere in flip flops, and shoes were absolutely not an option. Then two days ago, one of them popped and...well...something came out of it. Something alive. A tiny little writhing something. I nearly passed out from the horror. Having consulted a really really old lady in the streets of Assomada, I now believe that I have managed to contract something called borginhas, which is actually a bug that lives in the poop of pigs, and enters the human body through the bottom of the foot, where it lays its eggs in little sacks (the itchy blisters) where they grow for a few days before being brought into the world in the form of the broken pussy blister. So I’ve got that going for me. The worst part is that the broken blisters are now pretty large, VERY painful cuts that are very hard to keep clean, and are Defintiely going to leave some nasty scars. According to the old lady, I probably managed to get these little parasites while walking in the floodwaters of Mindelo, which likely contained the poop of dozens of different types of animals.

Anyway, tonight I’m on headed to visit my host family, where hopefully Palmeria can inspect my foot for signs of any further infection, and dig out the remaining eggs sacks. Never in my life did I think I’d need an old African lady to dig egg sacks out of my feet. Gotta love the Peace Corps.

The good side to all of this is that Peace Corps has got me in a very decent hotel in Assomada...complete with air conditioning and hot water, so at least I’ve been otherwise comfortable while I’m going through this nasty business.

In other news, the new group of trainees seems to be doing well. Next week I’ll be giving them a talk about school gardens and the effects of the Food Crisis in Cape Verde, and we’ll talk about projects and other things they can do in relation to that. Plus the Northern kriolu classes will start next week, which should be interesting.