It wasn't much of an eventful day here really, for me anyway. We went on an 8 kilometer hike into the mountains on Sunday. And about 15 minutes outside the village I decided it would be a good idea to trip, fall, and, gracefully I might add, sprain my ankle. So I have been taking it easy the past few days. I spent most of my day indoors turning my ankle into a human ice cube and resting.
Just when I thought the day was over and I was going to have to accept the fact that my day didn't necessarily consist of anything one would consider productive or action-packed, something exciting happened (well, what a nurse would deem as exciting anyway).
Jiggers...
Jiggers...
It sounds like a weird dance move doesn't it? Jiggers...If you aren't aware of this term, be glad. Madagascar was a magical, wonderful place until the reality of a Jigger unfolded its ugly head. It all started when Laura found an abnormality with one of her toes. Don't worry, I'll spare you the gruesome details. But I sat with her on the side of the bathtub in the bathroom as she performed a minor surgery on her toe. We weren't sure of what it was. Thinking maybe she extracted a fungus from the pedicure place here, or maybe something had crawled under the toenail, we decided that we weren't okay with either explanation and just wrapped it up and decided to take the ever so popular "wait and see" approach.
As dinner was being prepared, some of us were sitting around the table talking and doing team-like things. Laura's toe was hurting more and more as the day went on, and at this time it was really starting to make her uncomfortable. It was a little inflamed and red. It just wasn't getting better. I'm not sure who it was, but someone made a connection that changed the course of our evening. Jiggers (aka sand fleas). We were warned about these heartless creatures a while back and didn't think of them until this moment. We decided to educate ourselves and went straight to Google, and onward to Wiki-pedia.
We discovered that the next step of action was to attempt to extract the creature, but the key was to make sure not to puncture the egg sack. Yes, you read correctly. As the creature makes a burrow under your skin, it makes itself at home as it lays babies. Matt and I (the eager nurses that we are) accepted the challenge. Rubbing alcohol, gauze pads, tweezers, toe nail clippers, and q-tip in hand we started our quest for this rude inhabitant of Laura's toe.
As I held the flash light (or what they call a "torch" here) over Laura's toe, we were having a hard time differentiating between her toenail, the nail bed, her skin, and the thing we were now all eager to kill and destroy (egg sack intact, of course). We worked through dinner as Laura gripped the side of the chair she was sitting in. She was a trooper though, really. We realized that what Laura had done earlier that day in the bathroom was take the actual flea out. And the unfortunate reality hit all of us at that moment. She removed the culprit, but its descendants were left behind and incubating happily under Laura's toenail.
We could only do so much and we tried our best, but poor Laura had to rest. So we stopped, cleaned the wound, wrapped it up, and decided to give it some time. As we were putting the finishing touches on Laura's toe, Kai decided that it would be a wise idea to check each other's feet after seeing such a series of unfortunate events unfold in front of his eyes. As these words were leaving his mouth, he led the way and started to check his feet first. There wasn't even a pause after he had finished his sentence that the words "Oh no" left his lips. He too, was made a host by one of these ever so impetuous animals. Luckily, Kai's was much easier to remove and he walked away uninjured.
I apologize for such an extensive and detailed blog about a subject that most wouldn't find necessarily riveting to read. But it was an exciting day for the two nurses here in Madagascar.
God has been teaching each member of this team something different as we have been here in Manakara, Madagascar. We have been reading through Romans together. And this week was Romans chapter 5. During our weekly Bible study after all of this had taken place, Kai made a interesting point that we all needed to hear. Romans 5: 3-5 reads "Not only that, but we rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Kai shared that we should be rejoicing in all the suffering we endure here. Whether that be persecution, living life here without our American comforts, enduring a sickness, or even these sand fleas. We should be rejoicing and praising God for every experience we have, despite how good or bad it may seem to us.
It's only a month in, and God is teaching us so much. We look forward to what He has in store for us next. But we are hoping that it will involve less creatures that take joy in making their homes under our skin. Please continue to pray for our team as this journey continues!
As dinner was being prepared, some of us were sitting around the table talking and doing team-like things. Laura's toe was hurting more and more as the day went on, and at this time it was really starting to make her uncomfortable. It was a little inflamed and red. It just wasn't getting better. I'm not sure who it was, but someone made a connection that changed the course of our evening. Jiggers (aka sand fleas). We were warned about these heartless creatures a while back and didn't think of them until this moment. We decided to educate ourselves and went straight to Google, and onward to Wiki-pedia.
We discovered that the next step of action was to attempt to extract the creature, but the key was to make sure not to puncture the egg sack. Yes, you read correctly. As the creature makes a burrow under your skin, it makes itself at home as it lays babies. Matt and I (the eager nurses that we are) accepted the challenge. Rubbing alcohol, gauze pads, tweezers, toe nail clippers, and q-tip in hand we started our quest for this rude inhabitant of Laura's toe.
As I held the flash light (or what they call a "torch" here) over Laura's toe, we were having a hard time differentiating between her toenail, the nail bed, her skin, and the thing we were now all eager to kill and destroy (egg sack intact, of course). We worked through dinner as Laura gripped the side of the chair she was sitting in. She was a trooper though, really. We realized that what Laura had done earlier that day in the bathroom was take the actual flea out. And the unfortunate reality hit all of us at that moment. She removed the culprit, but its descendants were left behind and incubating happily under Laura's toenail.
We could only do so much and we tried our best, but poor Laura had to rest. So we stopped, cleaned the wound, wrapped it up, and decided to give it some time. As we were putting the finishing touches on Laura's toe, Kai decided that it would be a wise idea to check each other's feet after seeing such a series of unfortunate events unfold in front of his eyes. As these words were leaving his mouth, he led the way and started to check his feet first. There wasn't even a pause after he had finished his sentence that the words "Oh no" left his lips. He too, was made a host by one of these ever so impetuous animals. Luckily, Kai's was much easier to remove and he walked away uninjured.
I apologize for such an extensive and detailed blog about a subject that most wouldn't find necessarily riveting to read. But it was an exciting day for the two nurses here in Madagascar.
God has been teaching each member of this team something different as we have been here in Manakara, Madagascar. We have been reading through Romans together. And this week was Romans chapter 5. During our weekly Bible study after all of this had taken place, Kai made a interesting point that we all needed to hear. Romans 5: 3-5 reads "Not only that, but we rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Kai shared that we should be rejoicing in all the suffering we endure here. Whether that be persecution, living life here without our American comforts, enduring a sickness, or even these sand fleas. We should be rejoicing and praising God for every experience we have, despite how good or bad it may seem to us.
It's only a month in, and God is teaching us so much. We look forward to what He has in store for us next. But we are hoping that it will involve less creatures that take joy in making their homes under our skin. Please continue to pray for our team as this journey continues!
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