5/12/10
So Madagascar has these things called parasy (fleas) and the word refers both to the fleas that an animal can get AND a type of flea that burrows in the bottom of your foot and lays eggs. Needless to say, I was absolutely horrified of the latter type when I learned of its existence, and even more so when I was told that all of the volunteers in my region get a lot of them. Parents regularly check their kids feet for them in my town. I have been questioning volunteers about them as they get them, mostly because I was more afraid that I would get one and mistake it for a mosquito bite and leave it there long enough for the eggs to hatch (not even sure if this is possible, but it’s a terrifying thought!). We were given sterile needles in our med kit for the sole reason of digging them out of your feet. Even that sounds disgusting, but when you get one you have to make sure you get it and all its eggs out of your foot. One of my friends got a bunch a few weeks ago and said that they lay a string of white eggs.

I’ve been holding off on writing about these lovely creatures until I actually got one. The other night I was up all night coughing from my cold, and at one point I itched my foot and, sure enough, discovered a parasy. I’m not even sure how to describe how I knew, it itches a little, but is also kind of sensitive when you push on it. I almost got up in the middle of the night to dig it out, but held off until the first thing in the morning. As disgusting as the whole thing sounds, it wasn’t actually bad. Kind of like digging a splinter out. I can definitely see why the kids scream and yell when their parents find one. Imagine coming at your kids with a needle, but having to dig one of these little creatures out. It puts American kids to shame.

As you are reading this I am on my way / at In Service Training (IST). After 3ish months at site volunteers go back to get a little more training, usually advanced language and technical training. Usually, here in Madagascar, the training is only a few days long, but since we had a shortened training because of the whole Niger situation, they are giving us a full 2 weeks. As much as I hated Pre Service Training by the time we were done, this is going to be way better. The things that suck about PST are that you are constantly learning without any breaks, that you have no rights as a volunteer, and you are forced to be together with either all the volunteers or your host family the entire time. This training will be much more relaxed, we already speak the language and we get to stay on the training site. Granted we all have to bring our counterparts for the first week (so there will be 35 volunteers and 35 malagasy counterparts, plus the PC staff running around—going to be a packed house!) which will just be kind of awkward. I mean I’m bringing Lucette which will be fun, but most people are bringing someone from their work, who they are not necessarily friends with. Who knows what the hell they expect us to do with them for a whole week.

I am very much looking forward to seeing all my friends though. I see the people in m region often, but it’s so expensive to talk on the phone (it costs almost as much to call each other per minute as it does to call home) that I haven’t had longer than a 5 minute conversation with anyone out of my region since leaving. Which means, all communication with my closest friends here, has basically been limited to funny text messages with a day delay in responding. I was on the phone with Kelly today and we both had to call each other back because we ran out of credit and we were laughing about how wonderful it will be to have a complete conversation without someone having to run back to the store to buy credit, or climb a hill to get service. We’ve already decided that were going to hide out at this little pizza place she used to go when she was a kid and drink beer and chat until they kick us out. Its going to be wonderful.

Well that’s all that’s new for now, but I’m sure ill have a lot to write about in a few weeks.