When You Come to Ethiopia Bring Your Closed Toe Shoes!

This is one of those universally unappealing “gross-out” stories. One that will make even the most loyal of our blog readers reconsider their commitment to our posts. This is one of those stories that they recreate in painful detail in a Discovery Channel special… I know, because I watched one of them… and it totally freaked me out.

This is a story about insects… that burrow under your skin… and lay eggs!!!

Yes, Ethiopia has them. Here, they’re called chiggers. But no one told me about these things until it was too late. It started with persistent pain in my right middle toe. At first it was a slight annoyance, but within a few days it was painful to walk or put on shoes. I noticed a small white bulge under the toenail with a black dot in the center. This bulge continued to grow, and grow, and grow until it was a large painful bump. In an attempt to release the pressure I soaked the bulge and asked Jeff to poke it with a needle. At first we thought the subsequent white substance oozing out of my toe was pus, but careful examination revealed something much more distressing. Small, white worms. Larvae actually. From a flea that burrowed under my skin, laid eggs, and died. Yuck! Jeff took great joy in my distress. Reveling in my chigger-toe-ness. Until a few days later when he began to notice a painful bump on his left big toe. Chiggers! Now we’re even!

To make up for that unpleasant image, here’s a funny picture of a child on a small donkey.