Bed Bugs and Bananas

My experience with joy and defeat in Africa..

My record thus far is 8 bananas in 24 hours. I must admit I’m pretty impressed with myself. Before venturing off to the unknown lands of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, I wasn’t much a fruit eater but just like everything else in my life, Africa changed that. I am now absolutely addicted to bananas. The little things I find joy in are incredible. For example, after our 6k hike (with our packs) to our ministry location in Kenya, we were SOOO hungry and all we had were squishy bruised bananas. That was the best darn banana I’ve ever had. Mhm.. Joy in small things. Praise God!
Back to what I was saying- I love bananas. They taste great with peanut butter (obviously), they’re awesome with mandozi, and they make a perfect 3am snack. Basically they’re my favorite food for the time being. When we go to the market I usually buy a bundle and store it in my tent. It attracts bugs but you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Well in this case I can 🙂 I guess what I mean is… You win some you lose some. Nope, I feel like its a win/win situation. I get to eat my bundle of bananas and work on my hand eye coordination while killing bugs. Sometimes I kill them with my bible (if I’m real desperate) and I love telling the little suckers they’ve just been owned by the word of God. It’s funny in the moment.. I promise.

POINT #1 of this blog- you don’t always have access to fresh food but when you do, jump on it! Bananas are an awesome way to celebrate the option of fresh fruit but keep in mind they are full of sugar. Healthy sugar is still sugar! I learned the hard way :I Thankfully we are starting the Insanity workout as a team (Philippians 4:13) haha

POINT #2 African busses carry bed bugs. Yes, I have fallen victim to bed bugs. Lucky me.. It’s actually a funny story. Well it will be if that’s the last of them. If I find out I brought them to Tanzania with we I’ll be ticked. So far I’m okay though. So what had happened was, Claire and I were sitting in seats 2 &3. That’s prime for African bus travel. We’re in the front so we get first dibs on bathroom breaks and snacks because everyone knows snacks stay up front. Needless to say we were pretty satisfied with our seats. Little did we know at the time that we had just entered a battle zone for bed bugs. Overall the ride was great. It was six hours of on and off naps and pb&j’s- enjoyable. It wasn’t until today that I realized something was grossly wrong with my lower back. You know the part of your back that peaks out when you bend over or curl up into a ball? Yeah, that region of my back has a good 15-20 decent size bites on it. Because its on my back and I don’t shower too often, I haven’t seen them. That is until I discovered a full length mirror moments before my glorious and rare shower this afternoon. I just happened to turn around and notice the explosion of bites in my back and like any normal person, I had a cow. I put my clothes on and walked into the sitting area where my teammates were sitting. After a few minutes of discussion we realized the only logical explanation is bed bugs on the bus we took to Tanzania. I was curled up in a nice little ball for the majority of the ride and chances are my shirt came up on more than one occasion. Not too much. Just enough to nibble on my back. Now here’s the nail on the coffin.. Or is it roof? How does that saying go? Seal on the envelope? Anyway, this is what convinced me of our genius theory- Yesterday Claire discovered a trillion bug bites on her face, arms, neck and legs. Basically any exposed body part that touched the chair.. So you ask why JUST my lower back and why her face/arms/neck/legs? That’s because Ms. Cuddle Pants was all over the seats and got real comfortable during the six hour journey. Where as myself on the other hand pretty much stayed in one position the whole time.

What have I learned? Wear pants and long sleeves when encountering African travel. 
I may have learned the heard way but hey, you take the good with the bad. Good- an abundance of fresh bananas. Bad- being defeated by bed bugs. 

Oh, Africa, how I love you<3