Chiggers: boo!

Normally, this blog is for sharing my deep contemplative thoughts, or sharing a story of cross-cultural significance, to keep friends and family around the world connected with my daily life. It's my way of keeping you involved in the highs and lows of life while living far away from so many of you. So, here's to keeping connected.....

This is something I never thought would be a result of overseas living and ministry: Chiggers.

Now, I grew up in the Northwoods of Minnesota. My summers were spent building forts among the trees. I learned at an early age the proper way to search for and remove ticks after a day in the woods. I know how to bear-proof a campsite and have tried everything known to man to prevent bites from the mosquitoes that are the size of small birds in my back yard. But I've NEVER dealt with chiggers before and I have to say, I hope never to deal with them again.

About a week and a half ago, I spent two days outside doing various activities: A picnic in the grass after church with friends, an outdoor lunch with my church, a BBQ for the Moon Festival with students from my English class near the beach. Somehow over those two days, these little guys found their way onto my skin and burrowed deep.

I initially was afraid all the little red bites that appeared on my skin were bed bugs and I was freaked out. Bed bugs are near impossible to eliminate. I was imagining the discussion with my landlord, buying a new mattress, and figuring out how to clean everything in my room. However, I had no additional little red spots. So then I just assumed they were ant bites from the various outdoor eating adventures and they'd disappear shortly.

Oh, how wrong I was. Now I know that chiggers latch on and after about a week they fall off. THIS is when the itching really happens. And so it did. My arm started to itch like CRAZY and later that night it was near impossible to sleep and the welts on my arm were about 10 times their original size.

Thankfully, with Taiwan national health insurance, I marched into the doctor and for $5 got a diagnosis and some anti-itch cream and antihistamines. But these suckers are gonna itch for a few more days and I'm just gonna whine (a bit...) and shake my head at the crazy things that happen while living overseas. So the moral of the story is....no matter how enticing the grass looks in Taiwan, don't sit in it! And, living for Jesus sometimes requires weird suffering. And, building relationships sometimes costs you physical discomfort! ha ha!