I have met many new and interesting insects, bugs and spiders while here in Uganda. Large cockroaches, big black shiny beetles....(beetles of all shapes and sizes and colors actually), Dangley-legged wasps, giant spiders, stick bugs, brown crickets with long and long legs, sugar ants by the millions, multiple types of massive millipedes, super-sized snails, filthy dung beetles, beautiful butterflies and these teeny tiny insects that come by the trillions to "clean-up" anything in no time at all!! BUT... past week, I met a bug to top them ALL.....

.....i met the Ugandan JIGGER (known in other parts of the world as the CHIGGER)...kind of a cute name for a bug right? well....don't let the name fool you! The JIGGER is a tiny insect, kind of like a flea....only this insect burrows into your feet and settles in to start a family...

My JIGGER burrowed into my 4th toe (the toe next to the baby toe) and snuggled in just underneath the edge of my toenail. I didn't notice it right away...so it cozied-up and began to grow....and prepare top lay eggs!!

One morning I said, "my toe is paining?! I wonder why?" .....I examined my toe to find that it had been bleeding, and I wondered how I could have injured it without having felt any pain...confused...I began to carefully clean the area...Expecting to find a wound... instead, I found a swollen, whitish bump about the size of a pencil eraser...he bump was surrounded by what looked like infection...inflammation....
Really confused now, and a little worried, my mind raced through information, details, and facts about Uganda before resting on one word... JIGGER!!

Panic filled me as I ran to ask a friend if what I expected was true...one look and he confirmed my fears!! I definitely had a parasite keeping house in my toe!! I immediately told him to get the branch clippers or panga (machete) and take the entire toe OFF!! Of course he refused...and a safety pin was used instead to dig out the JIGGER. It took about 15 minutes f digging around and opening the end of my toe and rooting out that nasty bug...FINALLY it was successfully pulled out!! PHEW!!!

I was expecting to see an ugly creepy crawly...but instead what came out of my toe was a fleshy cacoon of some sort...very disgusting... yuck!!
I was left with a large crater at the end of my toe and partly under the toenail...where my JIGGER had been happily raising it's family..but after cleaning and bandaging...It was pain free and I was happily on my way to recovery. :) I cannot describe the relief to have that parasite out of my body!! Thanks to my good friend Roger for being willing to dig it out for me!! I am hopeful that no eggs remain behind...and that this initiation will be my ONLY encounter with the dreaded JIGGER!!