Spiders, Chickenpox, plus other icky stuff

***DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE ICKED OUT BY SPIDERS OR FLIES OR CHILDHOOD ILLNESSES, OR ANY PICTURES THEREOF. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.***

It's been an icky week of spiders, flies, and chickenpox. It all started when Tony went to help build that bathroom for a rural church plant.

He was told a really icky, horrible story about a member of our new church who died last year. While he was sleeping, a green fly crawled into his nose and laid eggs. The eggs hatched and the um, you know, babies... ick. I can't even say it. I'll spare you. The person was dead in a few days.

So Tony comes home, drops that bomb of a story, and begins to freak out over the few flies in the house, wildly swinging a towel at any and every one he could see in an attempt to kill them all. My girlie, who overhead the fly bomb story, sat quivering and shaking in the corner crying, "I don't want to die!".

Great, thanks, Tony.

I have to admit, I was a little freaked out, too. Now, I grew up on a farm, so flies don't bother me. At all. We had fly paper hanging above our dinner table in the summer. No big deal. But I was pretty freaked out by this true, and local story.... noting that this will be a long summer, because we have no screens on our windows. No one here does.

In other news, my baby is just getting over the chickenpox. So I guess we can add that to our ever growing list of health challenges here.

Fortunately it wasn't bad, though - and I'd take chickenpox over croup or even the common cold anyday! The oldest two didn't get it (unfortunately - I actually wish they had), because they were vaccinated before I knew what "Varicella" was.

Varicella is NO. BIG. DEAL here. People still kissed her hello and touched her and sent their kids over to play, knowing we had it. Upon finding out, they would just nod understandingly and say, "Oh, it's better they get it now, when young," or, "Oh, yeah, we've had that. It's better they get it. Stronger defenses!"

After a week of quarenteening her (so as not to spread it, not because she was feeling sick or even had a fever), we eventually started going out here and there. No one stopped, wide-eyed, pointing and screaming,

"AHHHH! Disinfect!!!

Juancito, come here! Stay away from that girl, she has (gasp) chickenpox!"

You know, it really was no big deal a generation ago. Chickenpox is not fatal. We got it and lived to tell about it.

In other news, it's been a week of spiders.

After our big spider friend popping in for dinner last week, my boy got to hold a tarantula. (I earned serious Mommy brownie points with that one.)

Don't worry, it's dead. The pet shop owner, a guy from church, wouldn't let him hold the live one. He was afraid it would get scared, fall, and die. I was actually okay with him holding the live one, though. He is old enough and knows all about spiders. And the bites from these are no worse than bee stings. At least, that's what they say. Well, good thing, because they live here up in the dry cliffs surrounding the city, and all over the Patagonian Desert. Tony has remarked that we never would have come here had we visited first and found all this out.

Our friends and neighbors three blocks away found two mature adult Black Widows in their house last night! (I will not insert a photo for all you arachnaphobes. They are actually Red Back spiders, cousin to the black widow and just as deadly, having a red stripe on their back instead of a red hour-glass on their bellies.)

We actually stayed at their house for 10 days, not ever-so long ago, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, until we were able to find our house here. I was on the lookout for spiders, mostly because we are a homeschooling family and, thanks to my son, I now know way too much about all things venemous than I ever cared to know. I killed whatever ones I found huddling in corners by our mattresses just in case, but, fortunately, didn't see any black widows.

Anyway, they caught and killed one, the other got away. Now they will take it, safe in a glass jar, to the local Police Station. If you can show them proof that you found one, they will come and fumigate your house for free. Nice.

Now, excuse my while I finish cleaning my whole house, top to bottom! So far this morning I haven't found anything, and hopefully I won't!

I will sweep and sweep and pray as I sweep, and check every corner and under everything. More I can not do but trust in God.

:)