So, I was back in Gougoudje and my right foot was starting to swell up. There was a small red bump on the top and a large bump on my ankle. Foot infections are very common in Guinea, probably because it is pretty hard to keep your feet nice and clean all the time. You either have to wash them constantly or where close toed shoes all the time which can be a pain. During the rainy season, exposed feet get covered with mud. During the dry season, exposed feet get covered with dust. And there isn’t much in between the mud and the dust. I suspected that the swelling was being caused by an infection of some sort. By this time you may have already heard about this incident because I believe my mom made a post about it on facebook. Anyway, I was also concerned that the lump on my ankle (which seemed to be growing) being caused by something else. I’ll warn you now, if you’re easily grossed out, you may want to skip the next paragraph.

So, during PST we learned about several nasty sounding insects, one of which was the Tumbu Fly. This fly lays its eggs on your clothes while they’re outside drying. Then when the eggs hatch, they burrow under your skin and grow. When they have reached adult size, they emerge from your skin and fly away. Super gross right? Well, I had recently suffered a particularly itchy mosquito bite on my ankle which I had stupidly scratched open. The wound had almost healed but the skin was new and very week. A perfect place for the fly to lay its eggs. I had also just worn socks that weren’t dry yet and had been sitting out all day.

I was concerned enough about the swelling by the time I got back to site that I called the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) and asked if I could come in for treatment before I left for Senegal. I was very excited to see Kelsey and I didn’t want a foot infection to ruin the trip. I got the ok to come into Conakry and they gave me some powerful antibiotics that took care of the infection which turned out to be the small red bump on the top of my foot. The other bump on my ankle remained a mystery. I still don’t know exactly what it was. But no flies ever came out so it wasn’t the Tumbu Fly! If you don’t believe me that such an awful creature exists, read this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbu_fly

I had left for Conakry on Friday and by Tuesday night my foot was feeling much better so I hopped in a bush taxi early on Wednesday morning to start my trip to Senegal…