I got attacked by a PIQUE!!!

For those of you who don't know what a pique is, and to be honest I didn't either until I had one decide to take up residence in my big toe... They are small parasitic bugs that live in the dust that surrounds me in the hot and dry tropical retreat of Paraguay. I still don't have a clue how I got the thing, they tell me that they usually only live in the rural areas or with dogs that hang out in those areas and I'm definitely in the urban areas right now...but all the same I had a friend pay me a visit. The funny thing was that I was sitting with a new-made friend and we were chatting like all Paraguayans do so well, when my toe started to bother me but I thought it was an ant or something crawling over my toe, nothing more. But, as I looked at my toe and saw a white bubble on the edge, the lady asked me what was bothering me and I said it was a blister though I haven't worn any closed-toed shoes since I've been here. She wanted to look at it and when she did, ran from the room, grabbed a needle and some tissue paper and set to work to extract the thing. It didn't hurt at all to have the thing in me though they explain that the bug is called "pique" coming from the Spanish verb "picar" for to itch--that you basically can't stand the itching and that the first thing it does is lay eggs that then grow within your toenails and people eventually die of various side-effects from the infections it causes. Pretty unpleasant! It hurt like a mother to remove and I felt like such an idiot with my leg stretched across the stranger's lap as she dug into my toenail with a household needle. Meanwhile, the teenage sons tried to distract me with questions about vocabulary in English and then with pictures taken via cell phones now provided for your viewing pleasure. I wish that you could see the little black nastiness but the picture provides at least a part of the experience. But, now that it is healing and there is no itching, I trust that she got it all out...I asked if there was a way to avoid them in the future and the constant answer was, well, no. Hopefully this will build my resistance to dengue right?

Well, I just wanted to share my latest adventure...