Attack of the Chinche !!

So coming to Honduras I expected big bugs. And I have definitely found really big BIG bugs and spiders and scorpions …. But really I had gotten used to them until my encounter with the dreaded CHINCHE!







This bug smaller than your thumb is just about the scariest insect I could possibly imagine.
During the day, Chinches hide in crevices in the walls and roofs. The bugs emerge at night, when people are sleeping. Because they tend to feed on people’s faces, chinche bugs are also known as “kissing bugs.” After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. Chinches pass T. cruzi parasites in feces left near the site of the bite wound which causes the horribly dreadful CHAGAS DISEASE.

Chagas at first is no big deal in humans at first. You might get cold like symptoms or a swollen eye but sometimes unnoticeable. The next 20 years are completely asymptomatic phase with no signs that you carry the parasite. Then all of a sudden, after 20 years, chagas disease affects the nervous system, digestive system, and heart. You either die from your digestive system failing and consequential body starvation or from your heart swelling up and basically exploding.

So one night, I came home and the electricity had gone out again. I immediately passed out only to wake up about 1 am because the electricity had come back and I had left my light on. I turn my head to see a chinche right next to my face. AH! I of course freak out but somehow courageously grab my sandal and chase done the sucker until I killed it about three times. When I smashed it, it shot out a stream of blood, UGH I am pretty sure it had gotten me. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night so I baked a couple dozen batches of snicker doddle cookies. Probably the scariest night of my life and I bake vegan cookies – very Martha Stewart.

Fast forward to now I just got tested for the parasite…. And drum roll please……. It came back negative! So I am saved! I am going to get the test done at the end of my service just to be sure but I feel much better now. Also I found out after the fact that there is medicine to kill the parasite but only if you catch it early. If you wait 20 years your screwed. After surviving this – I say – Is that all you got Honduras? C’mon bring it! I’m ready!