Welcome Dave Jo and Grace

Matequenha, (Ma-ti-cain-ya) not sure how one spells it but everyone has it.  They are little black worms, hair thin and about 1/8 inch or 1 or 2mm long.  They burrow under your first layers of skin munch on you and make a nest usually on your toes but they aren’t fussy.  Your sign that this is happening to you is just an itch that you may or may not notice.  Then after a day or two you toe may get a bit sore and red and you’ll wonder what the deal is.  With untrained eye you probably won’t see anything until they are well ripe.  By then you have a red weeping spot with something obviously under your skin.  Pull out a needle and pick at it like you would a splinter and what you will find is a BB sized sack full of little baby worms.  If you caught it at its starting stages the sack is as big as a grain of sand.  Don’t break the sack.  Now you have a nice crater in your skin to heal up.  If you did not notice anything by now (which many people don’t) that sack breaks open and the worms forge new frontiers on your feet.  Among the local population many people don’t bother with them (WHY I don’t know) so it is common to see people walking around very gingerly in obvious pain their entire foot just one huge sore.  I heard a story this morning of a guy that died of Matequenha, he was a person that lived on the streets and had it on his entire body.   It is the worst we have had in all the time that I have been here.  In thirteen years I have had it maybe once or twice.  In the last weeks I have picked out nearly 20 of the critters.  Dave Jo and Grace the new couple that arrived just 3 weeks ago have been the tasty new treats of the house.  Dave picked out 13 yesterday – just in his small toe!!!  Hey welcome to Mozambique!!!  He has had nearly 30 in all, he seems to be the flavor of the month.  The kids tell us that when the rains come this will kill them all, we need rain. 

         The other vermin that welcomed Dave Jo and Grace were fleas.  We are having an out break of fleas now as well.  We have sprayed their house they will move into 5 or 6 times now even with extra concentrated poison but the fleas are not giving up.  When Dave and Jo move into the house we are going to put plastic on the floor in the hopes that this will provide a barrier and kill them but until then we keep spraying.  If anyone has home remedies let us know.  So is that itch a flea or Matequenha?  Either way give it a quick search and look over.  Glad the Mozies haven’t broke out in force yet.  But the thing that will kill the Matequenha  will bring on the Mozies, Hmm Picking worms out of my feet or malaria… decisions, decisions.

         The hot season is just firing up, it got up to 35C 95F yesterday no breeze just muggy humid air.  Welcome Dave Jo and Grace.

         Dave Jo and Grace West come from England.  They are here for a few years to help out Kedesh.  Dave is a teacher by trade and Jo Drama and Arts.  Grace (1 ½ ) will be charming all the boys and widows!!!!  Grace had no problem jumping into her routine and all the widows just loved here and ignored Jo!!  The boys weren’t sure what to do with a little girl at first, but now she has more ‘nannies’ then even the prince.  She even has a new puppy that we acquired ‘curandero’ (witchdoctor… next paragraph) that loves to play with her.    It will be wonderful to have them here adding the dimensions of their lives to Kedesh.

         A goat that was tied up near our place as a part of a witchcraft curse.  We assume it was pointed at us since the curse was put at the end of the walk way we use to come in and out of our house, and there is really no others very close by.  The goat had the red scarf tied to it that ‘holds the power of the curse’ and he was tied up with all the artifacts that go along with it.  The puppy was just kind of hanging out with the goat and had none of the markings.  We cut the goat loose and ran him off.  The blessing of being a cursed goat is nobody will eat you nor mess with you.  The witchdoctor puts a spell on the goat so whoever eats it or takes it into the flock will be cursed.  The particular curse against us was the sickness of a person that had just died and it was ‘put on’ the goat then who ever takes it will get the sickness.  Thus nobody wants to mess with a cursed goat and he gets to roam around free and eat what ever or where ever he wants (except at Kedesh we run them off).  So curses have their blessings!!  The puppy hung out and the boys started feeding it and it has now turned into Graces buddy!!