"Indy, I feel like we step on fortune cookie"

Remember the Indian Jones movie, "Temple of Doom?" There's a scene in that movie where Indy and his Chinese sidekick are making their way through a pitch-dark cavern. At one point, the Chinese kid makes a heavily accented remark like "Indy, I feel like I step on fortune cookie." Indy then throws a torch to the floor only to reveal that they are waling on a sea of creepy crawlies! I had a somewhat similar experience tonight. I was walking around my Kakuma accommodation in bare feet when I felt something crunch beneath my right foot. I initially thought it was food that I had accidentally dropped on the floor, but on closer inspection I learned that it was actually a millipede that I had "crunched" in half. I found two more millipedes crawling around in my shower. Such creepy crawlies would have given me the chills and nightmares just a year ago. Now my only reaction to the presence of such creatures is a shrug and slight annoyance (...and perhaps the slam of a shoe) - it seems Africa has toughened me in more ways than one. 

Turkana Women in Northwestern Kenya

There are some things that I'll never adjust to here however, namely mosquitoes, the intensity of the African sun and poorly washed linens. I am my brother's sister KABISA (Swahili for completely) in that my skin is naturally fair and insanely sensitive. Put me in a cheap hotel with linens that are moldy or have not been completely washed free of detergent and I will be covered in red welts in no time. Put me outside in the African sun without AT LEAST 30SPF sunblock and I'll be lobster red in a matter of minutes. My boyfriend, who is blessed with a surplus of melanin, finds my sensitivity to the sun most entertaining...to the extent that my sun baked skin is often met with him pressing his hand firmly into my back to see if he can leave behind a hand print..."marking his territory," he says. :p As for mosquitoes, they are the bane of my existence no matter where I go in the world. African mosquitoes, just like their Japanese and Thai cousins, leave huge welts on my skin making me look like some sort of leper. I am one of those people who supposedly has "sweet blood" and will therefore get bit a hundred times over even when nobody else in the area is being bitten. This blog finds me deep in Turkana Land, in Kakuma UN Compound (NW Kenya). Though Somalia and NE Kenya is suffering from drought, this part of Kenya has seen frequent rain. Rain translates into creepy crawly heaven, most particularly mosquitoes. Thankfully, UNHCR has provided my team with mosquito nets though. After being visited by the millipedes in my loo, I've taken the extra precaution of ensuring that my mosquito net has been fully tucked in and that my legs and arms are fully lathered with repellent. :p