blister beetle attack

heyyy!!!!

its been awhile. i'm sorry. i really dont even have anything exciting to report...i just feel guilty if i'm in lome without blogging. why am i in lome, you ask? well...its a funny story, really...

so... i woke up one day with a red, sore, burning patch on my neck(-ish) and i was all like "OH NO!" but i went about my normal, everyday life...

the next day, it appeared to be getting bigger (blisters galore--gross) and was extremely painful.

the following day (day 3), i woke up with another patch in between two of my fingers and a third patch on my FACE!!!! at this point, i called the medical unit, convinced that whatever it was, i acquired it while swimming in a lake with some friends:

BUT....it turns out that my lake swimming adventure (which was amazing, by the way) was not the cause of my quickly spreading, quite scary looking blister infestation.

so, anyways, the doctor told me to come down to lome (here i am) and then we went to the dermatologist because she still wasn't sure what it was. turns out, i was viciously, yet secretly, attacked by a BLISTER BEETLE!!! :

these beetles are highly toxic, often causing blisters on the skin and consumption is usually fatal. thank god i did not decide to eat the thing! apparently, i killed it on my neck (patch 1) with my hand (patch 2) then proceeded to rub the toxic slime all over my face (patch 3).

so anyways...i am in lome now, recovering from this brutal beetle attack! i shall return to post tomorrow...

hope that this story finds you well...

take care!
love and misses,
-k