Friday, July 12, 2013

How many pilgrims does it take to use up a bottle of DEET in one day?

It's 1:15 am in Salvador. I have yet to sleep since my last post three hours ago, and here's why: It all began with playing some card games out in the lunge. We made some new friends, Larissa and Fabio, both Brazilians. It was getting late, and so Caroline and I decided we needed to go to bed. As we washed our feet and tucked into our sleeping bags, Caroline let out a hushed yell of frustration. Her toiletries bag had seemingly melted all over her backpack, and was sticky, smelly, and everywhere. That's where I get involved. I got up to he her empty the contents to find that the bag hadn't melted in the sun as we had thought, but her spray bottle of 100% DEET had leaked into her bag, eroded the bag at the seams, and begun eating away at Caroline's other belongings. OH NO! I instinctively grabbed the whole toiletries bag and ran outside to dump the contents, bringing with me my wet wipes to clean it up. 5 wet wipes later, Caroline came out in her socks with a bag to put her stuff in, but it was too weak. The DEET began eroding away at the stolen airline barf bag (clean), and so she ran inside to find another suitable container. Meanwhile, it began to rain. No, not rain. Pour. Within 30 seconds I was soaked through, in my only pajamas, smelling like DEET and holding Caroline's toiletries. She found a MAGIS official, who gave her a plastic trash bag, and for now that seems to be holding up. I threw away her old toiletries bag and the cracked bottle of DEET. We thought the worst was over, but boy were we wrong. Upon examination of my hands, I came to discover that the DEET had shriveled up my fingers and palms, causing old scars to resurface and dry out everything. I washed my hand and they are better now though. Now I'm in my sleeping bag, exhausted, wet, still smelly, no longer sticky, but thankfully we caught the mess before it ate everything. The lesson for the kiddos at home: 100% DEET bad. Very bad. Day one still isn't over, and I've got more crazy stories. Stay tuned.

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