War of the worlds

Let me paint a picture for you...


Richard is sick and needs to spend night in clinic.  He refuses until I offer to stay with him.  Everyone else being concerned for my safety, also decides they must stay in the clinic.  Two boys, one uncle, Richard, and me later, we are ready to sleep in the cramped quarters we call a clinic.  Richard has the only bed, I have the chair next to it, uncle is on the waiting bench, and the 2 boys are on the floor.


Of course I am not tired, and cannot fall asleep.  Everyone else is passed out, snoring.  AND THEN, my war began.


If anyone has been in a kind of tropical country, you can attest for the size of the gigantic killer cockroaches that inhabit them.  Uganda is no different.  The cockroaches are huge and disgusting and everywhere.  Because they are so enormous, they make very much noise when they are moving.  They actually sound like mice scurrying around.


So I was tired of the chair and decided to sleep on the ground.  As soon as I laid down, I heard the scurrying.  I kept trying to tell myself I was imagining such things but when the cockroach was touching my face, I kind of couldn't ignore it any longer.  Anyone that knows me knows my number one fear is insects.  So you can imagine how I was feeling to have a cockroach on my face...


Because my logic is always sound, I decided if I got back in the chair the cockroach could in fact NOT get me.  It worked, until I decided to lean on the table to sleep.  There staring back at me was the same "little" bug that had just crawled on my face.  I decided it must die for its crimes (Again if you know me you know I don't agree with killing things hardly ever and especially not insects with hard shells because the sound is gross :-( ).  I realized I couldn't use my shoe, because that is just gross so I picked up Richard's and hit it.  Keep in mind this is all happening in the dark when everyone else is SOUND asleep.  It appeared to be dead and so I brushed it to the floor and hit it again for good measure.  Obviously giant cockroaches are much harder to kill than I thought.  I decided it was time to get my phone to use for light and found the roach on its back.  Then it started spinning in circles somehow.  As if the scurrying noise didn't make me want to run, that noise definitely did.  So I hit it a couple more times and then pushed it to the other side of room.


Feeling like a hero and I had won, I decided the floor was safe to sleep on again.  I was feeling so good about myself.  I killed a monster bug.  I didn't scream.  I didn't wake anyone.  I was feeling invincible.  So I laid back on the floor again and was starting to fall asleep when I heard it again.  I search for my phone, to get some light and don't see any bugs anywhere.  After some time searching, I find it and try to kill it and FAIL miserably and it runs off.  Now there is an angry cockroach out to get me for my  murder attempt.  So I decide to pray because I realized God has nothing better to do than to protect me from cockroaches.  Oh I also turned the other way and put my feet by where it was because again its not like those things can run to the other side of the room or anything.  So in doing so, I then get kicked in the head by one of the boys but I actually start to fall asleep.  


Suddenly, I am startled awake only to find my "friend" on the door staring at me.  I sit up with a start, and then think I am dreaming because I don't see it anymore.  But then I did see it and by the time I got a shoe, it was gone again.


Now I just know they are plotting against me and the cockroaches are totally winning.  I decided if I turned over, it couldn't get me.  That is when it started crawling on my arm, and I am awoken again.  Each time, I am wide awake and all I hear are the boys snoring, completely unaware and oblivious to the life or death match going on right next to them.


Finally, I get back in the chair, deciding it is the safest place and fall asleep.  I don't know how many cockroaches crawled on me and I have a suspicious looking wound on my finger that I didn't have when I went to sleep.


My war with the cockroaches was an EPIC failure, but if I had to do it again I would.  There have been many God-given moments this weekend, and the cockroaches was just the funniest(I will share the others tomorrow).  Just a few months ago, this episode would have left me in tears and  hyperventilating.  Today I think it is funny and laugh.  Not only has God changed my heart and taken my fears but he has also put someone in my life that I love enough to brave all of my fears for.


God is all around us.  Even in the situations we think are terrible.  If we look, He is there.  He is ALWAYS there.  


God bless!


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