Elephantiasis??? Who Knew??

Have you guys ever heard of Elephantiasis? Being from America, I’d heard about the disease that causes body parts to swell up for a lifetime, but I’d never really given it a second thought…until last night. Last night we all went to one of our students (Vika’s) birthday party and we got on the topic of Elephantiasis and worms. Apparently in Fiji, some of the mosquitoes are currently spreading Elephantiasis (mostly on the outer islands). As soon as I heard that, I immediately freaked out as all the Fijians just laughed.

Apparently the Fijian government is trying to eradicate the disease and is giving out medicine for free. The medicine makes you really tired, but it prevents Elephantiasis and as a bonus kills any kind of worms you might have living inside of you. Isn’t that terribly exciting and just plain gross? So, this morning the first thing on our agenda was you guessed it, sending someone to get the medicine for Josh and I, our students, and the DTS team that is living above us.

What an adventure Fiji is…we go from singing happy birthday to talking about real disease threats. All I can say is “Praise the Lord for the medicine”. I don’t mind a little bit of tiredness if it keeps us from becoming deformed.