Insecto!

On our trip up north I became more than acquainted with too many six legged friends.

My first encounter was at about 4:30 in the morning after getting off an overnight bus ride to Piura. We piled too many people into taxies and were getting all of our luggage situated as we were getting ready to head to the church that was hosting us and fall back asleep. While the taxi was still parked at the curb and my purse was in my lap I felt a slight tickle on my arm, only to look down in the faint light to see a very large bug wandering around. Sarah and I fling the taxi door open and while she it swatting the bug off my purse and amongst our shrieks I’m shouting “INSECTO!” hoping to ease the confusion of the taxi driver. After removing the bug from the car we return to our 4:30am half-awake state as we drive to the church.

During out time in Piura we visited other churches in neighboring cities. I have never seen so many crickets as I have in Sullana. During our two days in that church we attended their prayer meeting. We were asked to introduce ourselves and when I sat back down in my chair Dave turns to me and says, “you just sat on a cricket.” I continually and adamantly tell him that I most certainly did not as I was terribly grossed out by the idea. When I got up for a second time a cricket fell on the floor and I was faced with the reality that I had really sat on the six legged critter. Not knowing what the next step of action should be I asked Dave to just kick the cricket away so I didn’t have to look at this seemingly dead insect for the rest of the service. He kicked it and it slid smoothly across the floor and stayed there until about half way through the meeting where it began to wiggle and then walk away as if nothing had happened.

After we had returned to Piura and the church that was hosting us there, we decided that we should go out for dinner. We found a quaint little open-air BBQ place. After we had been served and were enjoying a meal that looked a little more like home than some of the other foods we had been served, I look down and see something large and black on my pants. A two inch cockroach had landed on my pants. Trying my hardest not to make a scene in the restaurant I calmly stand up and in between repeating “insecto, insecto” I’m begging Otto to knock it off my pants because I’m too afraid to touch it. The bug fell from my thigh and the servers just watched as I’m trying to stay calm.