This month hurt.
We encountered a lot more bugs than we had come accustomed to in Honduras or Guatemala. All around the common rooms, people were smothering their skin in anti-itch cream and spraying themselves down with 100 percent Deet just after sunset.
I have gotten used to how much bugs like me, so they were neither surprising nor alarming.
What was surprising and alarming was when I woke up with a tarantula bite on my face. I had guessed that it was a spider bite, but then Doctor Michael (who worked at our property) confirmed it. What was more surprising and alarming was when it got infected with impetigo. Impetigo is a disease mainly found in preschoolers, according to the Wikipedia page I read in a panic about it. It's essentially a mild staph infection, and it spread to four places on my face in three days. What was even more surprising and alarming was when I started taking Doxy to combat the impetigo and then worked in the sun for a full day without remembering that Doxy makes you more sensitive to the sun.
But by far the craziest thing that happened to me was when we got to the beach. I was drinking a cool apple juice on a hot afternoon, minding my own business and staying out of the sun. I went to take the last drink and felt a sting on my tongue. I reached into my mouth and pulled out a bee, who died on the sandy tile floor without its stinger.
Let me pause. Some people out there have seen me get stung by bees. If you haven't, it makes the sting site swell comically. If my arm gets stung, I need a sling; if my face gets stung, I like like Kevin, the chubby Asian kid from "Up." Getting bit on the tongue makes me think that I might not be able to breathe because my tongue will swell and shut my air vent.
When you're an hour away from the nearest hospital, there is only one solution: pray.
I gathered with brothers Mike, Brian and Brandon to pray for me, and a miracle happened: the swelling stopped.
Then I gathered with my new team who prayed for me, and another miracle happened: the swelling and the pain went away. At the peak of when I normally feel the most pain and having expected to be in pain for three days, God healed my tongue entirely.
I always expected to see miracles on this Race, I just never expected that so many would be for me.
