Papayas and Bunas

                Last Friday afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving, Erin and I decided to take the boys to the fruit stand down the road from Familia Feliz.  Since arriving in Bolivia I have made a complete turnaround when it comes to papayas.  At first, I thought they were horrid and refused to take more than a couple bites when Erin insisted I “try” her papaya.  I don’t know what happened, but it didn’t take long for me to turn into a hardcore papaya fan! The store, rather a huge fruit orchard surrounding a family’s house, is a little under a mile walk.  The boys enjoy the outing and we enjoy some new scenery.  This isn’t the kind of place you can just walk into the store and ask for x amount of fruits you want.  We have to battle for our papayas!  The underbrush surrounding the papaya trees is up to our knees and full of all sorts of random jungle creatures.  We tromp through it, shaking the trees that have promising looking papayas, sometimes we try knocking them off with long branches… it takes coordination and alertness to dodge the flying papayas. I once shook a tree with 5 hard green papayas and one lovely ripe looking papaya… and every single green one came off one at a time and the ripe one was the last to finally come.  Hence picking papaya can be frustrating, and sometimes it doesn’t work exactly as we would like. 

            Well, yesterday I thought I was on a roll at finding good papayas.  Even though we had gathered quite a few, I wanted to go farther down just to make sure we weren’t missing any perfect ones!  I ran down the rutted, dirt path with little Juan, eyes peeled for papayas.  I found several more good looking papayas and right when I was about to turn around my eyes fell on a tree with a couple delicious looking papayas.  I gave Juan the ones in my hand and quickly waded through the thick brush to get to them.  Luckily they were hanging low enough on the tree I could just pick them with my hands.  As I picked them I looked around and thought to myself, “wow, I really am in the middle of the jungle!” As I was hopping back to the path I felt a sharp sting on my right lower leg, I shook my leg and looked down to see a giant ant go flying.  Immediately all the bad stories I’d heard about the dreaded “Buna” ants flooded into my head.  To my dismay, Juan saw it and moved away quickly, exclaiming “Buna!” At that point, feeling more stings up my pant legs, I knew I was doomed to something NOT good.  I grabbed the front part of my pants and shook it attempting to get all the ants to fall down and out of my pants.  I felt more stinging pain, but I thought I had gotten them all out.  Nope. Ouuuuuuuuch! The worst one yet, it had climbed all the way up my pant leg.  I was bouncing around, worked into a tizzy at this point.  In order to save Juan from being scared for life I told him to run tell the others what was happening, and the second he turned his back my pants were down and I was getting that horrible last ant out forever!     

            O.k. now I was crying… a lot.  You may not understand yet why “a few ants” would have this effect.  I didn’t either… I mean they are the biggest ants I’ve ever seen in my life, but still, I am WAY bigger!  I thought to myself, “what’s going on here! Am I a baby.. or what?!” Later, talking to more people who have lived here for a long time, I found out that it’s not snakes or big wild jungle animals that are the most hazardous animals around here – it is the Buna ants!  They are known as “man-killers.”  The director of the orphanage was told they can kill you (I think he was just trying to tell him what they were called, but it got confused in translation).  Melissa Harding, the founder of Familia Feliz, has lived here for 6 years and she told me she has only had two Buna bites and they were at separate times.  For an example of how much power these ants have… if you step on one, the pain goes from the bottom of your feet all the way to your hip (and by pain, I mean intense pain!).  Unfortunately I was not lucky enough to step on one… I stepped on a whole nest of them.  I had no idea how many had bit me, all I knew was my leg was on fire.  I quickly started hobbling back towards the others.  There was a flurry of “what’s wrong?” … “are you okay?” … “what happened?” I quickly told them, but top priority on my mind was getting back to the house so I started heading back right away.  Walking back I was still wondering why I was crying up a storm over some ants… after returning to the orphanage and news getting around about how many bites I had gotten… I realized why!  People were teasing me about how I was a legend…I’ll go down in history as the girl who got FIVE buna bites!

            I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe how the bite of a buna feels… and I’m having a hard time putting it into words.  I’ve never experienced anything like it.  It’s the most intense, sharp, painful sensation… and unlike other bug bites that simmer down over time, it continues to get worse and worse as time goes on.  My whole leg began to throb, it was a deep pounding pain that felt like it went all the way into my bones.  A combination of sharp, shooting pain and a deep, throbbing ache.  When I was walking back, it was somewhat of a distraction, once back at the house it hit me with another wave of intensity.  I quickly laid down on my bed, gritting my teeth and just trying to deal with it.  Mrs. Harding, and some other volunteers brought slices of onion and started pressing them on my bites.  Apparently onions are supposed to pull out some of the venom.  Everyone was so helpful, I would say I felt pampered by all their attention… but the way my leg was burning it was impossible to feel too pampered.  Jordan and Matt, my friends who are also student missionaries at Familia Feliz sat down in our room to keep me company and “cheer me up.”  They thought it would be a good idea to tell me some jokes.… Matt: “Knock knock – who’s there? – Boo – Boo who? – Buuuuuuuunaaaaaaaaaa!!!”  Jordan: “Why did the Buna cross the road? To bite Sierra!” Looking back now, their silliness makes me laugh… but let me tell you, I was about ready to punch them at the time!  I was told that the best way to get through the pain is to try to fall asleep.  So I tried… and tried!  I finally asked Erin if she could ask if anyone had some sort of sleeping pill.  She came back with a heavy dose of Tylenol, and it sent me to sleep in no time – hallelujah!  Once I fell asleep, the worst of the experience was finally over.  By the time I woke up the next morning the poison in my leg had diminished greatly, and I was quite happy to feel like I had a leg again. 

            Miguel, our 5 year old is a smart little munchkin.  After this experience he’s picked up that I am terrified of Buna ants.  Earlier today when I was calling him to come help me machete some long grass beside the path near our house, he said “No Mommy, hay mucho Buna’s alli!” hah.  He was trying to convince me there were a lot of Buna’s in the grass there… really he just didn’t want to machete.  He definitely worried me, but Juan assured me there weren’t Buna’s around where we were and I made sure sneaky little Miguel did his macheting.  Living in the jungles of Bolivia, so far my worst enemy has been a monstrously sized ANT!  From now on i'm hoping to avoid the dreaded Buna's at all cost!