I was sleeping very lightly, then, around 1am, my already restless sleep was interrupted by a phone call from the U.S.. I really just wasn't sleeping well at all. It was around 2am that I felt a little tickle on my neck that felt like something fell on it or moved across it. I reacted very fast and brushed my hand on my neck. In the past I've always chalked it up to paranoia because I have very itchy skin and I hate the thought of bugs crawling on me. (Read the blog from August 18th, 2008 for more info). So after brushing my neck with my hand I sat up and grabbed the flashlight and looked by the pillow and saw only a couple of stray hairs and figured the fan had blown them across my neck. As I brushed them away I noticed a little bug part, like a leg or pincher or something. It was about 3/4 of an inch long. My mind was desperately trying to rationalize it away without admitting the possibility of bugs or other creatures being in the bed with me. So I decided to tell myself that a bug died on the ceiling, and this body part fell from the ceiling and somehow fit through the holes in the mosquito net (yeah, right!).
I brushed away the bug part and was about to lay back down when the Lord prompted me to look under my pillow (it's nice to have God himself confirm that I'm not paranoid, but not so nice when it also confirms that I'm actually cursed!). So I lifted up my pillow on the side where my head had left an indentation, and there, coiled up and clinging upside down to the bottom of my pillow, was a centipede! I could see that it was one of his back legs that I had found by the pillow. I must have broken it off when I brushed my neck with my hand, which means that it must have been the centipede that crawled across my neck! I HATE CENTIPEDES! They are the creepiest little wiggly, toxic creatures. If God had not allowed me to be sleeping lightly and interrupted my sleep with a phone call then I probably wouldn't have even noticed the centipede and may have rolled onto it or somehow offended it and been bitten on the neck! Those things hurt when they bite! The toxin is similar to that of a scorpion. It won't kill you, but from what I've read, it feels like someone ripped the flesh off where the bite is and lasts about 24 hours. Being bitten on the neck makes the pain and effect a lot worse.
So, while I'm clearly cursed when it comes to mosquitoes, ants, and centipedes (not to mention the enormous, mouse-sized cockroaches that sometimes chase me), I'm blessed to know that: (a) I'm not actually paranoid, and (b) through it all, curse or not, God protects me and takes care of me.
Lord please continue to protect me from the toxins of centipedes, snakes and scorpions, and please continue to protect me from contracting malaria despite the hundreds of mosquito bites. I trust in You and You alone. Amen.
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