Pulgas are fleas. End of week 2 and fleas were in my bed, on my skin, in my life.

It’s week 7 of training and they are… still in bed, on skin, in life. I can’t see them but believe you me, they make themselves known.

When Carolyn, our training manager, told us to keep our street clothes separate from our house clothes to deter fleas from spreading, fleas sounded like the worst. But I’ve been surprised: they’re not as horrible as they sound. They like to target ankles, knees and hips for whatever reason so I’ve got red-dotted trails along those sockets. I heard from one volunteer that putting all your clothes in a plastic bag and setting it in the sun helps tremendously.. I haven’t tried that one yet. But I have found that spraying bug spray directly inside my sleep pants helps tremendously. My skin doesn’t send me little notification pings all night: it’s calm.

I’ve got a purple spray bottle of flea Killer “MATA PULGAS” but flea larvae is too legit to quit.

You have to aerate a room in my experience, to get rid of them.

But the spray helps a lot. So thank goodness for the bug repellent and bug killer spray. And anti-itch cream. Plus parachute pants makes everything better.

But I think that the hard thing about fleas, and about service, isn’t discomfort so much as perceived discomfort. Having fleas is, like, not awesome, but neither is getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in Atlanta in July. If I look at it as “FLEA INFESTATION IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY” when the reality is simply that I have some bites and discomfort, well, it’s only going to make it harder. Really, it’s okay.