Bed Bugs and My Bambara Bible (by Amanda)

I was looking for sympathy the other day. Thom was at the mission office and I was at our new home when I sent him a Yahoo Instant Message. “Thom, I have a boo-boo”. Actually, I was having an allergic reaction to a bug that bit me. I was taking a nap when all of a sudden I woke up choking for some reason. That happens to me a lot here, probably because of the dry heat. I woke up and felt this stinging in the arm I was laying on. I started to rub my arm when I realized I was being bit. Finally I flicked some bug off the bed but he had already done his damage. He got in about five bites on the back of my arm. They almost have the appearance of a bee sting, but it was not a bee and besides that I do not swell up with bees. My arm turned red and I needed to take some Benadryl. That was during my afternoon nap. When I went to bed that night, the little bug got me again! Twice! Now I have a total of seven welts on my arm. I asked another missionary here what it was. He told me they were called “dougouméné”. Whatever they are called, they hurt!
On the fun side of things, I’ve memorized Esayi (Isaiah) 40:30-31 in Bambara: Kamalen misenw barika be dese, u be segen. Kamalen korow be talon, u be bin. Nka mogo minnu be u jigi da Matigi kan, olu be barika kura soro. U be pan ka taa san fe ni kamanfuraw ye I ko bon, u be boli, u te segen, u be taama, u barika te ban. (note: a lot of the letters used don’t exist in English, so I’ve written the next closest thing. Click here to read it in English.)