The Funza Within Me

My toe had been feeling a bit numb and I thought that I must have stubbed it after having one too many Konyagi dawas, a Swahili concoction made from local gin and tonic water which literally translates to “medicine”. After a couple days the numbness turned into a dull pain and an area the size of a lentil turned white. It seemed like an infection to me and I had intended on piercing it with a knife point or toothpick. A quick squeeze and a dose of methylated spirits and the problem should be solved.

I mentioned in a rather matter-of-fact way to Germanus, one of the resorts excursion guides, that I needed to pop it. He took one look at it and told me it was very bad idea to pierce it. He said it was a funza - not an infection. And furthermore, that if I popped it the “eggs would spread and make many many more”. Excuse me? There is something living under my toenail?

When the mango and cashew trees begin to flower the flowers bring with them the funza or jiggers. Jiggers are pregnant female mites that burrow under the skin, usually under the toenails. They lay eggs under the surface of the skin and cause a lot of itching and discomfort.

I am not terribly excited about foreign egg-laying parasites living within my being. Did it get me in my sleep? A creature that lives in my sheets or mattress? No. . . It lives in the sand. My first question was “why under the toe nail”? And that led to my second question, which should have been my first question. Do these things burrow in any places other than toes? Indeed they do and it is reason enough to never sit in the sand under a mango tree. I can not think of a more uncomfortable situation, socially or physically speaking, than having to ask someone to remove a funza from my asshole.

Apparently the funza are quite common and there is a special technique used for removing them. You want to create a small hole in the skin and gradually widen the hole without piercing the funza. Then you work something under it and push it up through the hole.

Germanus is the island specialist when it comes to removing these things. He fashioned a toothpick sort of device out of a dried palm frond and after a lot of convincing I let him literally take a stab at getting this thing out. He rooted around for a spell and then produced a white disk that resembled a flattened snail about the size of a peppercorn. It took about two weeks for the skin to heal around the area where it was living.