Someone pointed out that us Europeans were probably a lot more sensitive to this than others, who had been around it, all their lives. Also, my mother was the prime vector for my information, and she might have been a bit freaked out by all the fun ways Africa has to kill people.

But I'm still here. I seem to have survived.

My African friends would run around barefoot over the most God-awful crap, and were some of the healthiest people I've ever known.