It is generally unwise to get your feet wet when doing field work.  Yes, there’s a certain amount of squishy discomfort when your wool socks are squelching in your rubber boots, with the wet fabric gently but persistently scraping against the now-doughy, damp, cold flesh of your feet.  And if you wore cotton socks… well… have fun with the nascent case of trench foot creeping over those disgusting stumps that used to be your feet…

But there’s an even more pernicious reason to avoid flooding your boots:

Fungus.

Oh… fungus…

Perhaps you’ve had athlete’s foot before, or a tiny spot of ringworm… such quaint infections. When a fungus takes hold in the 100% humidity, constant rain, and multiple boot-floodings of the wet season, it does not let you go.

Ever.

So if you find yourself in the rainy season with a shiny, round red welt that itches like the dickens, please remember these few things:

1) For frak’s sake, DRY OUT YOUR SOCKS.  Put them over the fan over night so that you have 5 precious, precious moments of dryness before stepping out that door into the rain again…

2) Air everything out.  For real.  I mean everything. If you have electricity, lay in front of a fan in the buff for at least two hours every evening.  You think I’m joking… but:

3) When your feet start to bleed - and boy, will they ever - don’t panic. The hole that appears to be eating its way into the space between your 4th and 5th toes on your right foot won’t go any deeper than a full centimeter (you know this because you stuck your finger inside of it and then measured the extent of the bloody seepage on your pinkie finger… the hole is that wide and deep).

4) Ditch the hat.  Ditch the hat.  Ditch the - oh. Now it’s on your scalp.

5) Don’t even bother trying to prevent it from attacking your delicates.  That ship sailed about a month ago. Just don’t scra- ok… now it’s all over the place.

6) Once everything itches all the time, it kindof doesn’t even matter that your feet are bleeding and that your hair is falling out… because the itching… the itching… will prevent your itching about itching else… itching…

It’s ok.

Dry seasons come back.

Eventually.

*scratch*