creepy

I have to take a moment to talk about something disturbing. Those of you easily distraught may want to skip this one. Ok not really, but it is a little gross. I'm talking about the little bugs, parasites, and creepy crawlies.

I am here at the end of the rainy season (significant rain most days since December) and so you can imagine that it is is not only hot here in the jungles of East Africa, it is also humid. One of the effects of this is that after washing your clothes and hanging them to dry, they stay wet for quite some time. Apparently there is a little fly that likes to lay eggs in this moist cloth. That is fine for a while until you are wearing your T-shirt and start to sweat. This wakes the little buggers who then follow the moisture and burrow into the skin of your underarms. Ugh.

Second is the lake fly. I was sitting at the beach and noticed three or four plumes of smoke on the other side of the lake. I didn't take too much notice, thinking that it was a fire pit either for burning agricultural waste or for cooking lunch or something. Then i realized that they weren't on the other side of the lake. They were in the middle! I'm talking about a plume of black 'smoke' about a kilometer away shooting up in a spiral of probably 15 meters high. What is it? Lake Flies. The eggs float on the lake and when they are born, they swarm upward in what looks like a funnel of smoke, billions of these little flitting bugs. They mate and lay eggs and die. Apparently when they are close to land, the people run out with nets and catch them to make into cakes. i have yet to have one, but I'll try.

Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia or Snail Fever) is another fun one. It is a parasite which hatches and deposits itself in these little snails in the lake, when it is an adult, it swims out and deposits itself in a person. According to a leaflet I have it then enters the bloodstream, mates,and lays eggs which deposit themselves in the bladder or intestine. Gross. And dangerous too. Though there appears to be easy treatment

What else? Oh, the darn mosquitos. Ubiquitous, vicious, and often carrying malaria. They tend to bite you right on the ankle though I have a couple of bites on my ellbow of all places.

On the other side of the battle there is a bat that lives in the shower here and every day I give it encouragement, telling it how proud I am that it is eating up the little mosquitos. Also a veritable army of cute little geckos chase each other around the walls and grab any insects they can reach. And even though I think i got a spider bite this morning, the arachnids (even the scorpions - which scare the hell out of me) are doing their part as well.

After the initial claustraphobia of sleeping beneath a mosquito net, I wonder now if i will feel too vulnerable to ever sleep without it.