Nothing in Africa is benign. Before I came here, my family worried about my safety. There are a lot of things here that have the potential to be dangerous: riots, amoebas, traffic, and nature. And danger lurks every night. I don’t want to scare everyone, but we have to arm ourselves for protection!
As the sun goes down each evening and darkness encloses the world around us, Kerrie and I lock ourselves in the house and sit with our weapons at the ready. We each assume our positions, she on the couch and me in the chair, and prepare to kill the invaders.
Mosquitoes.
That’s right, mosquitoes are the biggest danger for us here. They LOVE my blood, and I get eaten alive without a heavy coat of OFF and my weapon at my side.
In America, we are generally annoyed by mosquitoes, but other than West Nile Virus, they are pretty harmless. Here, however, mosquitoes carry malaria, which can be fatal if left untreated (or if one contracts cerebral malaria). My problem is that mosquitoes LOVE me!! They bite through my clothes and they seem to always choose me over others to bite…it’s not so good.
So, as Kerrie and I sit watching our nightly shows (Monk), we are constantly swinging our tennis racket-like bug zappers around to kill all of the pesky mosquitoes that dare to come within arm’s length. I’m sure that from the outside of the house looking in we look absolutely CRACKERS!! You know the sound of those large bug zappers that people hang outside of their houses? Well, that sound can be heard in whatever room we happen to be occupying…and I can hear Kerrie zapping away as she gets into bed down the hall each night, too. It’s really quite entertaining!!
Here’s Kerrie and I with our weapons of choice…
Laugh all you want…these things are AH-MAZ-ING!!!