Indoor Camping

The month or two of winter that we have here in Dhaka is nice, with temps dipping into the 60s at night and 80s during the day. The main drawback of winter ~ the mosquitos. They are everywhere, large and aggressive. Though there isn't much malaria around the city, Dengue fever is fairly common. A friend of ours contracted it, luckily a semi-mild case and not a fun illness to have.

So bedtime is kind of like camping for us. The embassy's GSO (General Services Office) supplies mosquito nets to everyone at the mission. When we get ready for bed, we sweep the room with our mosquito racquets, cover the bed with the net and hurry to jump under the net before any mosquitos have a chance to get in. Inevitably, one gets in the net and attempts to eat me (never Chris) around 3-4 AM each morning. I usually lay there trying to not wake Chris, nearly going out of my mind. Though you don't always see them flying around, at dark they sneak out to find you. If we sit on the couch late into the evening, we'll see them get active. So the recreation begins by whacking them and hearing them sizzle. We're all for being kind to animals... just ask the ladies at my old work who used to laugh when I carried spiders (and even a mouse) outside to be freed! But mosquitos out to drain us in our slumber, well it's a free for all on them, in my opinion.

We can get the racquets uptown for less than $8, and they plug into the wall for charging. Now we keep one in every bedroom, the kitchen, the living room and even keep one in the car. They work on fruit flies too.  I must admit, it is quite gratifying to swat them.

Ceiba also get doused with repellant before school each morning. She knows the drill and stands with the mosquito stance (arms out to the sides and legs apart, turning once) every day before the bus arrives. It's inevitable we'll be bitten, but try our hardest to avoid it.

As a kid, we camped every summer when we'd travel to area lakes for bluegill fishing. I love camping... in the woods... not in our bedroom. We'll be glad when the mosquitos are gone, but then that means terribly hot weather and monsoons. I feel like I'm waiting for the locusts to come or for it to rain frogs or something.