Leah’s Travel Page

I feel like there are insects everywhere today. EVERYWHERE. I can’t get away…they must have sent out an all-points-bulletin that I was in town or something.

I had my first major incident involving a very massive spider this evening. It cornered me in the bathroom, and I was forced to huddle in the bathtub wimpering (okay, screaming hysterically) for 10 minutes as it stood scowling at me from beside the door, blocking my escape route. Then some of my friends were making some sort of musical instrument out of a gourd-like thing, when a massive cockroach crawled out onto the table and made a run at me (not as big as the ones I showered with, but at least those ones didn’t behave like rabid beasts). Then, my dad called on my cell phone, and as I went outside to get better connection, I was bombarded by literally thousands of lake flies (more on those later). And of course in my haste to get away from the swarm, I walked into a bush full of spiders. Then, once the conversation was over, and I was walking back through the main ICIPE building, another giant cockroach made to attack me in the hall. And all the way to the library with the internet, I was chased by a hundred thousand more lake flies, and several mosquitos, which by now have no doubt given me malaria (hey, the malaria prophylaxis pills I take everyday are only 97% effective…dun dun dun). Seriously, I think it must be the insect new year celebration or something.

About these lake flies. They are everywhere. They come in off Lake Victoria promptly at sunset at 7pm, and absolutely cover anything even remotely illuminated (and don’t forget, we mzungus have lighter skin than most). Screen doors are layered with these little flying insects (which are smaller than mosquitos but thankfully not small enough to fit through the mesh). Last night, I saw a wall that I thought was mostly dark paint with a white pattern on it, until I realized that in fact it was a beige wall plastered with thousands upon thousands of lake flies. They’re basically harmless, though…that is, not if you enjoy the feeling of bugs crawling into your nose and sticking to your skin and hair…soooo disgusting.

While we’re on the subject of flies, there is one insect that is noticeably lacking from the landscape now that we’ve left the jungle, and which I do NOT miss at all. This is the mango fly. The entire time we were at Kibale, every time you did laundry it became a huge ordeal because of the evil mango fly. While your clothes are unceremoniously hanging to dry in the tropical sun, the mango fly swoops down and lays its eggs in your soggy clothing. Then, when you put on your clothes the next day, the body heat awakens the larvae, which burrow into your skin and germinate. These look just like mosquito bites, except with two black dots which are actually breathing holes for the larvae that is now growing under your flesh. The remedy is to put nail polish over any suspected mango fly larvae to suffocate it, at which point it will then emerge to the surface for air so you can pluck it out of your arm, leg, bum…wherever it has chosen to afflict you. So all of this means that on laundry day you not only have to dry all your clothes under mosquito nets, but then you must iron every single article of clothing carefully to kill any eggs (which are so minuscule that you wouldn’t even notice them). It was SUCH a hassle. I was fortunate to not become a mago fly victim, but two people in our group were not so lucky.

So I don’t miss the mango flies (they only live in the jungle, so I can wash my clothes in peace). But I honestly wish the rest of the insect kingdom would leave me alone. These lake flies keep pummelling the computer screen.