Sitting on my front porch, I was barraged with mosquitos. At first I thought they were rice flies, but the dreaded rice flies don’t seem as determined to land and bite me as dreaded mosquitos do. I hate mosquitos. Really, really hate them.
My English friend Ruby, while in Sri Lanka, would come over just to play mosquito tennis. I bought two tennis racquet-like electronic mosquito zappers. We’d sit out on the back patio and play “Kill the Mosquitos!” We’d swat and score, sometimes triple score. It was great fun hearing the zapping sound. Without the killer racquets we’d never be able to sit outside at dusk without being covered with the evil insects.
At that point I had already been knocked down by Dengue Fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease. A house that I had rented had an open storm water drainage that teemed with mosquito larva. It looked like aliens bubbling in the black water. The drain ran the length of our block. Knowing I’d never get the neighbors to join in, I hired a man to clean the entire drainage line. I felt sorry for subjecting him to that mess, but I paid him well and he wore rubber boots and protective clothing. The cost was actually nominal but it didn’t spare me from dengue as I soon ended up in the hospital.
I can count on one hand how many times in my life that I’d had a fever, so when I got a high fever, along with the “break-bone pains” that went along with dengue fever, I went to my doctor and he immediately admitted me into the hospital. They couldn’t give me anything for the fever, but they gave me something for the massive headache that accompanied the fever. For eight days, I suffered in the hospital. My photo partner Lipton tended to me (It’s typical in Sri Lanka to have someone help you while hospitalized). I had to have blood tests daily, sometime twice daily, to check that my white blood cell count didn’t dip so low that I’d need a blood transfusion. It is a miserable illness, which is why I’m so paranoid about getting bit by the dreaded insects.
Lipton came down with dengue right as I got out of the hospital. I should have been resting and recovering but instead I drove back and forth to the hospital tending to Lipton as he had tended to me. More misery.
Shortly after that horrible incident, Lipton came down with Chikungunya, another mosquito-borne viral disease; fever and joint pain that comes on suddenly, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and a rash. Needless to say, Lipton was a wreck. All from dreaded mosquitos.
I lived at a hotel on the coast for the first 18 months that I was in Sri Lanka. During that time I met many powerful people who came to the hotel. I played checkers with the Minister of Buddhism, WJM Lokubandara, (who later became the powerful Speaker of Sri Lanka Parliament). Of course, mosquitos tried to eat us alive while we played so I made it my mission to kill them. Lokubandara, being a Buddhist, suggested that I learn to have compassion for them. I politely listened to him and then promptly got up and retrieved a can of bug spray. “I’m sorry,” I said to him. “I’m not that enlightened yet.” I proceeded on my path to kill them. Perhaps it was karma that the little buggars gave me dengue!
I panicked when I first saw rice flies here in Lake County (“Rice Fly” is the local name for a large midge that emerges from Clear Lake. Rice flies are harmless, cannot bite, and live less than 48 hrs.). I mistook them for mosquitos. They swarmed in front of my face as I took my daily walk. They ended up covering the outside of my house. I was horrified. A neighbor told me to relax, that they were rice flies and wouldn’t bite, and so today when a mosquito-looking insect landed on my arm ready to suck my blood, I knew it was a mosquito and I killed it!
Sorry, Lokubandara.
What’s a girl to do?…look online for two of those tennis racquet-like electronic mosquito zappers and have my friend Mabel over for a game of “Kill the Mosquitos!”
Lucy Llewellyn Byard is currently a columnist for the Record-Bee. To contact her, email lucywgtd@gmail.com
