A mosquito net…
To me my mosquito net is equivalent to a 60 foot cement fortress, manned by a troop of armed navy seals, surrounded by a mote, on a island, with sharks swimming around, 128 miles from the nearest person. It makes me feel damn safe. From day 1 this mosquito net has protected me from malaria, from the many snizards trying to tickle my feet(by the way I have used the word snizard enough that my computer just auto-corrected my spelling… Win!), from the wasps making houses on my walls, and from the few bats that have made their way into my room. Pretty much I feel that this net could save me from anything. Until… Something is trapped INSIDE the net with you. When there is something in the net this darn thing becomes an obstacle between you and safety. And the role of protector quickly changes to the captor! Instead of being a barrier from the scary things it becomes a cage holding the scary thing close to you. No bueno!
Since moving here I have been pretty diligent about properly tucking my mosquito net into the mattress at all times but some sneaky little creatures are, well, sneaky. Last night I was stuck in the net with a mosquito for about 2 hours. You may say that it’s just a little mosquito but when that little mosquito carries the leading cause of death in Uganda it doesn’t just seem like a little mosquito anymore.
After frantically flopping my arms around and using my headlamp to search and destroy I finally found the little guy and did what a good buddhist would do, shooed him out from under my mosquito net some can still buzz in my ear, but with a impenetrable (kind of) barrier between us. Goodnight!
thepresentlife 