The Visitor

I was still asleep when the IRS knocked on the door of Junior's house. No, not the Internal Revenue Service but the Indoor Residual Sprayers. Houses were being sprayed with DDT in hopes of reducing the incidence of malaria in the area, specifically our house- right then. In order for a house to be sprayed everything mobile must be removed so, still in my pajamas (I like to think that it doesn't register to people when I wear my pajamas during the day but deep down I know it's not the case) the girls and I started carrying, dragging, and pushing all of our worldly possessions outside. An hour and a half of moving stuff out, an hour of spraying, and 2 hours of sitting outside in a plastic chair waiting until it was safe to enter the house- all in the middle of the hot season, on a day when I didn't have any work to keep me busy but did have a notably bad stomach ache. I might have been slightly cranky.

When it was finally clear to go back inside I started seeing the upside of things. Our house had become completely overrun, not with mosquitoes (they actually aren't around too much during the dry season), but with cockroaches and funny green and brown bugs that emit a terrible smell and like to hang out in my pants. It would be nice to be insect free for a few months. I haphazardly dragged my things back in and, still suffering from a stomach ache, laid down in bed with my book. It wasn't long before I was in a half sleep but I could still hear the sound of cardboard boxes sliding across our concrete floors- Lucky and Fiona putting everything back in place.

Still in a daze I flipped over, opened my eyes and let out a scream. In the terrible heat of midday I had left every door open and now, in my bedroom, completely unguarded and unprotected, I was staring in the eyes of a rather large bull! Out of sheer shock and panic I hit the bull in the face with my book- yes, totally nerdy intellectual response I know. Luckily it did the job, the massive animal strolled out. In a state of disbelief I tried piece together how I didn't notice this beast of burden walk in and set up shop a mere few inches from my head. That's when I realized that what I had assumed was the sound of the girls pushing boxes was in fact hooves on concrete, a bull meandering into my bedroom.

Lesson learned. When afternoon activities involves laying in bed with a bad stomach ache and good book shut the door. (Unless it's really really hot in which case feel free to disregard all lessons.)