YOUR QUESTIONS

---

CREEPY CRAWLIES

One problem with living in a house made of mud is that bugs live in mud. When I moved into my house the walls had been newly finished with a smooth layer of mud/cement mixture. The bricks underneath are made from a dried mixture of mud, cow dung, and clay or termite mound. So my walls were smooth to begin with, but it wasn’t long before bugs started to burrowing out of them, leaving small holes with piles of dirt on the floor below.

Ants don’t seem to have much trouble tunneling into my house. Neither do mice. All of my food has to be well-packaged and stored in a metal box. I manage to protect my food, but the mice like to get into my garbage can and spread shredded paper all over the place. You can’t buy mousetraps here, so I’m thinking about getting a cat.

Otherwise I have large cockroaches and noisy crickets. There are some big spiders that sit really flat against the wall and then dart away if you go near them. I don’t really mind things that run away from me. There are some round, flat bugs that keep burrowing out of the walls near the floor. They usually stay away from me too, but their burrowing leaves piles of dirt I keep sweeping up. Some nights I discover other oddities crawling on my walls that I can’t identify.

There are lots of black and yellow lizards around. I’m told that if you grab their tail it breaks right off and they keep running. It’s their defense if a predator catches them by the tail. They are rarely in my house bur I kind of wish they’d come in and eat some of the other things crawling around in there. I have yet to see snakes and scorpions, but I’m often warned of their existence.

At night there are mosquitoes, but they’re manageable with a little repellent. During the day there are lots of flies that don’t usually bite but like to sit on your face and coat the tables of cafes. Latrines are their breeding grounds and the sewage inside is constantly in motion with the crawling of hundreds and hundreds of maggots. Bees are apparently desperate for water. They swarm around the puddles at water pumps and wells. I stand in a cloud of them as I pull water from the well. I’m told that if you don’t swat at them, they don’t hurt you.

So there are lots of creepy crawlies chez moi, but the problematic one is the mice and the poop they leave everywhere. Any suggestions?



PLASTIC TEA KETTLES

Someone made a reference to Africa’s affinity for plastic tea kettles in swirling bright colors. What good is a tea kettle made of plastic? Well…

In a land without toilet paper the plastic tea kettle is the portable bidet. Among PCVs, the alternative to TP is referred to as “The Water Method.” In the latrine, the right hand pours water from the kettle while the left hand splashes and scrubs. Both hands are then washed with water, often without soap. This is why the left hand is considered unclean and is not used for eating. Never mind that both hands touch together often or that the left hand still touches food, dishes, and everything else. This may explain the overwhelming prevalence of diarrhea around here.

The kettles are also around for washing other things. Muslims are required to wash their hands, face, and feet before praying. At some nicer restaurants, the server brings a plastic kettle to the table and pours water while each client washes their hands. I’ve been to a few places where they even bring soap. But the major use of the brightly-colored plastic kettles is in the latrine, which is why we refer to them as “ass kettles.”

---