Winnie and James

My roommate's name is Winnie. She has quickly proven herself to be the best.

A few nights ago we were eating dinner when who should appear but Spider. We took turns trying to work up the courage to go kill it. I was unable on account of my imagination telling me that this spider was so big that if I stepped on it, it wouldn't die but would instead crawl up my leg and lay eggs in my ear canal. Winnie eventually found the courage to step on it, but it darted away! So quickly! Winnie suggested that maybe it heard us planning, and I agreed and suggested we conduct all further arachnicide plans in Swahili. Then Winnie got the broom and squashed the spider with the top of the handle.

And that's how our broom became the chief murder weapon. So far we've killed seven- three were my triumphs. In fact, the killing is so regular that we don't even cry out for back up, but just go for the broom and get the job done. Every time I think it's the last one, but then I spot that big one in my closet. However, this morning I woke up to find a huge one on the wall near my face. I killed it, and I haven't seen the closet one since, so maybe we really have got them all now.

So the score is humans: 7, spiders: 2. While my legs are covered in mosquito bites, there are two different bites that I've decided must have been made by a spider. Instead of one needle insertion point, like a mosquito bite, these have two little dots. Most certainly spider fangs, am I right or am I right? One sort of started to pus, and there were a few blisters around the area filled with yellow liquid. Since grossing people out is a better medicine than laughter, I showed it to Winnie. After school she went and got James to look at it. Isn't Winnie great?

Who is James, you ask? Well he you asked yesterday, I would have said he's the guy that feeds the chickens. However, today I learned that he is also the head doctor at the hospital. Everybody loves a Renaissance man! He applied something called antiseptic liquid to gauze and rubbed it on my spider bites and then on all the mosquito bites that I had itched to the point of bleeding/scabbing. He then said my legs were pathetic, a comment I have decided to chart up to strange translation, just like Winnie uses the phrase 'it's okay' to mean yes, and I interpret it to mean no. (Would you like some more tea? It's okay.) Then James gave me a tube called skin ointment and told me to rub it on itchy skin. I guess it's an anti-histamine. I've been using After Bite, which is ammonia based and therefore works to disinfect the bite, but have nothing to treat the itch. What a nice guy James is!

Then he gave us mosquito nets. Apparently the hospital gives them out for free but I feel kind of weird benefitting from that. Maybe I'll just make a donation to the hospital when I leave. I don't really know the proper way to thank people in Kenya, beyond verbally. It's hard not knowing the norms. Winnie will probably tell me if I ask her.

James has three daughters at the local primary school. They all have names beginning with M (I swear 90% of Kenyan names start with M) but I can only ever remember them oldest girl's name. When the primary kids trail me, Pied Piper style, I always give his kids a bit of extra attention. They're so funny.

Anyway, I applied the skin ointment, but it's still itchy. The mosquito net can't be hung until tomorrow because it needs to air out of its packaging for a day first. I've been using a DEET based repellent that seems ineffective. Darn you, Shopper's Drug Mart brand! I guess then tonight will be the last supper for my insect friends.