Ants (by Lori)

We have alot of ants. Most are very small, and some are a similar size to what we had in Ontario. The little ones have a shocking ability to get into places that you thought were safe. We take care to cover all food that is outside the fridge. The minute a pack of cookies or crackers or even gum is opened, the leftovers have to be put in the fridge. After each meal we have to be meticulous about cleaning up, wipe tables (and kids mouths, and shirts) and sweep. Should we fail to do any of these, disagreeable are the consequences which we shall surely face. Here is one such story.

Yesterday I bought a bag of candy (of the sweet and sour variety) and left the open bag on the kitchen counter. Now, after my first paragraph you are asking, why would she do that? Because most of the candy one buys here comes individually wrapped, so that you buy a bag of individually wrapped candies (not the kind that you can open by stretching the 2 sides apart, but the truly, completely sealed kind). My daughter asked for a candy today after dinner, and I agreed. She took it herself and was asking me to open it, when she starting crying. While waiting for me to get the scissors, she had put the wrapped sweet in her mouth. By the time I got to her she had ants on her shirt, on both hands, and on her tongue! We acted quickly to get them out of her mouth first, and then took care of the rest. As soon as we got them out of her mouth, she was fine - no lasting distress. Not so true for me!

It is times like these that remind me that I am not at home. Sometimes I get very tired of constantly having to be on top of things - and its not just the ants - its checking the beds every night before we go to sleep, for bugs, its the foot long lizard in the back room, the mosquito larvae that live in our bak, the neighbour's dog which has a regular case of worms, the daily smell of burning garbage, plastics, and other toxic stuff, the reality of earthquakes, political sensitivity and the fact that we are very obvious foreigners living in a majority muslim country - the list goes on. No, I don't want to come home yet. Yes, I still enjoy living here. But every once in a while I crave the ability to take a walk outside without being an object of interest, drink water from household taps, to experience a good old fashioned snow storm that will kill off most of the bugs and share the road with people who have actually taken driver training.

Lori