The Ants Go Marching (Through Everything!)

I returned to the coast on Friday afternoon after an enjoyable ride down from Nairobi with Jamie, Linda, and 3 college girls who came in from the US to work with Linda in her slum ministry over the next few months. It was really fun meeting everyone and sharing our experiences with the girls. Linda and Jamie have much more experience here than I do but I was able to describe to them some of the things that Linda and Jamie don’t do like ride matatus or getting harassed while running.

We had a nice weekend that included a uniquely Kenyan meeting of a “wedding committee” (more on that later this week) and of course I unpacked and got ready to return to school.

Returning to the coast from Nairobi pretty much always means sweating. You go from 5,000 ft above sea level and 75 degrees to sea level, 95 degrees, and 98% humidity. You get seriously, seriously sweaty almost instantly. Not like, ooh, I’m a little warm. More like sweat rolling down the backs of your legs, your arms, and your neck while you’re doing nothing more than sitting in a chair. Like you stick to every chair you sit on and you have a bum shaped wet spot on your skirt when you stand up (yeah, it’s awesome and not at all embarrassing). And my personal favorite, if you reach up to touch the hair touching your neck it’s so damp that you can ring it out. I haven’t worn my hair down in Diani in 2 months and I’m pretty sure that streak will continue until April when the heat allegedly breaks. You drink water all day long and never have to use the bathroom because you dehydrate that fast. Even the Kenyans are hot at this point; the weather is basically the first topic of conversation with almost everyone. I am still happy to be avoiding the blizzards in the Northeast but it’s definitely an adjustment.

While the humans are suffering, the insects (wadudu in Kiswahili) are thriving! Any tiny speck of food is instantly swarmed by ants, and this morning we had no fewer than 10 flies at breakfast. We ate in less than 10 minutes because as we’ve learned, eating slower just draws more flies.

The upside though is that I’ve learned new skills. Ever wonder how to get ants out of your sugar? I know that you’re thinking, “you throw out the sugar” but that’s a very American answer. The Kenyan answer is to heat up the sugar bowl! They crawl right out and run away.

Those black specks are ants in the sugar and there are thousands:




Know how to stop a line of ants in their tracks? Sprinkle baby powder across your doors and windows, they won’t cross that line and it smells good!

Can’t keep ants out of your baking? Prepare everything in bowls on plates filled with water! Having fun yet?

There are even ants in Tanzania that bite so hard you can use them as sutures in the bush. Actually, they’re more like surgical staples. Let them use their huge, scary pincher jaws to bite closed your wound, and then separate their heads from their bodies!

Anyway, it’s become sort of a game to stay one step ahead of the insects. The one insect that has so far outsmarted us though is the mosquito (pronounced mos-skwee-toe here). Most of the time, M is completely immune but I seem to collect 3-4 bites per day. I think we’ve mentioned that we’ve got separate twin beds (it’s cool, we pretend like we’re my grandparents) but there is an unexpected benefit of this. You see, M’s feet actually stick way, way out of the bed and this lifts up the mosquito net:



M, being immune, has no problem with this and rarely even gets a bite. On the rare occasions that we have shared a bed when we travel, I get eaten alive as M’s feet give them a convenient little entry under the net. It’s basically a decision between me staying up all night swatting mosquitos and him staying up all night since he doesn’t sleep at all unless he’s more stretched out. So, as much as it’s weird to have separate beds, I guess it serves the purpose of preventing me from contracting malaria so it’s probably worth it.

Here I am under my net!


Hope you all have a great week and stay warm!