plagues.

We came back to rainy season. We’re just a few weeks in, and it should last for another six months or so. It will rain most every day and plenty of nights; it will flood often enough. And when it’s not raining, it is humid enough to feel like it still is.

I really quite like it. It’s a little cooler, and rain is just a good thing.

But it comes with some creatures. The snails come in abundance; flies are ridiculously prevalent. But the worst, are these flying ants or flying termites–everyone calls them something different. We all agree that they are horrible.

Usually just after a rain in the evening, they flood the lights. They swarm like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

And then they die, losing their papery-wings, and leaving a disaster to clean up.

Last November we were staying in a village when they were out after a rain storm. We had been in our mosquito net and all the lights were out; Stephen needed to get something from his bag, so he climbed out and flipped on his headlamp. He meant to switch it to the red, night-vision side, but accidentally turned on the bright light. They swarmed his forehead and face. I heard him scream and he threw the headlamp onto the ground.

And then it disappeared. The light literally disappeared and it went black.

He finally had to reach through all the bugs and switch the light over to red; they dispersed.

I know you are all thinking that they are just bugs; how bad could it be?

Far worse than you could imagine. It feels like you are in a horror film.

I’ve decided it’s the closest I can come to understanding the plagues of Egypt. They always seemed a little disconnected for me: I understood how rivers of blood or boils could be terrible; but frogs? Gnats? How bad could they be?

Horrible. They could be truly horrible, and they could make you go insane. It is so interesting how something so physical and small could really make you go crazy mind, body, and soul.

We’re avoiding going crazy. When we see one, we shut off all the lights and pull out night-vision head lamps.

So maybe we are crazy?