Involuntary Blood Donations

Ruthless BLOODSUCKERS!

Hosana and I had the pleasure of involuntarily donating blood to the most ruthless mosquitoes I have ever encountered for the entire duration of our trip in Ngwe Saung.  Because there is no electricity for a fan in the middle of the night, you are a sitting target for these blood suckers, who show no mercy.   

After the first night, I woke up to find over forty bites on my arms, legs, and even face.  When I woke up the following morning, I could barely open my eye because mosquitoes had bitten my eye lid and it was inflamed.  In the beginning, it was a game to see how you could better prepare yourself against the miserable creatures.  But as you tried mosquito repellent after mosquito repellent, coils burning through the night, covering yourself entirely with the bed sheet…you realized there was no end or victory.  I would wake up to hear buzzing around my ear and groan because I couldn’t escape!

I thought that by killing some of them, I would lessen the number of bites on my body, or at least take out my aggression against the bloodsuckers.  But they were fast!  I quickly learned that the only ones I could clap between my hands and squish were the ones who had bellies so full of blood they couldn’t fly fast enough.  As I would clap my hands, blood would smear on my palms and I would scream “Ew!” and then get more upset that another one already filled up on blood, and was determined to kill more out of frustration.

 

My sacrificial arm strategy against those darn mosquitoes!

By the end of the first week, the best strategy I had been able to devise, was to leave a limb, preferably an arm, outside of the covers, while you wrapped your entire body underneath the sheet.  The mosquitoes would violently destroy your arm, but the rest of your body remained relatively untouched (‘relatively’ in Ngwe Saung mosquito terms mean less than 25 bites…small accomplishments!).  By the end of the week, my sacrificial arm was a mine field of attacks.

To the mosquitoes of Ngwe Saung – you are welcome.