Vermin

It is the middle of the night and I'm wide awake. I woke up with a mosquito buzzing in my ear. After trying to kill it by slapping frantically around my head, I conceded to getting up and turning the lights on. Then, I sat for a good five minutes on my bed with in the harsh light waiting for it to come back, While waiting, scanning the walls, I started hearing other noises--like the mouse that lives in my room, and a giant fly buzzing around. Having no success with the mosquito, I turned my attention to the fly (trying as quietly as possible to jump around my room swatting it with my book). No luck, he's too fast. 


I thought the mouse was feeding on this bag of maize in my room, so I opened that up, only to be distracted by another mosquito flying around. Turning quickly to chase it around the room, I noticed a GIANT cockroach on my floor. This thing is as long as my thumb and about twice as fat. Frantically I grabbed my shoe. It ran under my bed. And as I'm sitting there trying to figure out how to crush this cockroach corned under my bed without waking up the whole family, there the mosquito is, hovering right in front of my face. I am now forced to prioritize the killing spree--should I go for the giant cockroach (gross!) or the mosquito (an actual threat to both my livelihood and sleep for the night)? I divert my attention to the mosquito, hoping to quickly smash it between my hands and get back to the business of the roach beneath my bed. But I miss, and when I look back, the roach is gone. Great, now even if I get the mosquito, I'll be tortured by the thought of this thing scurrying about unscathed.


Back to the bag of maize. No mouse. I think I was just hearing the mouse-sized cockroach the whole time. Either that, or he made his escape in all the commotion. At some point, I did manage to kill a mosquito. Who knows if it was the one I heard in the first place. The fly is still disturbingly noisy in the midnight silence. And now, I can't sleep. Plus I'm hot from all the jumping about and I'm afraid to open the window and let more bugs in. I love Africa!