Pillows, people and mozzie spit!
(Oh, and ruby wedding anniversaries)

It has been a week of chasing.  First people like electricians, removalists, air conditioner suppliers, curtain makers and this morning at 4a.m. a mosquito. The mozzie was the most annoying. I have spent enough time in the Third World to know that everything takes time but clearly not enough time to know that mosquitoes will always find a way under the net.

We haven’t been bothered with mozzies for a while. The system seemed to be working. But the buzzing woke us up and out came the torch. Damned if we could see it. I think they have learned to hide.

It did occur to me, staring at lashings of white netting that the black mosquito net I purchased might have been an extremely dumb idea; you can’t see the little buggers against black. And they love dark places.

The black net, while admirable in terms of decor is absolutely useless in terms of practicality. Designed, no doubt, by someone who has never actually had to use a mosquito net. I think I shall write to them and complain.

Anyway, the fallback this morning was to put on the air conditioner. I hate the noise and think they are too cold to sleep with but what to do? It seemed to work. We fell asleep although I woke up feeling cold despite the fact that the aircon, made in China of course, works at half gasp at the best of times.

I suspect one of the problems with our current mosquito net is that movement while sleeping can ‘open’ the net and that is all it takes. The mozzies I am sure are lined up waiting to dash in.  Or they at least have one on ‘watch’ while the others can explore possibilities elsewhere.

One solution might be a larger net attached to a square frame which hangs well away from the sides of the bed and any tossing and turning of sleeping, but clearly dreaming, bodies.

We currently have a double bed and the net hangs well to the floor but when our king-size arrives I suspect the problem of maintaining closure will be greater.

Next week is the current ‘word’ for our goods to arrive. Fingers crossed. At this point it looks like it will coincide with our fortieth wedding anniversary; appropriate really for a couple who have set up home 33 times in 40 years. Well, it will be 33 when we set up next week.

LEFT: Our bed, on it's way.

As things stand it looks like Greg will be here, or at least getting back from the mine the day before. If we have any wedding anniversary tradition it is him being away because of work. Not that we have ever made much of such things. Maybe we are both surprised to notch up another year. After all, most of our friends and family said it wouldn’t work!

The fortieth, so I have discovered is Ruby. I have no idea what any of the others are but thought I would check this one out. It seems that one has a 'ruby' theme for this anniversary. That means 'red' things.

 Let me think. Red wine for one and perhaps red meat; strawberries and grapes and beetroot. I am sure I can come up with a ruby theme for the 23rd.

But, practicalities like setting up home play more on my mind than anniversaries. Practice makes perfect so they say. Practice certainly makes one more pragmatic. I decided long ago, I think when all of our furniture was on a ship heading to Belgium, that it was all just stuff and there was no point worrying about ships sinking or, in the case of Africa, trucks crashing or goods being stolen.

People matter; everything else is just things and stuff. It will still be nice to have our ‘stuff’ though, particularly the kitchen equipment and our own bed. The bed here groans and rattles everytime we move. I suspect the springs are absolutely stuffed but doubt they were much good to begin with. There is not a lot of choice in Lilongwe when it comes to purchasing household items. One major reason of course, as to why it made more sense to upload our goods in Perth.

Not that it prevents us getting a good sleep. With 33 homes in 40 years I reckon we must have slept in a thousand different beds given all the travelling. One thing we have learned is that while any mattress can be survived or conquered - although the ‘cement’ masquerading as mattress in the Brazilian compound in Angola did severely test that theory – the greatest surety of a good night’s sleep is your own pillow. So we have been travelling with our own pillows for quite some years.

It is amazing really how different pillows can be and how horrible some of them are. My pillow is thin, firmish latex. I truly hate the ones so common in Europe where you lay down your head and immediately find a fat, uncomfortable squish of pillow on either side of your face! Then again, it’s better than the ‘gravel masquerading as pillow’ which the Brazilians seem to favour.

Maybe it’s all the meat the Brazilians eat? Something which comes out of a macho culture, where mattresses need to be like big, hard rocks and pillows like small, hard rocks. But, I have to say, I did learn to sleep on both mattress and pillow.

Like a lot of things, the more you tell yourself you hate it the more you do. It’s state of mind as much as anything. It’s a story. Change the story and you change your experience. I first started practising that when we lived in the hotel in Bombay for a year. The massive Oberoi Hotel generators were right below our window.

I thought I would go mad for the first few nights and then ‘sat myself down for a serious talk’ – or rather muttered to myself in the night - and told myself that I could hate the sound or learn to love it. A few nights of telling myself, that the constant hum was comforting and soothing and I was sleeping like a baby once again. And I continued to do so for another 11 months and three weeks until we moved into our house.

I have brought the same skills to bear this week in terms of internet and telephone access. This has been the worst week so far with servers and/or phone lines down. It hasn’t lasted much more than 5 hours or so – no doubt the President of Malawi needs it too – but it does rather interrupt communication which is unreliable at the best of times.

How dependent we all are on power? How lost we would all be if energy supplies were compromised. I did make the decision, many years ago, to hold on to my old manual typewriter for just such a disaster but it does occur to me that I would not be able to buy the ink tapes for it anyway so it is rather pointless. And it isn’t here anyway. Actually I am not sure where it is.

It’s a reminder though of how vulnerable our technological world is. I don’t even want to think about all of the things which need energy to work. But I have a better idea living here than living in Oz. No fridge, no phone, no computer ... not beyond battery life anyway... no internet, no stove, no air-conditioner, no television, no cars, trains, buses or planes.... the list goes on.

LEFT: Bee venom has health benefits

For the moment I would be happy to just have No Mosquitoes but they, like cockroaches I am sure, would be the great survivors. Maybe I have to change my story about mozzies. Just as bee venom is said to have health benefits, particularly for arthritis and multiple sclerosis, perhaps mosquito ‘venom’... although actually I think it is mosquito ‘spit’ which gets left behind when they bite... has health benefits as well.

In a world without power I would not be able to do this but this is what my search found:

‘The short-term actions of  mosquito saliva inhibits immune cytokine response from Tumor Necrosis factor-alpha and Interleukins. T-cells and B-cells of humoral immunity are inhibited and even natural interferon.’

It all sounds very complicated, and I can't say I know (or care) exactly what it means, but there may well be something amongst that lot which is doing us good even though we don’t know it. And the itch? Well, again, mind over matter; if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t itch. It’s an allergic response which creates the itching and as a former allergy sufferer I know first-hand what a difference a different story makes to one’s allergic responses.

If you can’t change the situation then change the story.  The sound of air-conditioners is soothing and comforting and being cold is very good for one! Mozzie spit is good for you! There, all fixed. It's my story and I am sticking to it. Well, I am sticking to it pragmatically. The reality is we often do not know whether something is 'good' or 'bad' and the trick is to keep to a positive story and an open mind.

There's no doubt that in this part of the world mosquitoes can be the 'bearers of bad news' but perspective is all. If you spend your time putting all of your energy into 'keeping yourself safe' then you would not be here in the first place. You certainly would never get into a car and drive on an African road or fly on an African airline.

It is like anything: you do the research and make informed decisions about something like mosquitoes and malaria; African roads and African airlines; local food and tap water and when you have made an informed decision you remain positive. We do have a choice as to which 'story' we decide to tell ourselves and my choice is the 'story' of pragmatic potential. In other words you don't deny negative possibilities but neither do you accept them as a given. All sorts of things can happen; there is only ever the illusion of certainty.

At the end of the day there is a simple reality. It is impossible to prevent mosquito bites. Taking drugs will not stop you from getting malaria. There are two sides to the story - one that the drugs can actually 'mask' the symptoms so you get even sicker and the other is that the drugs mean you will have a milder dose. And then there is the fact that no-one quite knows what impact the drugs have on your health long-term. The reality is that whether you take drugs or not, if you get malaria you will need to be tested and to take drugs. The sensible thing is to be careful about reducing exposure to mosquitos and with any sign of unwellness, get tested.

By all means boil and filter the water but know that the cup of tea or glass of water you have in a restaurant, cafe or home may not be boiled or filtered. Soak fruit or tomatoes bought by the side of the road in some vinegar and water, as I do, but remain aware, as I do, that what you eat in a restaurant or cafe or home is probably 'au naturel.' Food and water are less of an issue in Africa than India but it is still not as clean as it might be.

In terms of getting in a car and driving on African roads. Like mozzies, there's not much choice. Drive a solid car and wear a seatbelt but that's a given for anywhere. Don't undertake long journeys by car is another piece of advice. Except then you might find yourself on an African airline. So, choose your airlines for their safety record. But that's a given anyway.

And, if you can't find one with a good safety record just do it and take your chances as we did countless times with Air India. In other words a little bit of common sense and a lot of trust goes a long way.

Then again, all the common sense in the world is not going to save you if your number is up. That's another theory, or 'story' of mine and one I am sticking with. All of the information, common sense and pragmatism about things which can kill you or make you terribly sick in Africa like mosquitoes, food, water, cars, planes or whatever won't necessarily keep you any safer. You might feel better and feel safer but it is just a 'story.'

I remember deciding in Angola, after I spent time huddled in the closet listening to the crack of Kalashnikovs and bullets slamming into the wall of our house, that there was no 'safe' place. And that means, at least to me, that there is no 'dangerous' place either. There is just life for as long as you live it and the art to life is to enjoy it and learn from it; all of it. I believe we are only ever where we are meant to be, doing what we are meant to be doing and experiencing what we are meant to be experiencing.

And that includes hiding in a closet, because with concrete on two sides it seemed the safest place from richoeting bullets, and not knowing if at any moment the door would be opened and I would be facing a gun. The other thing I learned that day is that real machine-gun fire sounds nothing like what you hear on films and that since none of us know when our number is up it's a good idea to 'tidy up' relationships as you go along.

I do happen to also believe in angels, fate, destiny and a Soul's Path where nothing comes to you unless you need it - but that's another story - a never-ending story.

N.B. And on a positive note for mosquito bites. Gotta love the net! As in internet!

Bites From Mosquitoes Not Infected With Malaria May Protect Against Future Infection.
ScienceDaily (May 16, 2007) — A new study suggests that bites from mosquitoes not infected with malaria may trigger an immune response limiting parasite development following bites from infected mosquitoes. The researchers from the Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, University of Notre Dame, Indiana and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland report their findings in the May 2007 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.

Malaria, a major public health threat resulting in 3 million deaths annually, is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Emerging drug and insecticide resistance emphasize the urgent need for effective new vaccines.

In the study researchers compared immune responses of mice preexposed to uninfected mosquito bites followed by bites from mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. and those of mice only exposed to infected mosquitoes. Results showed that in the early stages, mice preexposed to uninfected bites exhibited reduced parasite burdens in the liver and they remained lower during the blood-stage of the life cycle of infection.

"These data suggest that the addition of mosquito salivary components to antimalaria vaccines may be a viable strategy for creating a Th1-biased environment known to be effective against malaria infection," say the researchers. "Futhermore, this strategy may be important for the development of vaccines to combat other mosquito-transmitted pathogens."

(M.J. Donovan, A.S. Messmore, D.A. Scrafford, D.L. Sacks, S. Kamhawi, M.A. McDowell. 2007. Uninfected mosquito bites confer protection against infection with malaria parasites. Infection and Immunity, 75. 5: 2523-2530).