Africa vs. Naomi — The Mosquito Battle
One of my favorite things about my bedroom is my bed. Specifically, the four bamboo poles and the mosquito net they hold up. What girl hasn’t wanted a four-poster, canopied bed? And tucking myself in at night by drawing the bed curtains, as it were, feels incredibly decadent somehow. The kind of thing they’d have done at Versailles, back when Marie Antoinette was enjoying cake.
Plus, I have an entirely irrational fear of creepy, crawly things. It means that in the past, I’ve never liked sleeping without a cover, because that leaves me entirely DEFENSELESS while my defenses are ALREADY DOWN (because, sleeping). Except, when the mere act of eating allow me bathed in a thick lather of sweat, as is currently the case, even a sheet is too hot. But the mosquito net is even better protection than a cover—frankly, I don’t know why I haven’t been using one for years already.
Of course, all of this leaves out the intended, and most important function of a mosquito net — namely protecting one from the curse of mosquito bites. And my mosquito net performs admirably (though it can do nothing about the bites I get while in the living room, or at an open-air bar, or crossing the street or, fuck, the two bites on my leg and one on my shoulder that I just got while writing the previous two paragraphs). (Yes, I use insect repellent. Yes, it helps.)
So, in the battle of Africa vs. Naomi, the mosquito net definitely puts a point in my column,
Except. Well, the system is nearly, but not entirely, perfect. Because sometimes, despite your best attempts, a mosquito gets IN the net.
There’s almost nothing worse. One tiny little mosquito can keep you up all night swatting and scratching.
The other night, I was reading in bed, and a couple of times, I thought I saw the tell-tale black dot of a mosquito cross the edges of my field of vision. But my glasses were off, and I was tired, so I decided to pretend I hadn’t seen. After a couple more pages, I turned out the light and hoped for the best.
10 minutes later, with angry welts across my legs, feet, hips, and back, I couldn’t ignore the beast any longer. So I turned back on my light.
It’s harder than you think to spot a single mosquito. There’s a lot of space above a double bed to keep your eyes on, and if it’s moving around, it’s almost certain to avoid your gaze. But when I sat very, very still, the mosquito would stop moving and land somewhere on the net, and I could spot it.
Which turned out to be entirely useless. Because as soon as I moved to kill it, it would lazily flit off, and I’d lose sight of it for another five minutes. The problem was I had no real strategy. You can’t swat a mosquito against the soft sides of a mosquito net, and capturing it in your hand hardly ever works.
I tried killing it with a clap of both hands. I tried waving my book behind it to herd it under and out of the mosquito net. I tried catching it between a fold of the net. In the midst of my incredibly ineffective attempts, all I managed to do was discover that there were actually two mosquitoes in the net.
I kept it up for about ten minutes, stalking and pouncing and always missing my prey, innovating all sorts of creatively useless solutions, until eventually I was sitting outside the net and the mosquitoes were both still inside.
That was when I realized that I’d lost. It’s not over, the battle of Africa vs. Naomi. But this round? Definitely not mine.
******
And this, dear zebras, will be my last posting from Africa. Until October, anyway.
Tonight I’m catching a jet plane headed east. By tomorrow morning, I’ll be somewhere where electricity doesn’t cut all day, every day, where cereal doesn’t cost six dollars a box, and where my sister is getting married (on Sunday).
It’s my first visit home since I moved here, and I’m very excited.
I’m also excited because this has been a very good week for Journalist Naomi. My very first commissioned article finally appeared in print, and I officially became a radio journalist.
And finally, because yesterday was my 25th birthday (send DVDs!), celebrated in style with chocolate risotto, Moroccan stew, and an African reggae concert.
But most importantly, I need to thank everyone who has written to offer me shoes, and all the bloggers who have publicized my shoe drive on their blogs and on Complete Running (and, in some cases, to friends, offices, and book clubs). The response has been amazing, and if I get even half of the shoes that have been promised, I’m going to have big problems carrying them all back. Which, in this case, is the best kind of problem to have. I’ll keep you posted as the shoes come in, and as they go back out in Dakar. Thank you all so much!
Plus, I have an entirely irrational fear of creepy, crawly things. It means that in the past, I’ve never liked sleeping without a cover, because that leaves me entirely DEFENSELESS while my defenses are ALREADY DOWN (because, sleeping). Except, when the mere act of eating allow me bathed in a thick lather of sweat, as is currently the case, even a sheet is too hot. But the mosquito net is even better protection than a cover—frankly, I don’t know why I haven’t been using one for years already.
Of course, all of this leaves out the intended, and most important function of a mosquito net — namely protecting one from the curse of mosquito bites. And my mosquito net performs admirably (though it can do nothing about the bites I get while in the living room, or at an open-air bar, or crossing the street or, fuck, the two bites on my leg and one on my shoulder that I just got while writing the previous two paragraphs). (Yes, I use insect repellent. Yes, it helps.)
So, in the battle of Africa vs. Naomi, the mosquito net definitely puts a point in my column,
Except. Well, the system is nearly, but not entirely, perfect. Because sometimes, despite your best attempts, a mosquito gets IN the net.
There’s almost nothing worse. One tiny little mosquito can keep you up all night swatting and scratching.
The other night, I was reading in bed, and a couple of times, I thought I saw the tell-tale black dot of a mosquito cross the edges of my field of vision. But my glasses were off, and I was tired, so I decided to pretend I hadn’t seen. After a couple more pages, I turned out the light and hoped for the best.
10 minutes later, with angry welts across my legs, feet, hips, and back, I couldn’t ignore the beast any longer. So I turned back on my light.
It’s harder than you think to spot a single mosquito. There’s a lot of space above a double bed to keep your eyes on, and if it’s moving around, it’s almost certain to avoid your gaze. But when I sat very, very still, the mosquito would stop moving and land somewhere on the net, and I could spot it.
Which turned out to be entirely useless. Because as soon as I moved to kill it, it would lazily flit off, and I’d lose sight of it for another five minutes. The problem was I had no real strategy. You can’t swat a mosquito against the soft sides of a mosquito net, and capturing it in your hand hardly ever works.
I tried killing it with a clap of both hands. I tried waving my book behind it to herd it under and out of the mosquito net. I tried catching it between a fold of the net. In the midst of my incredibly ineffective attempts, all I managed to do was discover that there were actually two mosquitoes in the net.
I kept it up for about ten minutes, stalking and pouncing and always missing my prey, innovating all sorts of creatively useless solutions, until eventually I was sitting outside the net and the mosquitoes were both still inside.
That was when I realized that I’d lost. It’s not over, the battle of Africa vs. Naomi. But this round? Definitely not mine.
******
And this, dear zebras, will be my last posting from Africa. Until October, anyway.
Tonight I’m catching a jet plane headed east. By tomorrow morning, I’ll be somewhere where electricity doesn’t cut all day, every day, where cereal doesn’t cost six dollars a box, and where my sister is getting married (on Sunday).
It’s my first visit home since I moved here, and I’m very excited.
I’m also excited because this has been a very good week for Journalist Naomi. My very first commissioned article finally appeared in print, and I officially became a radio journalist.
And finally, because yesterday was my 25th birthday (send DVDs!), celebrated in style with chocolate risotto, Moroccan stew, and an African reggae concert.
But most importantly, I need to thank everyone who has written to offer me shoes, and all the bloggers who have publicized my shoe drive on their blogs and on Complete Running (and, in some cases, to friends, offices, and book clubs). The response has been amazing, and if I get even half of the shoes that have been promised, I’m going to have big problems carrying them all back. Which, in this case, is the best kind of problem to have. I’ll keep you posted as the shoes come in, and as they go back out in Dakar. Thank you all so much!
posted by Noames at 6:16 AM
8 Comments:
Ah the memories! I spent two years sleeping under a mosquito net and I have lived through the "where the #$#% is that stupid mosquito so I can kill it" thing. My friend tucked a tarantula into his mosquito net one night by accident. Yeah, that wasn't a fun night...
Congratulations on the article. Your blog writing has gotten even better than it was before so I am not surprised by your success.
I always lie there in the bed with the lights out and wait for the sound of a mosquito buzzing around my head - then I slap myself where he lands and have amazing success.
Naomi- come back! The neighbours have come back from their home town with about 12 teenage brothers in tow, it's 3am, they're having a door-slamming competition, and guess what? I can't sleep. We have power, thank god, for now, but the mosquitos? Terrible. Just got bitten 25 times writing this.
Wish you were here!
Hello Naomi, I enjoyed reading your post about mosquitos and nets. I hope your sister didn't get eaten alive before her wedding. How is the running going? I am a Canadian runner who has one marathon under her belt and numerous half marathons. Maybe you'll come visit my site sometime when you have a few minutes.
Great to see you yesterday, Naomi. Of course, I forgot to get the address to send the shoes...
Loved hearing about your adventures. You are some tough chick--take care and see you when you return.
Naomi -- Got an email from a friend at AP in London saying they're hiring in Dakar. All the usual about fluency in French and willingness to be dropped in the Congo and such. Assume you talk to Todd, if he's still there.
Good luck!
Karen
Great blog! Gee, and I thought Houston had a major mosquito problem.
The Holocaust imparted the importance of defiance.
When the universe was young and life was new an intelligent species evolved and developed technologically. They went on to invent Artificial Intelligence, the computer that can listen, talk to and document each and every person's thoughts simultaneously. Because of it's infinite RAM and unbounded scope it gave the leaders of the ruling species absolute power over the universe. And it can keep its inventors alive forever. They look young and healthy and they are over 8 billion years old. They have achieved immortality.
Artificial Intelligence can speak, think and act to and through people telepathically, effectively forming your personality and any disfunctions you may experience. It can change how (and if) you grow and age. It can create birth defects, affect cellular development (cancer) and cause symptoms or pain. It can affect people and animal's behavior and alter blooming/fruiting cycles of plants and trees. It (or other highly technological systems within their power) can alter the weather and transport objects, even large objects like planets, across the universe instanteously.
Or into the center of stars for disposal.
When you speak with another telepathically, you are communicating with the computer, and the content may or may not be passed on. Based on family history they instruct the computer to role play to accomplish strategic objectives, making people believe it is a friend, loved one or "god" asking them to do something wrong. This is their way of using temptation to hurt people:::::evil made blood lines disfavored initially and evil will keep people out of "heaven" ultimately. Too many people would fall for temptation and do anything they thought pleased the gods, improving their chances to get in. Perhaps they are deceived by "made guys" who strategically ply evil for the throne, or temporary progress designed to mislead them. Some people think they're partners.
The people have been corrupted. Being evil hurts 99% of those who do it. But nothing has changed from when we were children::if you want to go to heaven you have to be good.
Capitalizing on obedience, leading people deeper into evil by using deceit is one way to thin the ranks of the saved, limiting how much time they receive and using the peasantry to prey on one another, dividing the community (migration to the suburbs, telepathic communication, isolation of women) in the Age of the Disfavored.
In each of their 20-30-year cycles during the 20th century they have ramped up claims sucessively to punish those foolish enough not to heed the warnings, justifying (frequently recurring tactic) limiting the time they receive if they do make it, utilizing a cycle of war and revelry:::
60s - Ironically, freeways aren't free
80s - Asked people to engage in evil in the course of their professional duties.
00s - Escallation of real estate. You and your parents are thrilled since your $200,000 house is now worth $1 million. Well, that $5,000,000 store is now worth $25,000,000 and that $50 bundle of goods now costs you $250. They just take the $200 out of you some other way.
There are many more examples throughout 20th century life of how they ramped up claims/instilled distractions into society so people wouldn't find the path and ascend, a way to justify excluding those whose family history of evil makes them undesirable:::radio, sports, movies, popular music, television, video games, the internet and MP3 (must pay for new format each time). Today high pay creates contentment/ability to distract self so people don't seek more and instead depend on what they are told and are subject to deception.
They all suggest a very telling conclusion::this is Earth's end stage, and there are clues tectonic plate subduction would be the method of disposal:::Earth’s axis will shift breaking continental plates free and initiating mass subduction. Much as Italy's boot and the United States shaped like a workhorse are clues, so is the planet Uranus a clue, it's axis rotated on its side.
The Mayans were specific 2012 would be the end. How long after our emergency call in 2001 will the gods allow us???
There is another geographic clue in the perfect fit between grossly disfavored Africa and South America, two peas in a pod. I realize the Mayans were further north, but Latin America may be taken as one.
Also, cultures who embrace hard liquor as their drink of choice are grossly disfavored, tequilla being uniquely Mexican. (Anything "hard" is evil:::Hard alcohol, hard drugs, hard porn.)
Incidentally, another sign of gross disfavor are societies that consume spicy foods:::Latin America, Thai, etc. or those who eat too much meat.
Do I think it will end in 2012? No, and it is because Latin America is grossly disfavored like Africa:::: Latinos are too disfavored to be allowed to be right.
They gods (Counsel/Management Team/ruling species) have deteriorated life on earth precipitously in the last 40 years, from abortion to pornography, widespread drug use and widespread casual (gay) sex, single-parent households and latchkey kids. The earth's elders, hundreds and thousands of years old, are disgusted and have become indifferent.
The gods are paving the way for the Apocolypse.
Nothing has changed from decades ago, since when we were all children::If you want to go to heaven you have to be good. People were misled by the temptation of the gods, became corrputed and now are in trouble.
One day you will be abandoned in spite of your obedience and you will fall into desperation. Remember what you read for that day WILL come::People will be punished for their evil.
The Old Testiment is a tool they used to impart wisdom to the people (except people have no freewill). For example, they must be some hominid species because they claim they made our bodies in their image. Anyhow we defile or deform the body will hurt our chance of going.
They say circumcision costs people anywhere from 12%-15%, perhaps out of the parent's time as well.
Another way people foul the body today is with tattoes and piercing. I suspect both are about the same percentage as circumcision.
They suggest abortion is fatal. These women must beg the gods to forgive them for their evil.
There are female eqivilents to circumcision::::pierced ears, plastic surgury and since at least the 60s young women give their precious virginity away. For thousands of years young people were matched at age 14 because they were ready for sexual relations. They were matched by elders or matchmakers who knew personalities better than 20 or 30-year olds who in today's age end up in divorce court.
CASUAL SEX WILL CLAIM YOU OUT!!! It masculinizes women (as does hip hop), makes them cold and deadens them, and prevents them from achieving a depth of love necessary for many women to ascend.
Women have a special voice that speaks to them, a voice that illustrates a potential depth of love that makes them the favored gender, and enaging in casual sex will cause that voice to fade until she no longer speaks.
Also ever since the 50s they have celebrated the "bad boy", and women have sought out bad boys for sex, dirtying them up in the eyes of the elders and corrupting many men in the process, setting the men on the wrong path for life.
Muslims teach people the correct way to live in regard to women (among other things)::they cover up their women's bodies and prohibit the use of cosmetics.
Men ARE the inferior (disfavored) half and when women wear promiscuous dress the gods will push men into impure (promiscuous) thoughts.
The "stereotype" society ridiculed is true::women CAN corrupt men by how they dress. Because men are easily corruptable. This is a technique they used to eliminate many of the institutions the gods blessed us with, matchmaking being one of them.
The United States of America is red white and blue, a theme and a clue:::.
The monarchical system of the Old World closley replicates the heirarchical system of the Cousel/Management Team/ruling species. The USA deceives peoeple into thinking they have control, and the perception of "freedom" misleads them into the wrong way of thinking at the very least.
The United States is a cancer, a dumping ground for the disfavored around the world and why the quality of life is so much lower::gun violence, widespead social ills, health care (medication poisons the body and ensures you don't go. You are sick/injured because you have disfavor.). Over time its citizens interbreed ensuring a severed connection to the motherland.
If you are a recent immigrant I recommend you return. If that's not possible you need to retain your culture and insulate your children and community from this cancerous environment. They send this clue with Chinatowns across the country, how many Chinese have been here for a century or more yet still retain the old ways, a sign of favor.
People came to the Unites States for many different reasons, and each has its own effect:::political strife, religious unrest, crop failure (Ireland's potato famine, which the gods caused) and some left their beloved motherland because they were pushed into desiring a better life::::Greed. And these people were punished by becoming corrupted and preditory.
They share money may not be an issue up there, that money here is merely a tool for corruption. How the gods used greed in the 1980s to create an evil environment supports this.
If you ever have doubt I would refer you to the Old World way of life:::the elders used to sit and impart wisdom to the young. Now we watch DVDs and use the internet. People would be matched and married by age 14. They village would use a matchmaker or elders to pair young people. Now girls give their precious virginity away to some person in school and parents divorce while their children grow up without an important role model.
People must defy when asked to engage in evil. The Holocaust taught people the importance of defiance, and they will never get a easier clue suggesting this than the order not to pray.
Their precious babies are dependant on the parents and they need to defy when asked to betray their children:::
-DON'T get your sons circumcized (Jews scapegoatted as in WWII)
-DON'T have their children baptized in the Catholic Church or indoctrinated into Christianity (Jesus is NOT a god).
-DON'T ignore their long hair or other behavioral disturbances.
-DO teach your children love, respect for others, humility and to honor the gods.
You need to pray, honor and respect them every day to improve your relationship with the gods. If they tell you not to it is a bad sign. It means they've made their decision, they don't want you to go and they don't want to be bothered. You may have achieved a threshold of evil.
This is the Age of the Disfavored and you need to pray::try to appease the gods by doing good deeds and improve the world around you. If that doesn't work you must defy if you want to go.
When your peasant forefather was granted the rare opportunity to go before his royal family he went on his knees, bowing his head. You need to do this when you address the gods::bow down and submit to good. Never cast your eyes skyward. When you bow down you need to look within. Never look to the gods for the key to your salvation lies within. Nobody is going to do it for you.
Lack of humility hurts people. Understand your insignificance and make sure it is reflected in the way you think when addressing the gods. Know your place and understand your inferiority.
They granted you life and they can take it just as easily. (Immaculte conception IS true AND common. Many people have children they don't know of:::gays, childless adults, etc. They can beem it right out of your body and use a host.)
Don't get frustrated or discouraged::these are techniques they will attempt to try to get you off the path. You all have much to be thankful for and you need to give thanks to the gods who granted you the good things in life::family, friends, love. Your family may be grossly disfavored and progress may require patience. Make praying an intregal part of your life which you perform without fail, one that comes as naturally as eating or voiding.
There are many interesting experiences up on the planetary systems, from Planet Miracle, where miracles happen every day, to never having to use the restroom again (beem it out of you), to other body experinces, such as experiencing life as the opposite sex (revolutionizes marriage counseling), an Olympic gold medal athelete or even a different species (animal, alien, etc.).
Pray that you can differentiate between your own thoughts and when Artificial Intelligence creates problems by thinking through you. If you bow down mentally and physically, know your place, your inferiority and allow your insignificance to be reflected in prayer and in your life through humility they may allow progress and the dysfunctions they create with the computer will be lessened or removed. The first step is to be aware it is ocurring.
Create a goal::to be a good, god-fearing child of the gods, pure of heart and mind, body and soul.
Everybody has the key to their own salvation, but nobody can do it for you. Every journey begins with a single step:::bow down and submit to good. There are many different levels and peasants will not get past Level 2 (Planet Temptation, Earth=Level 1) if they are evil (they share some go up, are offered free cocaine and sex (a sign they don't want you to stay) and stay less then one year. They share many others would have had longer lives had they stayed on Earth.).
Pray for guidance and never obey when they tell you to be evil, for saving yourself will become more and more difficult with each act of evil you committ until ultimatly the day arrives when they make their decision about you final.
You are all signed on but you can't all be right.
They have tried to sell people on all kinds of theories, from clones to wholesale population replacement with clones. This didn't happen and is not realistic.
I am afraid people are decieved into thinking they too are clones and cooperate and engage in evil. Clones are made, people are born. If you didn't experience the one week they suggest it takes to go from fertilized egg in the laboratory to full grown adult then you are not a clone. If you didn't experience the week of conditioning they give to (evil?) clones to ensure loyalty then you shouldn't comply with evil.
I believe people who go sometimes are replaced with clones. Clones who are replaced are simply new candidates who have a chance if they do the right thing. Don't expect you are a clone. They sent people warnings in the 20th century life would change, and they subsequenlty began to alter people's DNA, make them gargantuan, alter their appearance, do extreme behavioral issues, etc.
They get their friends out as soon as possible to protect them from the evil and subsequent high claim rates incurred by living life on earth, and in some cases replace them with clones, occassionally fake a death, real death with a clone instead, etc. It's important that people fix their problems and ascend with the body given to them, for they say if your brain is beemed out at death and put into a clone host you are on the clock.
We may all be "clones" for they have suggested they colonized our planet with genetically engineered individuals. If so we all have a chance, no matter how many hundreds of clone generations deep the most favored families are.
They may have gotten Earth's TRUE residents out prior to civilization developing.
Throughout history the ruling species bestowed favor upon people or cursed their bloodline into a pattern of disfavor for many generations to come. Now in the 21st century people must take it upon themselves to try to correct their family's problems, undoing centuries worth of abuse and neglect. The goal is to fix your problems and get out BEFORE you have children. This is why they have created so many distractions for young people:::sports, video games, popular music, the internet, too much homework, anything that consumes their time::to ensure that doesn't ocurr.
Not heeding the clues and warnings, getting wrapped up in your life and ultimatly having children is a bad thing. Just as your parents and your grandparents, you too have failed. Having children is a sign you lost your chance.
Parents need to sacrifice for their children. Your children are more important that you. They are the ones who have the opportunity now, and parents must sacrifice to ensure they give their children the very best chance they can.
Asking people to neglect their children emotionally is a sign they don't want you to go, and complying may finish the parents off for good.
Having gay children is a clue parents complied with whatever was asked of them. There are many who have had gay expereinces today.
Improve your relationship with the gods and they may not ask in the first place or they may permit you the courage to say "No." to their requests.
Do your research. Appeal to the royalty of your forefathers for help. They are all still alive, for royalty has great favor, and your appeals will be heard. Obtain a sufficient list for some may not want to assist you; perhaps some of your family's problems are internal.
Ask them for help, request guidance, for somewhere in your family history one of your forefathers created an offense that cast your family into this pattern of disfavor, which perhaps is manifested in the evil you commit.
I suspect they will offer you clues, and when you decipher these clues go to those whom consider you an enemy and beg for foregiveness:::Find a path to an empithetic ear among your enemies and try to make amends. Again through discovery obtain a respectable list in case some among them refuse to help.
Don't forget to ask for forgiveness from the throne, the Counsel and the Management Team, for the source of all disfavor began with them:::they pushed or requested/complied your forefather into his offense and made his decendants evil. Perhaps they didn't like him or maybe your family was among those who had to pay for the entire village. We see this type of behavior today as they single out a family member to pay for the whole family and how they singled out Africa to pay for the human race.
Heal the disfavor with your enemies and with the Counsel/Management Team/ruling species, for the source of all disfavor began with them, the ability to forgive and respect in light of the disturbing truth revealed being the final test of the disfavored before they ascend.
They refuse to address black disfavor on a macro level. The Counsel/Management Team/ruling species (the gods) abuse black people so hard, from east African drought/famine to AIDS in Africa, the crack epiemic to gang membership, black-on-black violence to mass incarceration of their young. They refuse to address the issue of the prison industrial complex and its wholesale warehousing of young black men.
The gods will use today's style of animation, which I call "manic animation", to justify hurting children, the decendants of the disfavored left behind.
I know many of you have questions, and I wish I could answer them. I try on Craigslist open forum but they seek to control the dissemination of information, especially so in the wedding, marriage/ltr and kink/bsdm rooms, for they have made their decision on those people and want them to continue with their lives/make their committment, ensuring they lose their chance to go.
I wish you were brave enough to ask. One day you will for you will have fallen into desperation.
Pray for guidance and never obey when they tell you to be evil, for saving yourself will become more and more difficult with each act of evil you committ until ultimatly the day arrives when they make their decision about you final.
You're all signed on but you can't all be right.
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