My Roommates

I have been fortunate enough to share my place with the diverse population of roommates. They show up wanting to greet me when I least expect them to. Each of them occupies a certain space: a roof, a piece of corner, a wall, or an area next to the light. Sometimes some of them just trespass through the room rushing to the next task or to meet their tribe. So who are they? Since we do not speak the same language I call them by their general name. I also have trouble to differentiate the members of the same tribe so general name usually works for me.

My favorite roommate is gecko - my Friend. He is this tiny creature that comes down from the roof (the area between corrugate sheets and rice bags that serve as a ceiling). My Friend usually shows after the sun goes down, sends the greeting in a tiny fraction of the second and disappears.

The cockroaches are less pusillanimous. They think that if they are at a standstill no one can detect them. I call them Invaders because we do not have sympathy for each other’s tribe. I have had three Invaders that tried to share my space but all of them were eliminated without mercy. Two of them were the size of my pinky wandering in the house which I chased with the flip flop. The third one, a smaller one, I felt climbing on my stomach in the morning when I was sleeping  (do they ever sleep?).

I also have a range of spiders who a busy building their webs for daily food hunt. I see them sometimes when they are taking a break or wandering to the other part of the wall.

During the rainy season the snails moved into my backyard. They seem to inch meditatively without a clear goal or sense of direction. One thing about them that bothers me is the twirl of poop they leave on the concrete path and corrugate fence. In the middle of the night I make an effort to be vigilant not to step on one of them on the way to the pit latrine.

Ants, flies, mosquitoes (Malarians) come and go or come and are being eliminated. Numerous other different types of bug tribes, from the tiniest one that nearly impossible to see with naked eye to the larger ones with innocuous appearance, have usually the same fate.

After or during the rains there is a surfeit of flying termites/ants that are frenetic with the light. If I keep the light inside the house in the evening, in minutes’ time I see them invading the house through the holes in the ceiling. I will call them Fanatics. Oh, I cannot forget to mention the frogs, who delivers the concert every night and early morning that by any means could be regarded as euphony.    

Coming from the sterile environment it was difficult to have so many different tribes trekking around concerned with their own business, but slowly we have learned to live together in harmony and share the space (except Invaders and Malarians) as long as they do not attempt to get in a close proximity to me.