Mosquitoes, High Heels, and a Virgin

Mosquitoes

If you learn one thing from this blog, let it be this:  People who live in houses with mosquitoes should not sponge walls.  Sponging is a painting technique that involves applying paint with a sponge to create a textured effect.  I am not crazy about the sponged look, but it never bothered me before living here.  It turns out, however, that sponged walls make a perfect camouflage for mosquitoes.  The sponged walls in Natalie’s and my bedroom here ultimately drove us to abandon it and to requisition Max’s room instead.

Sponged bedroom wall.  No mosquitoes, right?

Wrong.  Detail of same wall.

The mosquito population bloomed about two months ago after it started to rain.  Mosquitoes bother all of us, but they are especially attracted to Natalie.  Sometimes when she walks into the room, I see mosquitoes zip past me to get to her.  Helen and Max also have suffered, while I have been the least affected.

Being inside our house offers little protection.  We leave the doors open during the day because it gets so hot, one of the exterior walls does not reach the ceiling, leaving a space for bugs to fly in, and initially there were no screens. We have screened in the upstairs bedrooms, used repellants, incense, candles, coils, clothes, an infrared light/zapper, and chemical-free traps called Skeeter Plus.  Except for the Skeeter Plus traps – which have not caught a single mosquito – everything helps, but it takes only one mosquito to ruin a night’s sleep.

Natalie, dressed for mosquito-safe breakfast, wielding citronella incense.

The ultraviolet light/zapper we borrowed from our neighbor Gabrielle. 

A clever praying mantis waiting on the zapper to catch bugs before they are zapped.

Ultimately, we have found that the best defense is a good offense.  Smashing mosquitoes reduces the population and it is psychologically satisfying.  Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are very fast and light.  The lightness matters, because the wind current created by clapping our hands or hitting a book against the wall can blow the mosquitoes out of harm’s way.  With practice, however, our kill rates have improved.

Boom!  Boom!  Boom!  Boom!  The four black spots on my hand were mosquitos.

The most difficult place to catch mosquitoes is in our former bedroom, because of the sponged walls.  The mosquitoes simply disappear into the sponge patterns.  Once, a few weeks ago, Natalie had this ecstatic moment where she could actually track a mosquito as it flew in front of the sponged wall. Unfortunately, her SpongeVision did not last.  Max also has proved to be quite adept, and even acrobatic, in catching mosquitoes, and my daily hunts are productive.  But the resilience of the mosquito population, the abundance of standing water, and, yes, the sponged walls, proved to be too much.  Natalie and I finally moved upstairs into one of the screened bedrooms, and Max moved in with Helen.

High Heels

This morning Helen did not want to take a shower or get ready for school.  Natalie offered a bribe.  If Helen would get up, Natalie would wear high heels to school drop off.  Say what you want, but it worked.

Off to school.

A Virgin

When we moved in, they were just starting to build a swimming pool at the farm across the street.  The family that owns the farm ran a swim school at a different pool, but they decided to move the school to their own property.  The new location opened in April.  Knowing that we are not likely to live so close to a pool again, all four of us are taking swim classes.

Max, Helen, and I pay for our classes with pesos.  Natalie bartered for her classes with a mural, of sorts.  That was not her intention.  Instead, when Gabrielle (the owner) asked Natalie to paint the niche that houses the statuette of the virgin Nuestra Señora de la Soledad they keep in the office under the pool, Natalie accepted because it sounded like a fun and interesting project.  And it was.

Before.

During. 

Detail.

After.

Natalie claims it is the first niche she has painted, and it definitely is the first time she has used gold leaf, but she is a natural.  The result is beautiful.  --Harrison