le moustiquaire

the mosquito net~ I never thought that the mosquito net would be a source of worry for me here.  And it is only indirectly that it has been, but my strange ocd tendancies are definitely showing their true colors....

The first couple of nights I was here, I knew that I would eventually share a bed, but the sister I usually would sleep with was gone, so it didn't hit me how interesting this experience could be.  I proceeded to throw up profusely the second night of my stay and became totally paranoid that I would get stuck inside the mosquito net when I needed to run to the bathroom...the first internal sign that this might not work.  The first external sign that something wasn't right was a single dress cast off onto my bed.  I thought that was strange but figured that someone accidently left it there while changing, since the communal chest of drawers is in my room.  But then my sister came back, and I realized that it is common practice in my family to throw dirty clothes...undergarments included... onto this bed, to lay on it during the day (sweating a lot in the process), and even to eat on it sometimes.  I told myself that it would be o.k...I have american ideas about cleanliness, etc., but then, I slept with my sister who moves around a lot in her sleep, often closer to me rather than farther away, which is not good, especially when I am already pouring sweat because of being inside the mosquito net.  Two almost sleepless nights later, I decided to ask my family to let me put up the mosquito net tent that I brought from the US outside the house because it would be cooler.  They proceeded to start taking the dirty mattress off the bed to put it outside...for me to sleep on it with my sister.  I quickly assured them that I did not mean to make my sister sleep outside as well...so they proceeded to take the mattress off of another sister's bed and put it outside for me with her mosquito net.  She then slept in the dirty bed with my other sister.  The next day, I finally convinced them to let me put up my tent, so now i am much cooler at night and not stealing anyone's bed...but that was definitely a cultural experience...  Somehow being low maintenance in American culture becomes high maintenance here in no time.  It is all very interesting... Hopefully I will write soon with something a bit more profound, but I find that especially at the start of one's stay here, the practical parts of life feel so immediate and important that there is not much time for anything else!