TheExpatJournals.com

> I check in when I can, and must admit that when I do I’m seeking a “Leslie fix”. I just relish the wonderfully rich “Leslie reports.” Since there have been no new postings for 2 weeks, I thought I’d chime in with the hope I can stimulate one. What’s gnu in the neighborhood?
Well, since you asked…I got dengue fever. Today was Day 12 and the first day I ventured anywhere other than the doctor or hospital. There just aren’t superlatives strong enough to describe the horror of the experience. By Thursday, I was finally just laughing rather inappropriately at anything. One friend was checking in from NYC and that day when asked, my response was “Each day brings it’s own new horror.”

I don’t think you wanna know details on this one, trust me on that. I am finally feeling better, literally as of today. Still weak, but out of the nightmare. Hopefully, there will be fresh perspectives soon.

I did learn that Lysol spray works very well to kill mosquitoes indoors. That’s good to know since they are impossible to swat. In spite of not wanting anything to mar my beautiful view, I am definitely about to have screens made. Sunday, a mosquitoe was doing his best to break through the glass and get inside and I swear, when I saw it, it might as well have been a bad man with a big gun pointed at my head. The feeling invoked the same fear. It will be interesting to see how this newfound fear plays out. I don’t know how to live in the tropics and fear mosquitoes.

Once upon a time in upstate NY, I had a carriage house in an area where virtually no days went by I didn’t have to stop for deer at least once. Deer, like mosquitoes, seem most prolific just before the sun goes down. So much to my surprise, at ten past noon one day, coming round a bend, a deer leapt up from a hill on the side of the road and landed in my grill. And yes, for a very long time afterwards, I had deer paranoia. But that was for them and this is for me. In the meantime, think I’ll keep wearing long sleeves.

Like a line out of some bad movie, it’s official…I have become a menace to society! No dengue is not contagious, but if a mosquitoe bites me now, it will become infected and can then infect someone else if I don’t get it with my can of Lysol first.
I now go mosquitoe hunting indoors, two sticks of incense in my left hand to smoke ‘em out and the can of Lysol in my right hand to kill ‘em.

One thing you gotta admit about living over here…it is never boring.