David and Goliath

I think I have a little bit of Entomophobia.

_{Photo by Егор Камелев}

For those of you who don't know what Entomophobia is, it's the fear of insects. Now saying I have Entomophobia is a little bit of a stretch, what I actually fear is getting bitten by mosquitoes and I didn't really have this fear until three years ago, the year 2020. I think that was the year I had my first near death experience and it wasn't fun at all (not like near death experiences are meant to be fun anyway). I had fallen ill to malaria after getting bitten by mosquitoes.

Now this wasn't my first time having such sickness because this is Africa and we all know that there are a lot of mosquitoes in this part of the world but this was the first time I almost died from it. After that experience, I made a vow to myself never to find myself in such situation anymore because I had no plans of dying anytime soon.

So I had put things in place to prevent mosquitoes from coming into my room anymore. I placed nets at my windows and my door and I always made sure to spray insecticides every now and then just in case the mosquito found a way to sneak in so that they will die. And luckily for me, it worked and for the next two years, I was strong and healthy and even when I fell ill, it was mostly for minor things like headaches or cough, it was never something serious to bring me down and stay bedridden.

Well fast forward to December 2022 (last month) and I traveled back home to come spend the holidays with my family only to discover that my worse nightmare was living in the same house with me. Now we stay in a three bedroom apartment that that happens to be so spacious that each room can be divided into two and still have enough space, unfortunately living in such a big house means that there will be a lot of windows and a lot of doors and you know what that means, a lot of room for mosquitoes to come into the house.

So now it almost like I'm back in 2020, fighting for my life every night. The only difference is that I'm not bedridden or sick yet, I just have to empty one can of insecticide almost every night just for my mind to be at peace for me to have a good night rest. I'd rather spend money on insecticides and kill these beasts than watch them bring me down again like it's David and Goliath.