Bugs

I have made friends with many of the bugs at our hometel (that's what we call the house we are staying in, because it is not our house and not a hotel) .

The bees at Cass Garuda buzz with Italian accents. Flies, which outnumber the bees 8 to 1, are pale and curious; they search my arms and legs like an old man at the beach with a metal detector. Though I never have what they want, the flies are quite determined, and return back often to see if the situation has changed. The bees do not bite me, because I am kind and talk to them.

Little bugs, maybe fruit flies, cluster in groups beneath the lowest branches of the acacia tree. At first five, then eight by afternoon, now maybe 12 form a cloud above me. Sudden movements appear to me as perhaps fights, like brothers intruding on one-another: immediately a push from big brother outward, and without pause the little sibling flees past the boundary of the cloud; then snapping back like an elastic band. This happens 14 times before I lose count.

Our favorite past time each evening has been the pursuit and capture of grasshoppers. The best way to find one is to walk through the field until they start jumping; they blend into the grass and leaves, and are very hard to see. You must be quick, yet gentle so as not to crush them. They hop as soon as your hand drops, bouncing off your palm three or four times before they finally give up. Generally they don't eat the leaves and grass we offer, so we release them by the olive trees.

Inside the hometel are the occasional stink bugs - so called because they stink if you accidentally smash them. It is my job to rescue them, by letting them climb onto my finger and walking them outside. I also try to rescue flies but they don't want to be rescued. Baby stink bugs are tan colored, and they turn bright green as adults. When they get old, parts of their bodies and wings turn brown and thin, and they don't fly as much. Once I rescue the stink bugs they stay on the warm brick walls of the hometel. There are alao a ton of them on the screen outside my window. My brother likes to flick the screen and make them fly away.