prickly heat

(december 30, 2006)

it is most definitely called ‘prickly heat’ for a reason – my chest feels awfully prickly and the only thing holding me back from using my nails (that have grown amazingly quickly in the african sun) from scratching my chest is the thought of this getting worse and having a bright red, bumpy chest in my low v-neck dress i plan on wearing for new year’s eve.

vanity – it will keep you from scratching.

after bouncing back rather heartily from being the obvious 5th wheel, i’ve managed to have myself a proper holiday. today’s highlights included more sunning, the purchase of a kikoy for a sarong, and jet skiing in the ocean.

it’s such a rush to travel parallel to the beach with the wind in your face and finding good waves to fly off of so you think you just might fall but never do. i’m a wimp at heart but jet skis are tremendous fun. and in the indian ocean too!

the sun and i continue our love-hate relationship and my legs and chest are left itching every evening but the little blue called Aerius and i are making up for love lost between the sun and i. but i’m brown and freckled and therefore happy.

i have had a few more run-in’s with the insect world, however. a millipede (these things are as long as my forearm when stretched out) managed to fall from the thatched roof on to the floor of our cottage, effectively committing bug suicide by splatting and leaving a puddle of bug gut goo (seriously, they are that big) that i had to clean up with a dust pan, broom, and mop. and i also volunteered to slay the centipede (again, MUCH longer and bigger that its north american cousins) that crawled on its 100 legs into my room. i sprayed it with some chemical-cocktail insecticide and trapped it under a basket while it died. the basket was a necessary tool in the operation to prevent the bug from lodging itself in my clothes pile to be found at a later date. but when i returned i found that it had escaped my clever scheme and thrown itself down a flight of stairs (kenyan bugs seem to be into theatrics) so i collected it and deposited it in our garden to promote the idea of compost and to rid our humble abode of the insect carcass. the reason i go on about the placement of the centipede is that this morning it was still moving, albeit in a very slow, ineffectual manner and i salvaged some bug compassion and squished it with a sizeable piece of coral rock to put the poor thing out of its misery. but you really should have seen the size of the chompers on this guy!

apart from insects, there are some vervet and collobus monkeys that hang around our cottage, some of whose babies were wrestling on our patio furniture this morning. and tomorrow i hope to spot some dolphins on our scheduled boat trip. then an ayurvedic massage, some more sun, more antihistamines, a nap, then to ring in the new year at a bar on the beach where it appears that shoes are optional.