La cucaracha, la cucaracha! Ya no puede caminar!

There's undoubtedly an endless supply of a diverse array of insects always wandering around the clinic and house in Palacios. The typical spiders, flies, centipedes, worms, moths, and beetles. But most of all, mosquitoes. I smash no doubt hundreds of them a day. Yes, its annoying and tiresome, but nothing is more annoying that having tons of bites all over my body and the constant buzzing in my ears. Until Friday night, I have been able to deal pretty well with the annoyance. That night though, my experiences with bugs went to a whole new level. I have never been a big fan of any type of bugs, but cockroaches are a completely different story.

It was around 9PM. Alice was calmly typing away on her computer working on whatever she's always working on. I was staring off into space, my computer having just crashed that morning. Becky had wandered off towards her room when we heard a high pitched squeal. Living with mostly girls, the squeal is a more than just a rare occasion. But in this instance, both Alice and I were summoned to "Come quick! Come quick!" followed by another "No!" and another squeal. Alice rushed over, leaving me to slowly get up from my chair and wander in that direction. I didn't expect the big surprise to be all that interesting or important. But as I round the corner to the hallway, even from a distance I could see the huge 4-inch-long cockroach chilling underneath the horrified stares of Becky and Alice. I didn't feel the need to get any closer, so I just watched from a distance as the cockroach kept meandering down the hallway. Eventually the cockroach met its last moments alive as Alice hacked away at it with a plastic Pil yogurt bottle, sound effects mimicking Jason (from Friday the 13th) included. Hasta luego, cucaracha!

At that point, my plans to go take a shower and go to bed were slightly delayed. I no longer wanted to go anywhere that might mean another encounter. So I paced around the kitchen, mustering up the courage to continue normally with my night. Finally, after a long 15 minutes, I told myself to quit being such a wuss. I carefully but quickly tiptoed down the hallway scanning every inch of the tile floor as I went, and safely arrived at the room. No cockroaches visible in there either. I consider our bedroom a sanctuary away from any sort of wildlife (minus about 4 mosquitoes and a lizard that crawls on the walls). But, as I went about collecting my things, I suddenly stopped in my tracks as I moved my glance to my computer which lay next to my pillow on top of my bed. Surprise, surprise... another cockroach. What was surprising was I didn't scream but calmly walked back down the hallway into the kitchen before my meltdown in front of Becky and Alice. After a photosession with Mr. Cockroach #2, another one 4 inches long, Alice and Becky skillfully and very kindly set it free outside the house. Needless to say, I would've much rather him received the same fate as our first intruder, but such is life.

My luck with our multilegged friends didn't end once we left the clinic the next afternoon. Apparently two more wanted to join us back in Santa Cruz and made themselves comfortable amongst my dirty clothes in my bag. They made themselves at home in our bedroom once again, but were caught red handed by Niko, our Santa Cruz "mom". Niko wasn't so nice; she hates cockroaches just as much as, if not more than, I do. Once she told us at dinner, it made for more disgusted and unbelieving faces from Alice, Becky, and I, but by then, in our cockroach-free environment, it also made for some good laughs.