While in the Philippines I made many new friends, many friends that I wasn't ready to say good bye to, friends I wasn't ready to leave. But then again, there were new friends that I REALY wanted to say good bye to and was totally ready to leave behind…but NO they came with me!
These friends were ants….yes ants…small little red ish ants that liked to bite! These ants found a new home during my stay in the Philippines, and that new home was IN MY SUITCASE! So NOT cool…
This story actually begins way back on one of the airplanes we took to get to the Philippines when my friend Jen gave me a candy. I didn't want to eat it at the time so I put into my jean shorts pocket to save for later and that was that - I forgot about it.
So a few days into my time at the Pachecos I noticed many ants in my suitcase, I tried and tried as much as I could to get them out. I cleaned out my suitcase and wiped them away, smushed ant after ant after ant and yet, there were still many left. I just couldn't get rid of them. In the process of trying to get rid of them I had emptied my suitcase….and there….in the bottom…it was. A plastic wrapped white candy…infested by ANTS! And that is when I remembered the candy Jen had given me on the plane two weeks before. Sigh. My homestay parents had asked me various times, "do you have any food in your suitcase? Are you sure there's nothing in there?" "No I haven't any food, yes I am sure." well that is where I was wrong….that candy was definitely loved by the ants. The candy was definitely thrown into the garbage.
Well it was time for me to pack my suitcase…so here was my brilliant plan or shall I say hope? My suitcase was packed REALLY tight when everything was put back in and ready to fly. So between the jam packed-ness of it and the cold of being up in the air in the under compartment of the aircraft those ants were going to die a cold death….hmmm I don't feel very Christian and kind writing this but seriously…they were ants invading MY stuff! They deserved it….I was not going to turn the other cheek...
Great plan right?
Yeah…IF it had worked….sigh….
The first morning in Malaysia I opened my suitcase which was against a wall to get my clothes out for the day. Well it wasn't long before I noticed a trail of ants marching up the wall and across the ceiling of mine, Emily's and Kelly's room. The ants were in my clothes, in my towel, in my toiletries and in everything that was in my suitcase! They were in my clothes I was wearing and crawling on me, it took about a half hour to an hour of wearing these clothes that all the ants that came with them were dead. I sat in devotions that morning killing ants and putting Caladryl cream on the ant bites that were on my arms, legs and stomach….yes they were friendly enough ants that they bit me!
I was not impressed that they were still alive and I was worried that they would get into Kelly and Emily's bags and I didn't want that. I once again emptied my suitcase. I went through everything. I bagged all my clothes, towels, face cloth and hat in preparation to take to the Laundry mat. Most of my clothes were still clean since my laundry was done just a few days before…but I had to do them again. They ants got into my two packs of halls, my vitamin C, my first aid bag so all got thrown out (well was able to keep most of the first aid stuff). Those ants got into most of my packs of kleenx which was used for toilet paper out there. Debbie, April and Sarah were in my room for a bit helping me clean and kill these ants away…but there were so many that we couldn't get them all and they were all over the room now, not just in my suitcase.
As I sat there on the floor in our room with all my stuff scattered around me crawling with ants I just wanted to pout like a little child….that lasted for about two seconds. Then I continued bagging the ant free stuff into my ziplocs…April's brilliant idea.
I went out for a few hours after dropping my laundry off to get cleaned and living my suitcase the way it was hoping that Emily and Kelly's stuff would be fine. Once I came back I asked at the front desk for some Mosquito spray. A lady in housecleaning brought it up to our room. I tried to explain to her what the problem was but I don't think she spoke much English. So she just left the spray with me and I told her I'd give it back to her when I was done with it.
April was kind enough to spray our room. We dosed that space with this potent stuff…..not once, but twice…and we even dosed my suitcase directly….
It had to be sprayed and then left for ten minutes, when we came back after the first time there were still ants crawling about the room, so April sprayed some more. We came back a second time….not as many ants left this time, but I still found some alive. So this time we sprayed my suitcase directly, inside outside, the carpet all around and up the wall. And that my friends, did the trick….
I was essentially ant free, there was one or two left behind that I smushed myself. I let the room clear before I put back my suitcase and later in the day I got back all my clean clothes! Which was kind of nice, to actually have everything clean.
So all in all, it was an adventure and there were only a few moments when I was quite frustrated with the situation. I told myself it was all part of the adventure of this trip. I was even left with many ant bites to remember this incident by! I really appreciated that….*cough cough*
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