<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">The parasites of
August</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I got bit August summer of '68 in Litchfield, Maine. In my early twenties, I had four weeks to engage
the Church youth in summer camps attended by teenyboppers from up and down Maine
to Connecticut. It was a pleasant summer
save the buzzing mosquitoes. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I grew up in the Cagayan Valley where the anopheles carried
malaria around. I never got the shakes,
staying faithful within the canopy of the standard mosquito net canopy. In Nigeria, I guarded the intake of training
participants by Lagoon Lagos but I was lax with my prophylactics. The <i>plasmodium</i>
got me climbing the walls.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">The local Maine story was that the government sprayed DDT to
eradicate the pesky pests until the authorities realized that not only was the
compound detrimental to humans, it also evolved mosquitoes into bigger and
stronger breeds.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">It was not until the late 70s when I heard a similar story but
with a more prominent role given the mosquitoes. For their size, they were labeled as the
provincial birds of Manitoba, no longer just swatted but systematically
eradicated with chemicals! The result
was predictable.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">After a weekend in July last month in the pleasant
surroundings of Alberta's Banff and Lake Louise, by magnificent Lake Moraine,
and the bouncy rapids of the Bow River flowing from Jaspers where the head
streams of the Saskatchewan river began at the Athabasca glaciers of the
Canadian Rockies, my lungs had its fill of clean air and fresh winds compared
to the haze of Calgary that was in the middle of its annual dust-filled Stampede. The iced mineral water was tastier than the cold
bottled one that dispensed for a dollar in the Plains.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">It was not yet August on the tail end of the chuckwagon
races and the rodeo-riding cowboys when one slender long-legged bloodsucking
female capable of passing on the dreaded Egyptian encephalitis alighted on my <i>brazzo. </i> I quickly gave it the swat. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">It is its cousins that buzz around the plains of Manchuria
where Shenyang is nestled by the <i>Liaohe,</i>
the river that gives the province its name.
Given the swampy areas along the Bohai shores, there are many stagnant
waters where the aquatic larvae of the mosquito thrive and multiply. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Males among DCHS'59ers (Davao City High School) in the Banff
tour related jokes during the bus ride. I added my mosquito cowboy shoot-out story setting
it on an old West Texas bar transported to a lower Alberta ranch town. It went:</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">A mosquito buzzed by while three cowboys nursed their spirited
quaffs in a Calgary bar. So the wide-brim-hatted
gringo drew his six-shooter and a buzzer was a dot on the wall. With no shortage of pride, the cowboy blew
the smoke off his gun nozzle. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Another buzzer came by and the Canadien ranch hand took his aim,
clipped the mosquito's wings, making the buzzer zigzag dizzily down to its ignominy. The bartender shrugged his shoulders. No word was exchanged. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Then another mosquito ventured into the bar space, and a Chinoy
pulled his trigger. The fly kept on
flying. Usually short of words, the gringo
and the Canadien gave the Chinoy a surly look. They said, "You
missed." The Chinoy replied: "Mayhap, but he ain't havin' no more babies
no more!"</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Buzzers were not funny in Oleai and CK as they flew into Saipan's
Beach Road when favorably nurtured by the rain and the sun. The mosquitoes were my antagonists for
occupancy in the old San Jose Motel before the place was consigned to disrepair.
Non-humans in this planet, particularly
creatures nice and small, are faring well. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Even the <i>Ebola</i>
virus is winning in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and West Africa! Already, the infection has become pandemic
with the world on red alert over the local health structures inability to deal
with the epidemic. A call for assistance
from partner countries had been issued. Experimental
medication was just approved for use to indicate the severity and desperation
of the situation. Nigeria just added to
the death count.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, humanoids around the world<i> </i>grow bigger brains and larger butts, multi-layered bellies and
paunchier girths, spending lives at the altar of consumer goods longing for
comfort but ever anxious over health and personal security.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">This reflection is about "me and mosquitoes", not
about English (the proper form is "mosquitoes and I" but "me and
mosquitoes" sounds better). It is
about sharing the same space without elbowing each other out of existence. Change the phrase in quote to "Palestinian
and Jew, Chinese and Japanese, Iraqi and Irani, Kiev Ukrainian and Donets'k Ukrainian,
SoKor and NoKor, etc.", and you get my drift.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">My neighbor's yard smells of all kinds of sprays in the
morning as he controls the pests in his home garden. His sunflowers bloom well. Meanwhile, the incidence of youth's neural
disorders in my neighborhood has multiplied.
Chemotherapy <i>before </i>the cancer
is just as lethal and deadly.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Stay away from the spray.
The mosquito and Ebola are here to stay.
So will I, BTW, with the parasites and viruses of August.</div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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