The parasites ofAugust I got bit August summer of '68 in Litchfield, Maine. In my early twenties, I had four weeks to engagethe Church youth in summer camps attended by teenyboppers from up and down Maineto Connecticut. It was a pleasant summersave the buzzing mosquitoes. I grew up in the Cagayan Valley where the anopheles carriedmalaria around. I never got the shakes,staying faithful within the canopy of the standard mosquito net canopy. In Nigeria, I guarded the intake of trainingparticipants by Lagoon Lagos but I was lax with my prophylactics. The plasmodiumgot me climbing the walls. The local Maine story was that the government sprayed DDT toeradicate the pesky pests until the authorities realized that not only was thecompound detrimental to humans, it also evolved mosquitoes into bigger andstronger breeds. It was not until the late 70s when I heard a similar story butwith a more prominent role given the mosquitoes. For their size, they were labeled as theprovincial birds of Manitoba, no longer just swatted but systematicallyeradicated with chemicals! The resultwas predictable. After a weekend in July last month in the pleasantsurroundings of Alberta's Banff and Lake Louise, by magnificent Lake Moraine,and the bouncy rapids of the Bow River flowing from Jaspers where the headstreams of the Saskatchewan river began at the Athabasca glaciers of theCanadian Rockies, my lungs had its fill of clean air and fresh winds comparedto the haze of Calgary that was in the middle of its annual dust-filled Stampede. The iced mineral water was tastier than the coldbottled one that dispensed for a dollar in the Plains. It was not yet August on the tail end of the chuckwagonraces and the rodeo-riding cowboys when one slender long-legged bloodsuckingfemale capable of passing on the dreaded Egyptian encephalitis alighted on my brazzo. I quickly gave it the swat. It is its cousins that buzz around the plains of Manchuriawhere Shenyang is nestled by the Liaohe,the river that gives the province its name. Given the swampy areas along the Bohai shores, there are many stagnantwaters where the aquatic larvae of the mosquito thrive and multiply. Males among DCHS'59ers (Davao City High School) in the Banfftour related jokes during the bus ride. I added my mosquito cowboy shoot-out story settingit on an old West Texas bar transported to a lower Alberta ranch town. It went: A mosquito buzzed by while three cowboys nursed their spiritedquaffs in a Calgary bar. So the wide-brim-hattedgringo drew his six-shooter and a buzzer was a dot on the wall. With no shortage of pride, the cowboy blewthe smoke off his gun nozzle. 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. Then another mosquito ventured into the bar space, and a Chinoypulled his trigger. The fly kept onflying. Usually short of words, the gringoand the Canadien gave the Chinoy a surly look. They said, "Youmissed." The Chinoy replied: "Mayhap, but he ain't havin' no more babiesno more!" Buzzers were not funny in Oleai and CK as they flew into Saipan'sBeach Road when favorably nurtured by the rain and the sun. The mosquitoes were my antagonists foroccupancy in the old San Jose Motel before the place was consigned to disrepair. Non-humans in this planet, particularlycreatures nice and small, are faring well. Even the Ebolavirus is winning in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and West Africa! Already, the infection has become pandemicwith the world on red alert over the local health structures inability to dealwith the epidemic. A call for assistancefrom partner countries had been issued. Experimentalmedication was just approved for use to indicate the severity and desperationof the situation. Nigeria just added tothe death count. Meanwhile, humanoids around the world grow bigger brains and larger butts, multi-layered bellies andpaunchier girths, spending lives at the altar of consumer goods longing forcomfort but ever anxious over health and personal security. This reflection is about "me and mosquitoes", notabout English (the proper form is "mosquitoes and I" but "me andmosquitoes" sounds better). It isabout sharing the same space without elbowing each other out of existence. Change the phrase in quote to "Palestinianand Jew, Chinese and Japanese, Iraqi and Irani, Kiev Ukrainian and Donets'k Ukrainian,SoKor and NoKor, etc.", and you get my drift. My neighbor's yard smells of all kinds of sprays in themorning as he controls the pests in his home garden. His sunflowers bloom well. Meanwhile, the incidence of youth's neuraldisorders in my neighborhood has multiplied. Chemotherapy before the canceris just as lethal and deadly. Stay away from the spray. The mosquito and Ebola are here to stay. So will I, BTW, with the parasites and viruses of August. j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!