Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Mosquito Zapper

Since the start of the New Year, we have been experiencing heavy rains. Low lying areas in the province and even the city have been flooding. Although there are no flooding in the place where we lived, the puddles that have formed in the unpaved streets, the murky waters in the gutters or simply the basin collecting the water that is dripping from the leaked roof were breeding grounds- in this case, breeding waters for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the tropical countries are lethal. They could carry dengue. Dengue is a disease caused by an Aedes mosquito bite. It usually starts with a high fever, a rash. It usually occurs in tropical countries. When nor properly treated, dengue is lethal. This leads me to another story.



Just the other day, there was a power failure. The people in our house sat idly in the living room with nothing to do. Brownouts give us the realization on how we are dependent on electricity, like we cannot live without it when the truth is that we only had it in less than a hundred years ago. No, I was not going to expound further on the history of electricity. My dad would usually start his stories about Benjamin Franklin. Who in his right mind fly his kite with a live mouse on a stormy night? Was it stormy that night? I have to recheck the story. Or perhaps science. Lightnings are associated with storms and dark skies, right? Now, where was I? Oh, the brownout. While sitting in the living room, I saw my uncle holding what looks like a tennis racket. I know that he is not starting on a new sport. He was swinging it indiscriminately all over the place. Then, something zapped! Interesting. What he was holding was a mosquito zapper. He swings the racket-like device where a mesh of fine screen has some kind of electrical charge that shocks mosquitoes along its path. So, while the lights were out, we spent the idle time zapping away mosquitoes until the zapper gave up that my dad told us to replace the batteries. To which we replied that it does not need battery. It needs to charge to an electrical outlet. He quickly replied, "Then, recharge it!" He forgot about the brownout. We laughed. We thought of another way to pass the time. Singing, perhaps.

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