Saying Yes to the Nets

It has been a quiet week here on the Luanda homefront. After-school activities started up, there was an open house program one evening for primary grade families, and I visited our nearby pharmacy for the first time. It was very well stocked with super helpful clerks. I continue to marvel at how communicating either in English or very basic (somewhat mangled) Spanish almost always works here, where Portuguese is the official language. In contrast, these language "skills" were rarely of use to me in Argentina. Anyway, back at the pharmacy, I was successful in my mission to buy a small jar of (very expensive) Vick's VapoRub to treat Asa's head cold (he's now feeling much better now, thank you).

Heading into the weekend, we have plans to participate in the all school Jogathon to raise funds and collect shoes for a local orphanage. Then a couple of social gatherings, one being dinner with another new-to-Angola family we know from Argentina. They live on one of the oil company compounds and it will be nice to check out that scene and hear about their impressions of the school and life here. No beach trips planned as we wait for Jonah's employment visa to be processed. Although the boys and I have extensions to our "ordinary" visas and could venture out on our own, Jonah is confined to the neighborhood around school. The reason for this is that trips further afield will encounter at least one police checkpoint, and maybe two or three if going as far as the beaches. So far, these stops have been no big deal and only the driver has had to show papers and sometimes just an exchange of greetings gets us through. But, we have been told that being caught off campus without proper and valid paperwork (basically a notarized copy of passports and visas) can cost a good chunk of cash and create a big, unnecessary headache for the school.

So in this lull of activity, I thought I'd share a bit about malaria prevention and how we found ourselves saying "yes" to the nets.....

Three years ago, when we began the recruitment process to leave India, a school located in eastern Africa contacted us about positions they had that were a match for us. We had several concerns about the school, its location, security in the surrounding city, but I also clearly remember being most adamant that we were not moving to a malaria-endemic place where we would have to sleep under mosquito nets.

Well, never say never.

Flash forward to our prep for Angola, where malaria is prevalent. We asked some future colleagues what their stance was on the "Nets vs. No Nets" issue and found out that most do not have nets. Still uncertain about what to do, feeling that taking unnecessary risk was, well, simply unnecessary, we I decided to proceed with caution and ordered three EVEN Naturals brand rectangular nets. The key features of this particular product being an opening on each side and a box shape (as opposed to cone) so that the material doesn't sag and come into contact with the people sleeping underneath. AND only twenty bucks on Amazon.

With some help from the school's maintenance department, hooks were installed and voila - mosquito nets in place:

And I will say that I love, love having these nets. There are a lot of mosquitoes here and while we try to keep them out of the apartment, it's not a winnable battle. So it gives us peace of mind knowing that we won't get bitten while we sleep, and the added bonus is no bugs buzzing around our heads during the night - whether they carry malaria or not. In fact, I'm so enamored that I am considering another set for our beach house. There is something breezy yet cozy about having a canopy over the bed. I am so glad we said "yes"!