Ants

Last night I walked into my room to see my toothbrush and toothpaste in a swarm of ants.  Apparently, I had not cleaned my toothbrush off thoroughly that morning.  I looked at this in disgust knowing that I would still be brushing my teeth with that very same toothbrush in the morning.  

I never really thought about ants before and the dynamics of how they work together to survive.  This week, I received a package in the mail.  I was waiting to open up the box.  It was sealed shut with masking tape, and I knew that as soon as I opened the box, ants would catch on to the goodies that I was hiding from them.  I was debating on whether I should open the box now or if I should save all contents of the box for when I moved into my own place.  I had finally decided to wait when I noticed the thin line of ants making there way up the side of the box and into a hole created during transport.  Uh oh, this could only mean one thing…something inside the box had opened up.  I was going to have to dive in and find out what.  

In this package, amongst other things, was a box of chocolate rice crispies. The box had been crushed sometime between the time it left the post office in Washington and reached my office in Bangrakam.  When the box was crushed, it compressed the bag inside causing it to open up and spill out some of my precious cereal.  L Sad.  Luckily, because the ants were going for the readily available cereal, the rest of it was safe…I was still going to be able to eat it.  YAY! J

By this time it is about 8 o’clock at night.  I empty out the contents of the box, inspecting everything to see if I can find any other holes that might entice more ants to infest my room.  I determine that there are none, and worked my way back to the box.  I am out of plastic bags in my room, so I have no where to put the cereal that spilled from the bag and I don’t feel like walking down the road to find the closest trash can (Yes, amazingly, I live in a village that has trash pickup service) so I decide to wait until morning.  I mean, the cereal is all the way at the bottom of the box, I don’t need to really worry about anything.

It was 2 hours later when I look up from watching a True Blood (I am currently in the middle of season 3) episode on my computer to see a piece of cereal making its way across my bedroom floor.  A couple feet back from that one, I see another.  Then, I look at my box.  There are is group of 20 ants or so, making their way down from the top of the box, carrying another piece of cereal.  I am in awe at the coordination and teamwork that these ants will go to so they could take my food back to their home to get a sugar high.  

I think the Thai people are a lot like these ants.  Ants are communal.  They share everything, they help each other, and it is just a way of life.  Thai people don’t completely understand when someone says that they want to be alone.  They can take offense to it if they think that you don’t like them.  They enjoy living in big families, having large celebrations, and being together.  Thai people also work very hard.  It doesn’t always seem like it with all the holidays that seem to crop up, or the parties that interrupt the work days on occasion, but when it gets down to it, they put all of their efforts into their work.  Farmers wake up before the sun to go work their fields.  They often are working in the blistering sun without any shade or machines to help them make their work easier.  I continue to be impressed by the passion that goes into each person’s job and how much they seem to enjoy their work.  

Unfortunately, last night, I discovered another hole in the bag carrying my thoroughly melted, yet scrumptious kit-kats.  One of the kit kats had opened and I had a slew of ants roaming around in there as well.  I threw away a few kit kats and then a box of Tagalogs (ants got in there too).  Overall, the package was a success.  Almost everything that arrived made it, and I will be able to enjoy every last bit.  (Side Note:  The people at my Tessaban seem to really enjoy the Thin Mints, but when I attempted to offer the Samoas they looked at them in disgust and gave me a polite response when eating them – Good!  Cause now I get them all to myself)

I should feel lucky that ants are my biggest problem (along with the infestation of dengue mosquitoes around my desk at work – I was specifically told yesterday that I am going to end up in the hospital with break-bone fever).  In other parts of Thailand, I have been hearing about centipedes that are 10 inches long, cockroaches that infest bathrooms and bedrooms, spiders that are larger than your hand and sometimes hide in your toilet to scare you in the middle of the night, rats that sit on your bed watching you sleep, and large scorpions that sting you in the middle of the night waking you up and causing a portion of your body to swell up.  Yup, I feel very lucky that ants are my only issue at the moment.