Mango Flies

On a good day, it takes me about 2 hours to wash all my clothes in my buckets from the week. I have a soap bucket and a rinse bucket that gets soapy pretty fast, so I replace it frequently with more well water. The laundry must be done in the morning so it can dry in the sun all day for good reason…when the sun goes down, the mango flies come out and lay their eggs in damp clothes. If you don’t iron your clothes before you wear them, the mango fly eggs will crawl in your skin. When they hatch, they pop right out of your skin. Needless to say, my clothes are far better ironed than they ever have been.

Washing our bed sheets is part of Peace Corps Cameroon policy and it takes forever. I am convinced my sheets are dirtier after washing them in the brownish well water, dropping them a few times in the red mud as I try to hang them up to dry, and then dragging them on the ground while I try to iron them so I won’t get the mango flies.