Fly Invasion

When we got to Saudi Arabia, we noticed that it was...hot. Like very hot. Like one of the hotter and least comfortable situations imaginable. Not quite the humid dripping terrestrial swimming of the Amazon Rainforest, but more of a dry, living in a crock pot kind of feel.

Anyway, we were told when we got here, that “It’ll get comfortable soon. October is comfortably cool.” In response we loaded up our back yard with lawn furniture, a grill, some grassy space and trees, and a general outdoor setup. The idea was we would be able to capitalize on the improved weather the moment it arrived. Sure enough, at the end of October, the weather shifted from “roasting on a spit rotisserie style” to tolerable. We quickly started to shift our social gatherings to our newly established outside space. We even hosted a huge BBQ complete with a Kan Jam tournament.

One thing they don’t tell you, along with the improved, cooler weather, is that the flies migrate to the desert in biblical, plague like fashion. Simple, everyday, black house flies. Nothing more than a nuisance. But man are they a nuisance.

They swarm, land, swirl, and buzz all around constantly. The desert air must make them either impervious to fear, or too dumb to realize that their slow flying airborne meandering leaves them susceptible to simple swats. Their lack of evasive maneuvers makes them easy to hunt down if necessary, but it also makes them oblivious to danger when they land on you. Any given moment two to three will land on your leg. With a quick swat in their direction or a leg kick, they fly away, and immediately resettle on your kneecap as if waiting for a convention. It is a level of determination unparalleled by any beast since the liquid metal guy from Terminator 2.

I’ll still take the cooler temperatures. The bugs are merely a small bother, but damn are they annoying. I’d rather wave off a million flies than a tarantula hawk from Ecuador or a swarm of love bugs in Florida, and I might have to.