AAAAAAhhhhh. EEk!

One of the objectives in the office reconstruction was to replace the ceiling panels that had gone to shit. It’s always a little interesting to pull back the outer layer of construction on something that hasn’t really been renovated in a while, and pulling out the ceiling panels was no exception. Maya gave me the wonderful job, and I started in the back corner with some of the worst panels.

Well, let’s just say that my grit as a woman was tested to its core. The first panel I pushed up seemed oddly heavier than expected (they’re made of Styrofoam and are actually quite light) and started wobbling because its weight wasn’t evenly distributed. Then a shower of dust and dirt started raining down on me… only it wasn’t dust and dirt. It was termites. Termites galore. I had seen their work on some of the other projects I had worked on, but never actually run into any of them. Here was a COLONY! I had little crawly termites run down my shirt and get stuck in my bra. My hair gave termite larvae a nice little bed, and my underwear caught a few more little critters. GROSS!

The not-so-wonderful part of the whole experience was that I got to enjoy the termites for the rest of the day as they scurried around indefinitely. Since the rainy season we thought had started was actually just joking with us, I got to come home to a VERY limited bucket shower of brown well-water “purified” with Clorox… NOT what I was wanted. Ugh. Even though (most) of the termites were eventually washed away, I still walked away smelling like the combination of an indoor swimming pool and pond water. Yummy, yummy day.

Anyway, we didn't get a picture of me covered in the termite masses - we seem to have made a pattern of missing all the crucial moments - but this one here was taken after I had managed to shake off most of the creepy crawlies.  You can see the heap to termites in the bottom corner of the room there, behind the desk.  It totally doesn't look at gross and creepy as it was in reality - but if you imagine that mass is actually in constant movement, then you get an idea.