Ants

Manese Beach in Savai'i.


Some of my students at Prizegiving



The beach at my house.




Hanging out at the lava field ruins.




Ants-I didn’t Think They Were on the Food Pyramid
Back in the US I hated ants. They were the one incent that grossed me out, and I always used to get nervous of them crawling all over me. If I ever saw them near a food, that food would immediately be disposed of. My how things have changed, and I have learned to coexist with these little creatures.
Ants are everywhere. They come join me in bed, I will randomly find them crawling on my body and clothes, and the worst, which I surprisingly have gotten used to is, they always seem to be in my food.
I have learned to accept the fact that if you reject all foods that have an any or another little creature in it (sometimes alive, sometimes dead) you will starve. If possible, I try to get the ants out. This can be done by drowning them in a jam jar, then emptying the water, or making your drink of Milo, or something else, and spooning off the top layer, which includes many ants.
When I eat cereal, I don’t have it with milk, and I love finding ants hiding behind the little cereal pieces. And when I eat rice there are always a few pieces of black that when you inspect closer, are just a little insects that got trapped in the boiling water.
The only time I really have no tolerance for the ants is when they try to make a home in my computer.
Who knows if when I return in another year if I will go back to my hatred of the creatures, or learn to accept them, while still trying to keep my house as clean as possible.