Houses and Huge Bugs

Some of you have already read the gist of this story via Facebook, but bear with me. So, the other night, as I was at the dining table on my laptop, I was suddenly scared out of my wits but what I thought was a giant bee flying around the light above me. This huge flying "thing" flew right in front of my face, and I could have sworn I saw a big stinger hanging off of the low-hanging abdomen! I squealed, jumped up, and ran away from this huge creature! Lacey came out of her room at that point, and I excitedly squealed, "Look at the BEEEEEE!"
It flew through the window slats into my bedroom!!!!!! Great. Now, I couldn't go into my room because there was a GIANT BEE in it!!!! Lacey and I carefully opened the door to my room. "I don't see anything in here," she said. "I KNOW I saw it fly in here, and I didn't see it fly out!" I replied.
Suddenly, the creature dropped from the doorway, right over Lacey's head! We both squealed and ran out as the insect flew up around the light right outside my bedroom door. Then, when it landed on the windowsill, Lacey and I dared to get a slightly closer look. I saw orangish hair. Lacey thought it was a beetle. I went to my laptop and began Googling insects and beetles of El Salvador. After nearly an hour of searching and, occasionally, running from the bug, I came across what looked like the correct specimen: a dynastine scarab beetle.

 http://www.americaninsects.net/b/cyclocephala-cf-discolor.html

This is a species of beetle native to Central America. It's nocturnal and attracted to light. I have spent the last two nights having to RUN to my room after I turn out the last light in the house so that this critter doesn't fly after me to my room! It's about the size of my thumb, but when it's in flight, it looks absolutely terrifying because its furry abdomen hangs down, vertically, while it's wings stick out next to it and its beetle armor hangs behind it. It is a horrible sight. It just flies around, making lots of ruckus as it crashes into the lightbulbs and light coverings. Last night, I closed my window slats tight after dark. I'm glad I did, because that sucker came back again! After I ran into my room and shut and locked the door, that nasty beetle kept flying against the glass of the window! I was scared to go into the adjoining bathroom even to brush my teeth, because the walls and ceiling are very high in the bathroom, and since I can't reach high enough to close the window, I was scared that the bug would fly in through that window and I'd be trapped with it. So I stayed put, turned off all the lights in my room, and lay in bed, hoping it would go away yet still fearing that it would find a way into my room and fly on my face or something.

When I posted about this incident on Facebook, someone made a comment about jumping out a window to escape from the bug. That prompted me to want to write a little bit about the style of houses here. Sadly, one can not simply escape from bugs.

Here, because it is very hot, many houses are very open. While it depends on the city, pueblo, house, etc., it seems to me that most houses do not have air conditioning, and some, such as the homes in poorer communities such as Las Trincheras, do not even have electricity or running water. Because of danger of theft and because of lots of gang activity, all the houses and buildings have slatted or barred windows. In the cities, like in San Salvador, buildings have big locked gates in front of the proper doors in addition to barred windows. Around places like schools, public parks, buildings of importance and some homes, there are high walls topped with barbed wire or broken glass. Safety and security are pretty big deals here.

Connie's house is unlike any house I've ever seen before. It's very cool. All the houses on each block in Izalco look like they're part of one big building, because they all share a wall that faces the street. Each house's front might be painted a different color or have a different kind of gate, though. So, from the outside, it is just another door in the wall, but once you walk inside, it's a huge room with some Catholic dolls and memorabilia on the right and some items in storage on the left. Straight across the room from the front door is another door, and this leads into the main "house." The house is very large, especially compared to some of the other houses I've seen here. When you walk into the main room, there is a kitchen on the left and a large dining area straight ahead. To the left, past the kitchen, are two more doors in the wall. It basically looks like two tiny houses within a house. These doors are the doors to mine and Lacey's rooms. Overhead is a tin roof. Part of the roof is flat, but then part of the roof is cut out in a rectangle and raised above the rest, so that one can see the sky through the ceiling but so that not too much rain falls in during storms. Past the two bedrooms is a garden. Yes, there is a garden "inside" the house. There is not a roof over the garden area, except for a gazebo-type structure in the middle. Past the gazebo, there is a huge tree whose branches stretch over the rooftops. There are also some clothes lines stretched from the roof on the opposite side of the garden to the window of yet another room whose wall partially outlines the garden. On the other side of the garden is a kind of ceilinged porch, and I haven't explored past that, though there are other rooms.

The garden looking away from the gazebo and living room

looking away from the living room

From the garden looking at the living room/Lacey's bedroom window

Above the living room, you can kind of see how the sunlight is shining through the open rectangle in the ceiling. 

Here's my laundry, drying in the garden. Those doors go into other rooms of the house. 

This is what most of the windows are like in all the buildings I've been in here. They're glass slats that can be opened or closed with a metal handle. I'm not sure why they use slats rather than panes here. My guess is security, but maybe they're just easier to use or something. 

I'm closing the slats so that that dang bug doesn't fly in tonight. I'm a prisoner in my own room! It's too bad, too, because it's MUCH cooler at night, but with my window closed, my room is still warm. :( Good thing I have a fan. 

 This is my bathroom ceiling. The light and window are very high up, as you can see! The bugger could have easily flown in through the window and trapped me in my room. I avoid the bathroom at night, now. :P

This is the door to my room. The bug liked the light by the door but for some reason flew through the slats into my room. Now, I keep the slats closed after dark in case there are more nocturnal things that want to join me. 

So, even though I'm inside the house, and under a roof, there is a distinct lack of walls except for inside the bedrooms. A lot of houses are open like this, with open doors and walls and ceilings. In such a hot climate, it's a great way to try to beat the heat!

This is an example of some of the houses we saw in Las Trincheras. They're a lot like shanties. 

 Houses here have no electricity or running water. Last week, part of our group went along to watch the installation of light fixtures, like the one shown above. All it is is a 2-liter soda bottle filled with water and bleach, caulked inside of a piece of tin roofing and attached to the ceiling. Sunlight is refracted through the water and provides light to once-dark homes. Before this light was added to this room, you could barely see your hand in front of your face when it was broad daylight outside.

Installing the bottle-light. Also, that tire and those logs are holding the roof onto the house. 

 This is inside Hugo's house (Hugo is to the left). As you can see, his house also has open walls. I didn't take many other pictures of his house, but the entry way is very open and the roof is more like an awning.

The view outside Hugo's window. There's also a ladder to a porch on the roof of his house. 

walking through a neighborhood in a town I have forgotten the name of

Typical bars on windows. Can you spot the parrot?