Why do mosquitoes buzz in peoples ears?

Does anyone remember reading this book as a kid? Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: a West African Folktale. I remember having it read to me in preschool in the 70's and I am not sure if it was a popular book at the time or just part of my particular Montessori school's reading list. It was a book I remembered reading but not one I sought out to reintroduce to my kids. In fact I don't think I thought about why the book was written, until recently. My experience with mosquitoes while growing up in Washington was limited to a camping trip or two every summer and slapping them on warm summer evenings at a family BBQ. They were a nuisance, but limited to dusk in short summer.

Since moving to Matagalpa, I now understand why the West Africans had a folktale about mosquitoes buzzing in people's ears. I write this blog at 3:45 AM on a Saturday. I do not wish to be awake right now. I am awake because I got a mosquito bite on my finger that was itching so badly I couldn't sleep. I kept trying to go to sleep, only to be dive bombed by a mosquito right by my ear. If you have never had this happen (and I hadn't till we moved here) it is one of the most irritating things, particularly when trying to get to sleep. Your body is all relaxed and then you hear the almost comical buzzing of a mosquito right by your ear. Joe has been known to sleep with earplugs in or to burrow under the sheets to get to sleep. Those tactics have failed me tonight.

So, according to West African folklore, those darn mosquitoes are buzzing in my ear because they are asking if I am still angry at them for lying. Unfortunately answering doesn't make them stop. That question is going to God when I get to heaven. Why mosquitoes? But for now I will attempt to get a little sleep before the sun is up...