Oh, I get it

So there's this part in shantaram where the main guy decides to just say yes to everything and he finds he gets along much better ( I think, its been a while since I read it I may be making it up ).
I've found myself over the last week declining a lot. No, none of that, no, I don't want to go there, etc. I think its just part of the culture shock.
While I was sitting there early this morning waiting for shoguns plane, in the pitch dark with two shoeless guys in the oppressive heat and seemingly impossible humidity ( I thought at some point humidity just gives up and becomes rain?) at one point I counted 17 mosquitos on just my one arm at once. The one guy leans over and offers me this dirty bowl of dirty looking grease, to which I promptly reply "no thanks!" Having no idea what the hell I would want that for. So he shrugs and proceeds to sparingly rub a bit on his arms and neck and poof all his mosquitos move over to me. After about 10 minutes I finally ate crow and gestured that I wanted his bowl of grease. And it worked as well as Deep Woods Off.