News plus Flora and Fauna

Hello everyone! I am not sure that Saturday will always be my usual blogging day, but for now it would appear that that is the case. We have spent a long week in many, many, many in-service meetings getting to know the returning teachers and all that is expected of us over the course of the school year. Last night I slept for 11 hours, from 8 to 7, without interruption (except to apply anti-itch lotion to my bug bites, which I have gotten very good at doing while half asleep) , so it would appear that in-service has tired me out. Heaven knows what the real school year will do to me. We have two full weeks of school lined up and then we have a three day weekend for Labor Day (not a holiday here, just a holiday for us because we are an American school) I have just spent the morning cooking (what I was supposed to be doing last night) and now I am finally returning to my blog. I am feeling a bit like I'm shouting into the void... so PLEASE shoot me an email if there is something you want me to talk about. I am happy to concentrate more on something that you want to hear about.

For today, I thought I would focus on plants and animals. I wish I knew the names of more of them, and had better pictures, but you will have to forgive me. I will update you! First of all, it's our favorite, the black fly. 

http://zztopblackfly.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/0/3/30034891/7539919_orig.jpg

The above photo is someone else's and it may not show the exact flies we have here, but you get the idea. They are very annoying because their bites are painless, but then about 24-36 hours later you are itching like CRAZY and wonder... What happened to me? Well now we know. They seem to really like me (legs especially) and not be very affected by bug repellent. They are also attracted to water/moisture, so exercising is super fun. The good things (1) They don't land on you if you're moving (2) This is the peak season for them and once the weather changes, they will have less vengeance. (3) I now have a system for combating the itch: Jump out of bed, run to shower, cool legs in water, dry off, run back to bed, and apply anti-itch cream. If needed, lay on floor for a bit to let the cool tiles cool off one's legs. Soon I will be an expert, and already have this system down to about 5 minutes of wakefulness. Photo of my legs at the moment:

Yes I do itch too much. Trying to work on that!

Also, we have our friends the mille-pates, or centipedes. I really enjoy them, they are cool to watch and then when I get sick of it I throw them outdoors to try to keep the house clean. 

On to more enjoyable topics, it is just gorgeous here. The plants and birds are so pretty and we have lots of constant bird song. There are some cute little blue birds (picture not my own, apparently called Blue Waxbills) as well as some Grey parrots that we hear, but I haven't seen yet.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_waxbill#mediaviewer/File:Uraeginthus_angolensis_(portrait).jpg

This is another bird I see a lot - they were hanging out at my classroom yesterday playing on the roof, apparently called Pied Crows. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Pied_crow.jpg

Here is a photo I took near my house of a pretty green bird, can you spot it?  

As well as a butterfly photo:

Not sure these are native to Africa, something called Heliconia, but very pretty:

And more lovely red flowers:

As winter is the dry season here, leaves have been falling like crazy, 

and are therefore raked into piles for fertilizer as you can see. (View of the elementary school soccer field)  

To the right is one of the huge bamboo groupings that make such a cool creaking sound in the wind. 

As promised, one of the elementary school lizards. I hope they don't try to get inside, but outdoors they are very cool!

Couldn't resist a photo of my new porch couch. Now just to make time to sit on it!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!