Revenge of the Monkeys
This has been quite an eventful weekend and I should have known that something was up when monkeys returned to our compound for the first time since Paska killed one almost three months ago. They were staying along our wall and occasionally venturing into the trees, and we were fearful that she was going to have a second victim. However, we were quite surprised when we saw the ingenuity of the monkeys and that they had taken up sticks for protection. There was a group of five monkeys, each with a stick, and they would hit Paska with a stick if she approached. If one monkey was getting fruit from our guava tree, the other monkeys would stand guard. All the monkeys survived and Paska is a frustrated dog. She needs to stick with hunting rabbits, it’s much safer.
We are trying to get everyone healthy for the first time in a while. Christian finally recovered from his sickness, but Addison came after him and spent all day Tuesday vomiting, and was also home from school on Wednesday recovering. On Thursday, he was better and now everyone had endured this bug or virus or whatever it is that is getting us one by one. Now we have a new illness to battle that hopefully will only have one victim. Collin had been complaining of stomach aches and that his bottom itched. He is always whining, and he was still eating and playing normally, so we didn’t give it much thought. Well, he was fussing more than usual, and especially about his bottom itching. Pamela decided that she should inspect him to see if he had a rash or something and upon inspection she found worms. They were actually crawling out of his bottom. We have treated him and it is supposed to be cured in two days, but still very gross! We hope that he has not passed it to anyone else. We will all take the medication just as a precaution.
It has been a very busy weekend of ministry. I met with my men’s discipleship group on Friday night; Pamela had 50 women students to our house on Saturday for an all day seminar; they had a talent night at church Saturday night that lasted until 10:30 pm; and I preached at a church in the village this morning, but we did not get home until after 4:00 in the afternoon. All went well and it was a productive weekend, but we did get a bit of a startle in church. We were in the village and I warned our boys that it would be a long service and a bit different. However, we were not expecting one of the differences. It is quite common to have “presentations” in church. Presentations may be a testimony or a song or even a dance. Sometimes they will last up to an hour of the service. One of the presentations this morning was a tribal dance, but we had no idea that some of the women would be doing the dance while only clothed from the waist down. Our boys were not sure whether to laugh, run, or stare. Pamela and I felt pretty much the same way. Somehow, we made it through and Pamela even sang a song this morning before I preached. Then, we were not aware that we would be staying for lunch afterwards, but if you are offered anything here, it is very rude not to accept. Therefore, we stayed to eat and just hoped that it would all be safe to eat. Well, I am not sure how safe it was because they were serving fried grubs. I thought that Christian was going to throw up just from looking at it. However, Blake (always the brave one) decided that he would try them out and he actually liked them. He said that they tasted like the fried grasshoppers that we had eaten many times. So, we did our best to eat enough to be respectful and appreciative, and now we are all hoping that we don’t get sick again.
Yesterday, while Pamela had the women to our house, I took all of the boys to go swimming, including two or our neighbors. We tried to stay gone most of the day so that we would not disturb the teaching time at our house. The pool that we go to is by Lake Victoria, and sometimes the boys like to explore a little. Since we were at the pool for many hours, they did more exploring than usual. While Blake was out exploring with his friend Musa, they came across a dead snake that had apparently been run over by a car. Africa is known for its many snakes, and especially the large variety of venomous species. Fortunately, most Africans think that all snakes are poisonous and so they kill them all whenever they see them. We have been here for seven months and only seen three snakes, and two of them were dead. Well, this was snake number four and it was dead too, or at least they thought. They were picking up the snake and examining it, when it began to move. I am not sure whether the nerves were still alive and the snake really dead, or if the snake was still alive. Whatever the case, the snake began to move quite a bit and even tried biting them. Some Ugandans were nearby and beat the snake again, so it was dead for sure. They came and got me after the event, and so I went to see the snake. It was a cobra! If they had been bitten they could have been killed. A dead snake is capable of biting if the nerves are still active. In fact a fireman in Florida was killed by a dead diamondback rattler a few weeks before we left America. I have now warned them not to pick up any more dead snakes.
The last event came last night as we were going to bed. There are many pests here including malaria-carrying mosquitoes, cockroaches, snakes, ants, termites, and bats. We have to have our house fumigated at least every three months to keep them away, but the last time we had fumigation done I did not have them do anything for bats. It is already expensive enough to do the fumigation for bugs, and I had not seen many bats the whole time that we have lived here. Plus, I didn’t see what the big deal was anyway if a few bats happened to get into your attic. Now I know that if bats come that it is not just a few and somehow they can show up by the hundreds. Apparently, they get on the move and look for a place to roost. Once they find their new roosting place, they stay there through the daytime and begin to move again once darkness sets in. On Saturday night, already at the end of a long day of ministry, we were settling into sleep and heard a noise in the hallway. I wanted to ignore it because I was already tired (and under the mosquito net) but it kept occurring and getting louder. I finally got out of bed and wandered down toward the boys’ rooms and flipped on the hall light. There were bats in our house by the hundreds! They were trying to scatter from the light, which just made it worse. They are fruit bats, which are harmless, but fairly large by bat standards. I had to quickly turn off the light so that they would settle down and then close off all of the doors. I then opened the hallway window and was able to get them out of it. I hope that they are all gone. I guess that I won’t know for sure until darkness comes again tonight. They make a mess, and they smell horrible. I will definitely get the full fumigation treatment next time.
We really don’t what to know what might come next in our crazy lives. I hope that your lives are more uneventful and that you enjoyed the arrival of April this weekend. (Hint!)
Blessings for the Tribe,
Kevin
This has been quite an eventful weekend and I should have known that something was up when monkeys returned to our compound for the first time since Paska killed one almost three months ago. They were staying along our wall and occasionally venturing into the trees, and we were fearful that she was going to have a second victim. However, we were quite surprised when we saw the ingenuity of the monkeys and that they had taken up sticks for protection. There was a group of five monkeys, each with a stick, and they would hit Paska with a stick if she approached. If one monkey was getting fruit from our guava tree, the other monkeys would stand guard. All the monkeys survived and Paska is a frustrated dog. She needs to stick with hunting rabbits, it’s much safer.
We are trying to get everyone healthy for the first time in a while. Christian finally recovered from his sickness, but Addison came after him and spent all day Tuesday vomiting, and was also home from school on Wednesday recovering. On Thursday, he was better and now everyone had endured this bug or virus or whatever it is that is getting us one by one. Now we have a new illness to battle that hopefully will only have one victim. Collin had been complaining of stomach aches and that his bottom itched. He is always whining, and he was still eating and playing normally, so we didn’t give it much thought. Well, he was fussing more than usual, and especially about his bottom itching. Pamela decided that she should inspect him to see if he had a rash or something and upon inspection she found worms. They were actually crawling out of his bottom. We have treated him and it is supposed to be cured in two days, but still very gross! We hope that he has not passed it to anyone else. We will all take the medication just as a precaution.
It has been a very busy weekend of ministry. I met with my men’s discipleship group on Friday night; Pamela had 50 women students to our house on Saturday for an all day seminar; they had a talent night at church Saturday night that lasted until 10:30 pm; and I preached at a church in the village this morning, but we did not get home until after 4:00 in the afternoon. All went well and it was a productive weekend, but we did get a bit of a startle in church. We were in the village and I warned our boys that it would be a long service and a bit different. However, we were not expecting one of the differences. It is quite common to have “presentations” in church. Presentations may be a testimony or a song or even a dance. Sometimes they will last up to an hour of the service. One of the presentations this morning was a tribal dance, but we had no idea that some of the women would be doing the dance while only clothed from the waist down. Our boys were not sure whether to laugh, run, or stare. Pamela and I felt pretty much the same way. Somehow, we made it through and Pamela even sang a song this morning before I preached. Then, we were not aware that we would be staying for lunch afterwards, but if you are offered anything here, it is very rude not to accept. Therefore, we stayed to eat and just hoped that it would all be safe to eat. Well, I am not sure how safe it was because they were serving fried grubs. I thought that Christian was going to throw up just from looking at it. However, Blake (always the brave one) decided that he would try them out and he actually liked them. He said that they tasted like the fried grasshoppers that we had eaten many times. So, we did our best to eat enough to be respectful and appreciative, and now we are all hoping that we don’t get sick again.
Yesterday, while Pamela had the women to our house, I took all of the boys to go swimming, including two or our neighbors. We tried to stay gone most of the day so that we would not disturb the teaching time at our house. The pool that we go to is by Lake Victoria, and sometimes the boys like to explore a little. Since we were at the pool for many hours, they did more exploring than usual. While Blake was out exploring with his friend Musa, they came across a dead snake that had apparently been run over by a car. Africa is known for its many snakes, and especially the large variety of venomous species. Fortunately, most Africans think that all snakes are poisonous and so they kill them all whenever they see them. We have been here for seven months and only seen three snakes, and two of them were dead. Well, this was snake number four and it was dead too, or at least they thought. They were picking up the snake and examining it, when it began to move. I am not sure whether the nerves were still alive and the snake really dead, or if the snake was still alive. Whatever the case, the snake began to move quite a bit and even tried biting them. Some Ugandans were nearby and beat the snake again, so it was dead for sure. They came and got me after the event, and so I went to see the snake. It was a cobra! If they had been bitten they could have been killed. A dead snake is capable of biting if the nerves are still active. In fact a fireman in Florida was killed by a dead diamondback rattler a few weeks before we left America. I have now warned them not to pick up any more dead snakes.
The last event came last night as we were going to bed. There are many pests here including malaria-carrying mosquitoes, cockroaches, snakes, ants, termites, and bats. We have to have our house fumigated at least every three months to keep them away, but the last time we had fumigation done I did not have them do anything for bats. It is already expensive enough to do the fumigation for bugs, and I had not seen many bats the whole time that we have lived here. Plus, I didn’t see what the big deal was anyway if a few bats happened to get into your attic. Now I know that if bats come that it is not just a few and somehow they can show up by the hundreds. Apparently, they get on the move and look for a place to roost. Once they find their new roosting place, they stay there through the daytime and begin to move again once darkness sets in. On Saturday night, already at the end of a long day of ministry, we were settling into sleep and heard a noise in the hallway. I wanted to ignore it because I was already tired (and under the mosquito net) but it kept occurring and getting louder. I finally got out of bed and wandered down toward the boys’ rooms and flipped on the hall light. There were bats in our house by the hundreds! They were trying to scatter from the light, which just made it worse. They are fruit bats, which are harmless, but fairly large by bat standards. I had to quickly turn off the light so that they would settle down and then close off all of the doors. I then opened the hallway window and was able to get them out of it. I hope that they are all gone. I guess that I won’t know for sure until darkness comes again tonight. They make a mess, and they smell horrible. I will definitely get the full fumigation treatment next time.
We really don’t what to know what might come next in our crazy lives. I hope that your lives are more uneventful and that you enjoyed the arrival of April this weekend. (Hint!)
Blessings for the Tribe,
Kevin
posted by Ironside Tribe at 12:43 PM
3 Comments:
Oh goodness. I am so sorry about all the animal and insect pests (surely there will be rewards for enduring such heebie-jeebie producing critters in heaven.). As for the bats, thank goodness Pamela and the boys have _The Real Batman_ to protect them! (cue the Batman themesong here) POW! BAM!
May God continue to bless you and keep you.
Ahhhh. Good one, Kevin. Joke's on me. I fell for it (Hint). It made for an adventurous read though. Thanks.
greatest post ever... I was laughing all the way although I wasn't sure it was a joke until the end. Life on the mission field is SOOOO crazy sometimes that it all seemed so possible! Our kids talk about yours a lot... and that isn't a joke. :-)
Post a Comment
<< Home