We are not alone

We are about half way through the term now and enjoying living at our house up by the University. We are more remote here outside of town but are not alone. Besides Maria who comes three days a week and cleans and cooks (she works all month for about what a cleaning person in the US would charge for one hour), Sele who works in the garden for about 4 hours each week day, and Jumani and Black, the guard dog, who come every day at 6 PM and leave at 6 AM, we have other "friends" to keep us company.

This cameleon was an interesting one with a rotating eye and a strange swinging gait, walking in a field near our house:


Our favorite visitors are the couple of Red Bishops that come by every morning and at other times too. They are really more orange than red but are very pretty and make a chattering call. My picture doesn't do him justice. Here are some more. We also have some of these Cordon Bleu birds and too many African Crows clamoring around on our metal roof.



Not all of our friends are so interesting or welcome. This is a nairobi fly in the house which does not bite but is very caustic if swatted against skin causing burns that can take months to heal. Fortunately, we have only seen a few of these in the house and are very careful. They are bigger than flies so are easy to see. We also have other bugs in the house including cockroaches which a classmate from Florida said was so common they were among your friends there. One day Sue was microwaving something and we could see one walking around inside but we haven't had a problem with them getting into food. No wonder they are expected to be the only thing to survive Armageddon. We have had good success controlling the cockroaches with a concoction containing boric acid which we put in bottle caps and spread around the kitchen. Boric acid is harmless to people, you could even ingest it safely, and is used in eye and ear ointments. Insecticide only provides very short term effects and is quite unpleasant so we were glad to find the boric acid solution. Remember this if global warming leads to year round cockroach infestations in Minnesota.


There is a roving herd of goats, two cows, and some donkeys who trim the grass in front of the house and fertilize at the same time. We see them around grazing different areas and they spent a few days at our house. The goats tried to get inside our yard when I opened the gate. We like the donkeys in particular and often see them pulling carts, even on the main paved road.



Not sure where these two thought they were going. I didn't see anyone with them.