August

I took a quiet month to rest and prepare for the new service year (I just went on studies). It really wasn't as hot as I was expecting and although we've had a lot of rain and it's very disruptive, especially with transport, it really hasn't been as bad as we feared. The rain meant the birds can move away from the River and it seemed most of them headed for my garden.  I wasn't able to photograph all of them (I've identified 30 species in my garden alone!!) but here are some of them.  The glass on top of the compound wall irritated me at first but now I see the benefit of it (apart from deterring burglars of course).  The bottles hold rainwater and also make good places for insects to hide so the birds are always poking around them. 

Black Capped Babbler

Red Billed Hornbill

Brown Babbler

Red Cheeked Cordon Bleu, not a great photo but they don't usually come this close so I was lucky to get it

Vulture interested in the goat our neighbours were killing

Lavender Waxbill

Long Tailed Glossy Starlings

Senegal Coucal

White Billed Buffalo Weaver nests, the birds (see below) are only the size of British Blackbirds, or a little smaller, yet they build these HUGE nests

White Billed Buffalo Weaver - only the breeding males have white bills

Pied Crow

Shikra

This beautiful Shikra stayed most of the day in our garden eating termites.

Village Weaver

Wood Hoopoe

Yellow Crowned Gonolek
 
The butterflies and insects are great to photograph, the butterflies pose so beautifully!

 African Emigrant - Male

 African Emigrant - female

 Common Bush Blue

 Common Dotted Border

 Creamy Small White

 Tiger Moth

Fools Gold Tortoise Beetle

 Bobo with a Gambian Pouched Rat.  They're not rats but rodents and apparently make good pets.  These things are HUGE.  Sadly I've never seen a living one.  Lovely sight to wake up to!! 

 Horned Jumping Spider

 Katydid - these are TINY TINY and not easy to photograph with the dogs running over them

 Large Snail

 Tiny Snail with poo

In an effort to save money we bought an outdoor cooker the same as the Africans use.  We pay around £15 a month for gas at the moment but a huge bag of charcoal (enough for a month at least) only costs £3.  It's much nicer to cook outside as it gets so hot in the house. 

 My cooker made from an old van wheel

 

 Cooking Tortilla

 My helper

 Ben's Bolognese

 I went to get my hair cut at Coco Ocean Hotel

 Gambian rubbish collection

 Even 4x4's get stuck, this area is completely impassable now

 We live down that side road.  It wasn't raining when I went to the shop but I had to wait ages for it to pass then try to cross the river.  It got much worse later.

 Star fruit

The weird conversations are becoming more normal but a couple stood out. I was with Lily and a man asked where she was from.  I asked him where did he think she was from.  He didn't know so I asked what language she spoke. 
"She speaks English"
"So where is she from?"
"Germany"
"Do they speak English in Germany?"
"Yes, some of them do"
"Ok, she's not from Germany, where else do they speak ENGLISH?"
"Italy"
"Try again"
"America"
"They speak English in America but where do ENGLISH people come from?"
very hesitatingly "England?"
"YES!!"
We were all laughing but sometimes their level of education is scary.  Another conversation with a taxi driver made me feel very uncomfortable.
"So where is your wife today"
"She is with my family"
"That's nice, they all get along well?"
"Yes, they are all family"
"But sometimes a wife doesn't like her mother in law"
"It's true but her mother and my mother are sisters so they get along"
"You married your cousin?"
"Yes, it's a good idea because my family and her family know each other very well because they are the same family.  It's better than marrying someone you don't know"
You can't argue with the logic.

We're looking forward to our Special Assembly Day next weekend.