October

Only one word can describe October here - HOT!!  It doesn't cool down much at night either.  For those of you thinking of coming for a holiday DON'T come in October.  I took photos of our thermometer on the patio this morning.  At 8.15 it was already 29 degrees, at 10.15 it was 33 and when the sun came round half an hour later it went up to 43.  Terry says that isn't the real temperature, the real temperature is only in the shade.  Whatever . . . it's hot.  As I'm writing this (1.30pm) it's 35 in the shade.  It's paralyzing.

8.15 am

10.15 am

10.45 am

Here are a few more insects I found this month. 

The Widow Dragonflies are really strange looking things.  Their wings aren't really that shape, it's just the colouring.

This blue dragonfly was the biggest I've ever seen.  I was watching it from a shop across the road and it was massive even from that distance.       

This butterfly was one I was trying to photograph all morning and this was the best I could do.  It's not very often I see them upside down.














The grasshopper was outside the dining room window. 




There are lots of varieties of tortoise beetles here, not sure which this one is.

Rasta chicken.  This isn't a great picture, I think I was bored waiting forever for a bus.  These chickens have really weird feathers and their chicks are adorable.







Local ram and sheep.  The ram will be dead by now as they have their Tobasky festival this weekend. 

I forget the name of these things.  Actually I think they have more than one name depending on the colour.  There's a kid inside the costume (you knew that) which is made of rice sacks.  He is waving two machetes around (you can see the one in his right hand) and his friends are making a lot of noise.  Something to do with circumcision.

The rains have passed and everywhere is drying out fast but the buses are still struggling.  I promise this is the last photo you'll see of a broken down bus.    I was on this one which broke down in the middle of a huge puddle.  A passing bus tried to pull us out with that bit of rope but they couldn't do it.  I'd only just got on the bus (near that building in the background) which was annoying.  I was at the back which was in the deepest part of the water so I had to climb over the seats and leave through the driver's door.  The bus you can see coming was full so I walked.  It's often quicker.










 One thing we CAN rely on is power cuts. 

Also whenever we buy anything it's sure to break down very soon.  This was Terry trying to repair the computer in the dark.  In the end he had to buy another but it took nearly two weeks to get that one working too. 









Some sad news was that my lovely Bible student, Sandra, died at the end of September.  I miss her a lot.  Here's a video of her with Billy.  You have to watch it lying down as I was holding the phone the wrong way up.  Also I have to apologise about my awful laugh.  I'd been laughing at the pair of them all afternoon and my lungs couldn't cope anymore.  I wish I'd continued filming as Billy ran away with Sandra in hot pursuit.  She (Toye discovered Billy is a girl!) took Sandra to the other side of the compound then came bouncing back to drink up the milk she had spilled. Billy is now being cared for by an organization who will eventually release her into the wild. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TOucdLDphI

This blog is short and to the point, I think my brain is frying.