Davis Pictures

Everyone always talks about tambwi, the huge biting centipedes on our island.  Everyone has their story about when they were bitten.  Some people have spent time in the hospital because of them.  One of our friends had to go to get treatment in Tanzania because of a bite that wouldn’t heal after months.

So far we have only seen little ones in our house.  We witnessed our first bite a couple days ago when one bit one of our guests while we were eating supper!  (It hurt, his foot swelled, the bite bled a bit, but he was fine.)  

Still we sleep with our mosquito nets tucked under our mattresses.

So it was a little surprising when another of our friends walked into our house with one crawling around on his arm. 

“I cut its teeth out” he said.

So somehow baby birds always make it to our house in need of rescue…  Now saving a baby bird is very difficult—they have a specialized diet and require frequent feeding.  But this time we are prepared.  I bought baby bird formula in the US (because of our history as the Rescue Aviary) and this bird, named Tweety by Tovah, came the first week. 

She lived by our window, and tried to stay away from our hungry kitten.  After six weeks, her wing feathers finally started coming back in (they had been pulled out by the boy who found her) and then she started flying around the house and sitting on people’s heads…  One morning last she flew away.  We still see her around. 

His eye is on the sparrow.

These are pictures taken from our front door on Fridays—the day of prayer.

We try to get to the beach at least once a week to get some time with our girls (we only live  500 yards from the ocean.)

The girls joined millions (and the village) watching the royal wedding through shop windows.

Recently I have taken several trips to the other islands.  There are three ways to do this: to fly, to take a ship, or to take a vedette.

A vedette is basically a motorized canoe.  It is a sturdy, buoyant, fiberglass boat, made locally ranging from 15 to 25 feet.  The outboard motors range from 15 to 40 horsepower.

Recently, to economize both time and money, I have taken 4 trips by vedette to and from the neighboring islands.  It involves finding a beach with boats on it, negotiating a price and making yourself comfortable for a 3 – 6 hour ride; it’s only about 20 miles, but the size of the motor, the weight of baggage/passengers and the state of the sea have great effect on the duration of the journey.

It’s a bonding experience—a time to talk to people, a connection point whenever I get back to the village, an example that we truly desire to live with and like these people.  It is amidst the vomiting, and the fear (one passenger clung to my arm in fear for an hour), and the jokes, and the fishing (sometimes they catch fish on trailing handlines) and the high waves that relationships are built.

One night a friend came by with a special treat—a local delicacy.  We enjoyed it for a while before we figured out what it was… 

Your guesses?  I’m not going to post it on the web, but I’ll email you if it’s killing you.

The jackfruit is a surprising fruit in every way.  First off it is giant fruit, weighing up to 80 pounds or about as big as Lami and Tovah put together.  It has thick spiny skin.  When you cut it, it has a sticky latex sap that can only be washed off by scrubbing it with oil.  Inside are fleshy pockets with a seed in each.  You pull of the fleshy pulp, extract the seed and eat it.  Some say it smells like rotting meat.  I can’t say I agree entirely, but I will say it is difficult to smell the difference between fresh Jackfruit and decomposed.

If you can get past all this, it is delicious.  Absolutely delicious.  It tastes like pineapple and bananas.

So along comes a man with a lemur. 

“Look, a monkey!” says Tovah.  Then they held it and Jen took pictures.

The End.