This started as an animal post...

Ok. After making you read about birds and lizards you may be interested in the pictures of the Mammals?  (Oh and bugs, you had to read about bugs, TWICE!) (I have more cool bug pictures though. I may or may not share them on here. We'll see. If you are interested in seeing a moth the size of a bird whose relatives terrorize our dining room at 6:30 am during morning worship and make me literally pray that it doesn't swoop on me and make me scream and embarrass myself so badly I have to leave Africa forever.....) Ah man, forget the parentheses.  Lets look at BUGS again!  Where are our buddies around the corner?  Come quick and look at these pictures! You know you are absolutely anxious to see this bird/mothzilla/cringe inducing wonder:

No? Not scary?????

Matt's hand is here to give some perspective. I swear they come even bigger than this, literally the size of small birds. Not tiny birds, the next step up. Small birds.  I'm absolutely serious.  And they somehow get into the dining room and in the morning they fly around and try to find a perch on our unfriendly sealed lights.  I track them with my eyes, you know, as an eye exercise.  I have a deeply embedded fear of moths. (It started in childhood, it's another story.)  I respect the beauty that they can be here in Africa.  (I think this is a moth anyways.  It COULD be a bird. Jury is still out on that one.)  However, I am terrified of them flying at me.  Normally, at home, I handle moth attacks by screaming crazily as they dive-bomb me in bed or in the bathroom and running/leaping/crawling away whilst yelling for Matt to GET RID OF IT NOW!  Another less dramatic alternative is hiding under my best friend's coffee table. (Remember Elsa?) Sometimes I simply close the door and make a bowl of soapy water for them to take an eternal bath in.  These are all excellent, tried and true options.  Unfortunately for me, my years of experience are utterly useless when these monsters flap around in the dining room at 6:30 a.m. and you are supposed to ask for permission to leave the table.  I have plotted out my reaction to this scenario and have decided that prayer, being absolutely still and keeping my eyes closed with my mouth sealed firmly shut until it flies away is my best option if it starts to play at my table.  Hopefully it won't be put to the test.

However, I love butterflies. Maybe Mothzilla is actually a butterfly and I've been over-reacting?  Anyways, even though it's pretty, these I'm-sure-they-are-Butterflies are prettier:

Awww!

I also have a deeply rooted child-hood fear of grasshoppers.  Apparently both my moth and grasshopper fears are learned behaviors that I acquired from other family members, and initially I didn't even mind them. I won't bore you with my grasshopper stories.  There aren't many actually. I just don't like how they jump everywhere and leave spit on your stuff.  The thing with grasshoppers is they don't usually get in your house, they mostly stay outside.  At least, the ones I have encountered.  I have been really working on my irrational moth/grasshopper fears and they ARE getting better.  So much so that I got pretty close to this guy even though I did use my macro zoom:

Isn't he the COOLEST grasshopper you ever saw? Beautiful, which isn't a word I have ever used in the same sentence as "grasshopper" until just now.  See how colorful he is?  You could even zoom on this picture to see the details better.

I have learned that I detest Sand-flies more than any other bug except mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches.  They are all tied for first place really.  For varying reasons. Sand-flies are worth putting insect repellent on for.  No jokes here.  Another name for these is "no-see-ums" which sounds all nice, "oh, a bug you can't see, no worries."  WRONG.  I have developed the opposite of immunity to these teeny terrors.  Each time they bite me the bites itch worse and seem to last longer.  Also they get bigger.  After you are here longer, I am told that it lessens again.  I'm skeptical.  Also I'm not interested in finding out.  Instead, I'll just try to remember to reach for my repellent!

All in all, our bug experiences here have been cool, and not fear inducing.  The bugs I have pictures of are not in my room, and the only bugs in my room so far are tiny flies or ants or small spiders, dispatched by my husband the bug annihilator.  This I can handle.  The reason that I've spend to much time on them in my blog is that, there are just some amazing looking insects here.   I hope that you have enjoyed and not been bored too much by the bugs I've shared.  Next time I promise to share actual animal pictures.  Later, I will honestly try to share some of our personal adventures here, not just the buggy ones.  :)

P.S. I just googled "world's largest moth" and found out that the largest moth in the world has a ONE FOOT WINGSPAN.  I don't even know what to say about that.

Leaping Lizards!!

Who knows where that title is from?  I know my dad will guess straight away!

I know I mentioned before that we have natural mosquito control here.  Birds, bats, fish and lizards.

Boy Lizard

Girl Lizard

When I was working in the warehouse and trekking all over the place I saw dozens of these, maybe even hundreds in a day.   They are amazing bug hunters, so I don' t  mind them much.  They are also amazing athletes, as evidenced by this home video:

I mean, look at his arm muscles!  These guys just wander around, hunting bugs and doing push-ups all day.  We aren't sure why they do so many push-ups. Personally I think it's to show off.  I know they just go back to their  bush-homes and brag about who ate the most bugs, and who did the most push-ups.  They might even exchange stories of supposed bravado in outwitting the humans yet again.  I can imagine that those who are missing the ends of their tails kind of skulk in the background of those brag-fests. Its's inevitable with all these people and machines everywhere. It's definitely not because they are slow!  They run so fast, it's amazing. From laying flat out on the concrete to disappearing as you come around the corner.   Some of the guys like to chase them, usually the lizards win. They will climb anything and live anywhere.  Plus as you can see, they are really pretty to look at.  

The Birds

 Due to our location and the fact that our property actually includes some jungle within the walls, there is a wide variety of wildlife.  We don't have a picture of every animal or bird that is here but we wanted to show you some pictures of at least a few. Since I come from a Bird-watching family and have a bird as my name-sake it's fitting to give the birds first priority.  :)
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I think there might be hundreds of these birds in or near our property here.  They mostly avoid people getting to close to them.  However, I did notice that when they mow the lawns here that bunches of these birds follow the lawn mowers looking for bugs to eat.  They get surprisingly close to the mowers and when they are so distracted looking for bugs you can get quite close to them.

I think it is called a Cattle Egret

Sorry these aren't great pictures but it's a neat bird so I'm including them:

There are also a large amount of what I think are hawks:

In the evening these hawks start flying around everywhere and they seem to love this tree:

        This picture was taken near twilight so it's hard to see all the birds, but if you click on it, you will see how many there are.

One evening while we were at the pool the hawks were hunting lizards in the grass and we got really close to a couple when they swooped down.

Besides these birds there are several other interesting varieties that I haven't been able to photograph yet.  We have seen what I thought was a pelican, a Pied Crow that has a white vest and looks pretty cool and different types of swallows.  There are thousands that start darting around at night.  One evening I was walking along the covered walkways, and there were hundreds just flying everywhere. I was actually worried they would fly into me.  The new construction of walkways has left them numerous crooks and crannies to nest in so they have been taking over in some areas.  Just think of all the bugs they eat!!

I was going to do just one post on the birds and animals but I think I'll stop here and save the animals for the next one.  Hope you are all doing well, we miss our friends and family back home!

Change of Assignment

On Monday this week, I was working in the warehouse as usual when my department overseer came in and gave me some interesting news.  I was going to be transferred to another department, for at least 2 weeks. What department?  From the electrical warehouse, to....Bookbinding and Library!!  I know!  Turns out the sister that manages those two departments has needed some extra help and so Bethel requested for someone to come for a couple weeks to lend a helping hand.  I had this thought that I might turn into some sort of skilled bookbinder but that's not really the case.  What she really needed help with is organizing her temporary location that she has recently moved to.  This involves sorting books, booklets, magazines, km's and such.  Also the library needs a thorough cleaning and organizing since the move into the new space.  The great thing is though, that there is A/C in those spaces!  (Happy dance.)  My first job has been pretty cool. (And not just because it's air conditioned.)  They are setting up an archive for the Bethel here.  No one has even started doing it before now, and I'm the first one to start setting things aside in a specific place for it.  So I've been sorting through and putting things into a cabinet that will serve for now, although more space will be needed here soon.

I'm getting my hands on some amazing theocratic history and learning about publications from the early 20th century that I had never heard of.  For example, have you ever heard of a man named Rutherford?  I'm sure most of you reading this blog have.  Turns out that in the past, many of the radio lectures and speeches that he (and later Brother Knorr) gave were actually later printed in booklet form and distributed.  I've loved seeing all the booklets and their cover art.  Some are even from the 1920's.

A few of my favorites, based purely on the cover art.

While sorting through things I came across a mail order catalog of the "Rainbow Books" and certain of the lectures that were printed in the 1930's.  I love the description of the booklets:

The way they put things then, so direct!  With the aid of this handy catalog I was able to separate those particular items (most are pictured above) into boxes according to order of the catalog.  My hope is that whoever is responsible for sorting through these things later and putting up displays will understand what is what and the value of these little items.  I couldn't  have ever imagined I would get to do something like this, even for a short time.  It would be so cool to work in an archive and set up displays as they have in New York at headquarters.  Hopefully I'll get to visit there and see those things someday.

I'm really enjoying the break from the heat of my first assignment, the mornings in the warehouse are hot but manageable, it's the afternoons that are difficult for me.  However, "I dey manage it." (Pidgin) That being said, I miss being up there too, and visiting with the different people I usually encountered during the day.  In two weeks we will see if I get to go back or stay with the books.  Either way, there are neat things to learn and do here.

I have some more pictures of the cool stuff I am finding, I'll save them for later, either the blog or in person depending on how much time I have to share.

Archispirostreptus gigas

Say, WHAT?  How do you pronounce that title anyway?  I have no idea.  However, it's appropriate because it's the scientific name of one of the world's largest millipedes.  This bug is so big it qualifies as an animal in my opinion.  So, why the science lesson?  Well, it's because we have a picture to share!

This guy is maybe eight or nine inches long.  Matt's foot is in the picture to give some perspective.  Don't worry all you bug lovers, we didn't squish him.  We let him creep off  down the road unharmed.  According to the internet these bugs can live 5-7 years.  You see, that is the flaw with this whole tropics thing.  Bugs don't die of cold.  (Or snakes, that's the other downside.) The upside is that people aren't cold either.  I'm just not sure that the trade off is worth it. I mean these bugs secrete skin irritants too!  The small ones will make you itch when they crawl on you, imagine what these colossal arthropods would do to my fragile North American skin.  Actually, no, don't imagine it.  UGH.  Anyway, we know our lil pals around the corner at home will like this maxi-bug, so here is another view:

And no, you can't eat this kind of bug, the "irritating liquid" can be "harmful" if introduced to your mucous membranes.  Translation, this African Ginormonstrosity is poison.  I much prefer caterpillars who transform into the most interesting flying bugs ever.  Like this one:

Maybe 4-5 inches wingspan here.

Isn't it cool??  I mean it's probably a girl too with all that pink.  This reminds me of that girly camouflage pattern that is popular back home.  Except lets face it, this is better.  (Travis, I'm thinking this would make an AWESOME pattern for your dipping business.  How cool would it be on a motorcycle???)

Hope you enjoyed the WILDlife photos. :)

So, what's it like to go in service in the village?

I don't know if you remember but I was pretty smug in a previous post about not having any mosquito bites yet. My winning streak ended last Sunday when we went to feed the dumb fish and I recieved 2 bites on my foot. GARGH!!  Word was that the fish eat any mosquitoes that hang out.  Maybe they should stop pigging out on stale bread and step up the insect patrol.  

Some of you may wonder what the ministry is like here.  We only go out Saturday mornings because we work hard at Bethel full-time during the week.  However, when we do go out, it's great.  Our territory gets covered once a week or more.  You might think that we would be overworking it, but that is so not the case.  You can always have some great conversations. People are excited to visit and you can have as many studies as you like. Seriously.  "Weekend warriors" can have as many as 10-12 students.  That's how fantastic it is here. The kids will chase you and say, "study me, study me!"  In our area, many of the bible studies that are conducted are with children.   They come to meeting by themselves even.  We aren't talking teenagers by the way.  Children under 12.  Sometimes the older ones will bring their siblings and they will just sit and listen to meetings.  You would not believe how well behaved these kids are.  Even the tiny ones are so quiet and pay attention.  During Bible Study and Watchtower Study you can barely get a comment in. 

Last time we went out we were able to take some pictures.  This is where we met for field service, with the groups out front:

An older sister is the one that keeps the landscaping up outside of these two homes.  The lawn is the finest blades of grass you ever saw , and the cleanest red dirt makes up the walkways and driveways.

My friend conducted an impromptu study with some village children as we went through the territory.  It was so cute to see these kids smiling and listening to the Bible Story book.  I was able to ask if I could "snap" these kids and they didn't mind, so I got to take this photo.  It is my favorite picture of the day, and maybe our whole visit so far:

Isn't it great? I LOVE this picture!  This is what I looked forward to when I knew we were coming here.

The heat sure takes it out of you though!  After walking for what seemed like hours, I was shocked to realize that it was only ten thirty.  We were halfway through..  After some shade therapy we were ready to finish our morning with return visits and bible studies.  I went on a call with that would prefer an oebo study with him than a local.  So cheeky.  Matt enjoyed going with Fabian on his studies.  

Thats all for this post.  We miss all of you!

A basket case....basket of fruit that is!

When we went on our official tour of the compound here we were told that we would "enjoy many fine fruits in Nigeria."  Well, so far that is very true!  One afternoon we took a walk around the entire perimeter.  We chose the absolute peak heat of the day, you know, in order to sweat the maximum amount.  While we walked we saw lots of different fruit trees.  We thought we'd take some pictures for you to see them too.

We think that these are breadfruit:

We have tons of citrus trees.  Grapefruit, lemons, limes and of course, Oranges!

When we first came we were told we would be able to enjoy Mango Season!  We live across from one of the mango groves:

If you click on the picture you will see that the tree is simply loaded with mangoes!

Our favorite kind of tree here?  The avocado!!

We are permitted to glean a limited amount per person per day. You may not pick them off the trees but you may pick from the ground.  Here is Matt with our avocado harvest!

Seemed such a shame to abandon them to the ants.  Matt is standing on the perimeter road, here is another view:

Some people walk, ride bikes or run around the perimeter road for exercise.  On the other side is just jungle for miles.  There are actually little "farms" carved out of the jungle but they look like jungle to us too!

We also have  a fruit called star fruit here but I haven't tried it yet.  It's hard to find them on the ground and still good, you kinda have to look at one that looks like its close to dropping and give it a kinda handshake, not picking it mind you, but after a friendly greeting or two it might decide to go home with you! At least, that's what they tell me.  And now for a fruit I'd never heard of before:

Recognize this?  No?  Look at the brown shape at the bottom of the fruit.  Hint, it's a familiar nut......Cashew! That's right, Cashew FRUIT!  And the nut at the bottom of each fruit is what costs so much money when we buy them at the store at home.  Here you can get like 3 cups of cashews for around 90 cents.  Not that I'm bragging, but, we get fresh roasted ones at dinner every couple weeks too.  Having looked at the price of organic cashews in the states and almost fainting, (9-10 dollars at the health food store for like 2 cups of unsalted organic cashews, I'm not even joking),  I realize the value of the cashews we get here.  Oh yeah!

We are really enjoying living in the middle of the jungle with such beautiful trees that we can "glean" from.   Nigeria's Branch is absolutely the most beautiful place we have seen for a long time.  It's peaceful and we are loving being able to pick our own fruit.