Mangoes and snails...In the night there is a thunk on the roof and then a plop on the ground as the mangoes fall from the trees. As you can see, mangoes are plentiful to eat and even the snails like a nibble on their way to ?.
The children come daily to collect the fallen mangoes.
The large seeds litter the grounds and I am surprised
there aren't more groves of mangoes based on the
number of seeds on the ground.
The snails truly move at a "snail's pace". The one below took over an hour to move less than 6 inches to reach the mango.
Birds and trees...The Zambian Ornithological Society has a checklist of over 5,000 bird species in the country. A neighbor has identified at least 40 of them here on the Justo Mwale campus. Dove varieties abound waking us each morning with cooing as well as a piercing hooting. Nora and I will participate in a bird counting event this coming Sunday.
And then there are the trees. All the flowering trees are producing their fruits - not just mangoes but long seeds pods on the flame trees, small green lemons, bananas and all sorts of small nuts. Many of the these "fruits" are edible, some not, some tasty and others not. There is a grove of bamboo at the end of our driveway. In the rain, the bamboo clatter and make hollow sounds as they move with the wind.
Update on teaching...I am told that classes begin this coming Monday, January 17. On Friday I hope to see the schedule of classes, my assignments and maybe get a key to an office. Students are returning this week to register for classes after which the timetable is set. Everyone is greeting old friends, the new students look a bit bewildered - all reminding me of the first week of classes at St. Kate's. I am sure I look bewildered as well as I find my way to classrooms and lecture halls.
-Mary
Good luck Mary! Love the photos of the birds and plants -- please post photos of the students if you can take them!
ReplyDeleteMary, I'm thinking of you as you start teaching and hope you have a special birthday on Feb. 4. I'll be awaiting pictures of your celebration on your next posting! Love, Lynn
ReplyDeleteI was headed out down a long bone-white road, straight as a string and smooth as glass and glittering and wavering in the heat and humming under the tires like a plucked nerve. I was doing seventy-five but I never seemed to catch up with the pool which seemed to be over the road just this side of the horizon. Then, after a while, the sun was in my eyes, for I was driving west. So I pulled the sun screen down and squinted and put the throttle to the floor. And kept on moving west. For West is where we all plan to go some day. It is where you go when the land gives out and the old-field pines encroach. It is where you go when you get the letter saying: Flee, all is discovered. It is where you go when you look down at the blade in your hand and the blood on it. It is where you go when you are told that you are a bubble on the tide of empire. It is where you go when you hear that thar's gold in them-thar hills. It is where you go to grow up with the country. It is where you go to spend your old age. Or it is just where you go.
ReplyDeleteIt was just where I went. Cheap Flights to Lusaka