These photos are a small reminder that we are living in a most extraordinary country when it comes to animals and plants. The grey patterend moth (below)is at least 25 centimteres across ( 10 inches). I photographed it coming out of the resources centre early one morning. I thought it was a bird! The beautiful markings made it a breathtaking sight. Some days later I photographed this gorgeous fling beetle (above) on the wall of the resources centre. I reckoned it to be 7 inches long ( about 17 centimeteres). Again the markings are astonishing and we stood looking at it in wonder. Well the frog on theright we saw on the top of Mount Roirama. Its yellow belly contrasted with its jet black upper body and as far as I am aware it is the only frog that is unable to hop ( I may be wrong on this!!- those of you who have been watching the BBC TV programmes 'The Land Of The Jaguar' will know how many new species were discovered during the filming of those programmes. Just yesterday Trudy saw a small crocodile walking across the path near our house and we have rather large bats roosting in the roof of our ne place!!Yes we have moved to a bigger upstairs flat really with 3 bedrooms and a bigger kitchen and bathroom. We are having one or two bits of furniture made and we are going to buy a twin tub washing machine to prevent any more of our clothese being bleached out. Cable TV is on the cards and because we now have a balcony means that we can now put a hammock up and enjoy a relaxing time after work. Schools started back this week but it does take a while for them to get going. Tragically on the night before the first day back 3 girls died in a dormitory fire in the secondary school near the Venezuelan border ( we only have 2 secondary schools in the whole of the region). The dormitory was refurbished not so long ago but it is still an old wooden building without electricity (the generator is broken) and the only sources of light at night are candles it was a disaster waiting to happen ...Imagine the outcry in Britain if such a tragedy happened. But it was not the only deaths on the opening day of the school year . A 9 year old girl downed in the latrine of her primary school in another area of the country. If there was any doubt that this was a developing country in need of outside aid , these two incidents put to rest any debate aboiut the matter.We carried on working with minimal discussion The Ministry is putting pressure on our region to improve our literacy rates but actually the Grade 6 results in Maths and English rose after two previous years of decline!! That is a small glimmer of encouragement but there is masses of work to do yet.
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