Is Anyone Out There?

Testing one .. two .. three ..

TAP TAP TAP

Is this mic on?  Can anyone hear me?

Okay, guess I need to do some 'splainin' .. as to why this blog has been silent since before we made our return to Chingola.

For one thing, we arrived here to find out the house internet was toast.  As in, apparently the system sustained a lightening strike close enough to fry several critical pieces of equipment.  And since we are not at the top of the food chain at KCM, it took over 2 months to get us reconnected.

In the interim, we used an MTN dongle, but it was touchy .. not especially liking my little MacBook Air.  And the other two laptops it did work on .. one is Mary's (on it's last legs) and Tom's borrowed one (sloowww as molasses) don't have our photos.

So, that said, I'm back online.  And have been for a little bit.  The other sniggling thing that has kept me busy is helping Mary make the final slog through her American School courses.  Yippee!!  I am happy to announce that she has only the two literature courses to complete, a final Algebra II exam, and one more to finish World Geography!  Fortunately, Mary is a sharp cookie, and Physics and Geometry moved fairly quick after we returned here.

The plan was to have plenty more finished while we were home in Houston between Thanksgiving Day and New Years.  We both ended up very, very ill, as I've told more people than care to hear about it.  The bottom line is that absolutely no schoolwork was accomplished, but once we recovered we had a very enjoyable time with Kate, Meghan and Peter.  Tom arrived, flew to Denver and brought Ray back with him, we had a relaxing, fun Christmas celebration, then Tom flew with Ray back to Denver. He got back to Houston in time to help out a friend do some home repairs, we celebrated New Years at home, then flew back to Zambia 3 days later.  Whoo!!

Okay, some snapshots since we've been home:

Waiting at Harare, Zimbabwe airport for our flight to make the last leg to Lusaka.

Our yard was definitely overgrown!  Hayfields everywhere, and lots of beautiful wildflowers.

Intending to cut Dahlia's for the table, I spied this spider and her captured honey bee.  Needless to say (but I will anyway) I left the spider to her work and opted to just take photos.

As a nice treat midweek (March 12) which was Youth Day, and a holiday, we drove about 65 kilometers and visited Nsobe Game Park.  Another blog with more of those photos later.

 And what is our blog without monkey stories and pictures!

You can see these guys have absolutely no fear of us.  They have crossed the iron gate at the front door, eaten most of the rose buds (they prefer white), and one made it into the house!  Fortunately, as Mary says, my "mom" voice was sufficient for it to exit as I was busy trying to figure out how to shoo it out.  I just said "Out! Now!" and the monkey left.  All it's friends stayed on the back patio, and spent a lot of time looking in at the zoo!

Yes, those are monkey's dancing on the roof!  It is a favorite haunt.

Baby monkey in a tree next to the house, playing hide and seek!

Morning ritual, I walk Tom out to the garage when he leaves for work.  The guards (all of them) stroll past and stare.  We've taken to staring back and so far we win!  Makes me want to wave my arms and tell them we aren't going to change into something else SO STOP STARING!

Right next to the garage .. this day we had monkeys everywhere, for most of the day.  They only look cute .. they are scavengers, and ready to take what they can.

Morning Monkeys

First day of Spring here, and monkeys in the front yard let me photograph babies and moms.

Mother Monkeys

Mary and I were back in Houston for 6 weeks, through August and into September.  About 2 weeks before we came home Tom spied a monkey that appeared to be misshapen.  At first, repelled, he looked closer and realized that a little, tiny monkey was clinging to mama with all he had, and what looked like an odd growth from her underside was the little baby's tail wrapped around mama's tail.

I caught these photos as the mothers, babies attached, were moving past a bedroom on the side of the house.  These mamas spook quite easily, so I feel fortunate to have even taken these.  So, accept my apologies for the poor quality.

Can you see all the monkeys in this photo?  The one sitting alone was acting a guardian, all the others were mamas with babies.  You'll have to look close to see all of them.

Sitting on top of the fence right next to the edge of the house.