Some Jiggery Pokery

Pest of the Week!

An occupational hazard her, especially if you walk around in open sandals or bare foot, is to pick up a tiny flea, called a Chigoe, or ‘Jigger’. These charming, 1mm long, insects bury themselves under the skin on your toes, feed on your blood and grow a large sac of eggs.

 

 

 Irene had the ‘pleasure’ of hosting a Jigger this week.

The good news is:

-         they always leave their ‘bottom’ sticking out, (which shows as a black spot) so that they defacate outside your body, not inside

-         when the eggs hatch they fall back to the ground so that the larvae do not feast on your feet

-         they are easy to remove with a safety pin

 

The other 'pest' this week was in a sketch that Irene put on in morning chapel. It was based on a mother (Irene) having to put up her 4 disruptive children, or which Malcolm was the eldest boy. (For the record the children were not based on our own family, although there were 2 ‘boys’ and 2 ‘girls’ and the eldest daughter enjoyed reading books). Needless to say Malcolm played himself – the naughty big brother who tormented his clever sister. Nothing changes.

 

But, she got her own back.

October 9^th was Independence Day in Uganda and there was a parade on the local football pitch. Various schools and the army paraded with children singing and dancing.

 

 

 

 

This week’s African proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Sierra Leone:  “There's no bad bush where you can throw away a bad child”