Village Life

Termite Wings, originally uploaded by momentswithmichelle.

This week I’ve been reminded of the fact that I really do live in an African village. Saturday as William and I were taking a walk we noticed a huge crowd gathered around a tree at a neighbor’s home. We went to check it out. We discovered that someone had just caught and killed a dik dik (very small antelope) and were preparing to skin it. I have never seen them around here but obviously they live in the area. They told me that someone saw it jumping along the river and they ran to get a knife. Wow! I felt sad as I saw it hanging dead from the tree. We really do live a sheltered life in suburban America.
Then last night I heard a lot of noise outside our window. There was a swarm of termites flying around the security light and bumping the window. There were literally hundreds of them. Our cat was extremely fascinated by them. She kept running from window to window watching them. But when I opened the door she was afraid to go out. I think there were too many! I finally wound up turning the security light out because they were keeping me awake. This morning when I went outside I found many wings on the ground. William told me that it is a normal part of the life cycle of the termite. They shed their wings and crawl away. I was thanking the Lord that our house is made of brick and concrete and not wood!!