The visitors

It is a rare occasion that I would be able to mentally block out that I am homeschooling in Africa.

For one, we have this ideal indoor-outdoor schooling thing going on since it's palpably spring year-round; my children are regularly sprawled around the compound with piles of books, or painting a cardboard-box ziggurat in our garage-turned-schoolroom. (Anyone else not know what that was until they had to teach their kid?) There are the different birds we observe--like ibises or sizeable kites, or the African Grey parrot that we've heard but only glimpsed briefly.

There are also the random visitors that clink the gate in greeting. And there are the bodas that turn our heads to see if they are headed down the hill, or the fresh produce that we dive into shamelessly for snacks. There's co-op on a dusty driveway, or underneath an avocado tree.

 

And then--there's today, when a science lesson greeted me when I went to fling open the garage doors. We did indeed have unexpected visitors, though the latter pictured here is frequent enough. (We do school in a garage.)

That's six looong centimeters of cockroach. (Insert involuntary shudder.) I remember seeing these in Little Rock. You know, behind plexiglass at the zoo.

 

Frankly, I preferred our last guest, who popped his head over the eMi wall to chat with B. Usually on Wendesdays, the boys' Australian friend climbs a tree after finishing his 1:00 lunch, then whistles a tune until we come out and the boys inevitably get him to stay for the afternoon. Science lesson he is not, but I'll choose him over guest #1 any day of the week.