Strange creatures everywhere

Days pass by like pieces of a bar of chocolate. I didn’t have good chocolate for months though! Two weeks since I returned here and in a few days I have to extend my visa again. I can spend a whole day chasing the dogs or petting the cat, watching the clouds or letting a chameleon climb from my sleeve through the beard on my head. Strange creatures everywhere. Lizards eating spiders half of their own size, for example. In the invasive black wattle trees I found a caterpillar carrying several tiny, vertical cocoons on its back. Nobody knew what that was. I did some research. It turns out to be a caterpillar which has been blessed by a parasitoid wasp of the Braconidae family. Theses wasps lay eggs under the skin of caterpillars. The larvae then feed on the caterpillar’s juices while the caterpillar keeps marching on and harvesting the plants of his desire. Finally, the larvae exit his body and build their cocoons on his outside while he continues his daily business. Here we go. I put the caterpillar in a box and made him my experiment. His name is Donald.

Meanwhile I planted a few more trees and enjoy the extraordinary food. Eggs on home-made bread, tomatoes and cheese, tons of bush avocado, local orange marmalade, fresh juices and cereals with yoghurt for breakfast. Spinach pies, Polish gołąbki, self-made pasta or potato salads and rich soups for lunch and/or dinner. Banana or guava bread with coffee and chai masala in between.

One day Jutta and Markus on two German KTM motorbikes came for a coffee. They travel "from north to south", stay in Lushoto right now and were on a day trip around the mountains. As it gets colder Philipp and I spend the evenings at the fire and I regularly use my oven in the cottage. I like to sit in my bed and do crappy stuff on the computer, like writing this blog post, while listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve 'n' Seagulls, Snarky Puppy or Slagsmålsklubben ;-) Now and then I support the local organisation with geodata expertise and empower the people with QGIS. Preferably also from my bed office. On Monday I will restart working remotely in Germany in far-from-home-office style. Exciting!Read more