There are mosquitoes in our gym. I know this because while I was sitting at a weights machine last Thursday I saw one settle on to the 3rd web space of my right hand and the itchy spot I am now scratching is the result. Mine was the last blood it ever tasted.

While we are exercising we look out of large windows on to a courtyard containing a large swimming pool, some grassed areas, and tables and chairs for the cafe. We have quite often been royally entertained  by events through the window. Today a couple of lean muscular shirtless young men were showing off to a tall slim woman swathed head to foot in a bright magenta dress carrying a glittery silver shoulder bag by doing press-ups (very badly), cartwheels, and one was walking around on his hands for a fair while.

A week or so ago  a huge blue tarpaulin shade had been put up by laying it across a number of wires that stretch right across the courtyard. It’s edges were attached to the  adjacent wires by black loops of cloth –  which one by one were slowly tearing off. A group of men were enjoying a drink at one of the tables under the pleasant shade, but as I puffed away on the stepper I could see that the edge of the tarpaulin, now attached only by one loop, was shortly going to significantly impact on their enjoyment. Off popped the last loop, and the four men, all their chairs and table disappeared under the tarpaulin. After a surprisingly long delay the tarpaulin started heaving and writhing and they finally emerged to take up their places at the next table inside what was now effectively a room formed by the tarpaulin, both ends hanging to the ground but the middle still held up by three of the wires.

On a previous occasion a group of around nine men armed with nothing but eucalyptus poles tried to move a huge rock (there are many of these ostensibly for decorative purposes scattered around the courtyard) which must have weighed a tons or more.  We could see no rational reason to do this, but they were determined and by the time we finished our workout they had rotated it by a foot or two. I suppose taking a few minutes to move it with a machine would have spoiled their sense of achievement.

The gym was only opened around 6 years ago and it is interesting to reflect on how so many things have been broken. Fortunately there are enough machines to use, but in the men’s changing room everything, literally everything, is broken. All the locker locks, all the toilet door locks, all the showers, all the toilet seats, all the urinals, all the taps, all the sinks, and the mirror. It’s been like this for 18 months. Even the ceiling is broken. There’s a glass-fronted fridge near the entrance presumably for those “healthy” “energy” drinks that do nothing beyond making a profit for Lucozade, and it has a huge crack right down the front.

The bite on my hand was far from unique. Itchy red spots presumably from insects have featured significantly for me since we returned from England. A few nights ago all 60 or so were itching furiously preventing me sleeping, and as as I walked the boards at 3am I was fantasising about what I could do with a belt sander. Why it’s only me and not Chris is a mystery. We see few insects, no bed bugs and no fleas. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I coated myself in insecticide again (see here for last year’s scabies episode) and started talking about mosquito nets. Nine of the bites were on my right hand and as Haile drove me to HQ he sympathised with my scratching and offered to get us a mosquito net, dished out free by the Ethiopian authorities I believe. He came and hung it up for us, so here it is, reminiscent of a weird bird cage and probably too small for our bed (it stretches out). However it’ll do for now. My spots have receded although another outbreak around my ankles could be attributed to an evening visit to a house near the dump to discuss the Korah Kids project last week.

Finally a quick word about vultures. Up here in the “penthouse suite” we often have them flying straight at our window, heading for the roof of our lovely new accommodation block. The roof is sheet metal, so we here them scuttling about above us. They roost in the nearby eucalyptus trees. On New Year’s Day (that was yesterday – see here for an explanation) the Bingham staff slaughtered a couple of cows in the car maintenance area just in front of the gym and these lovely attractive creatures were lined up in droves along the edge of the gym roof. They were probably disappointed by the fact that the guys doing the butchering ate the raw liver themselves. As soon as the dry season starts in a couple of weeks the vultures will go and the yellow-billed kites will return. For now, here’s a couple in the tree behind where we live.