The Birds and the Bees

It's time we had the talk. No, not that talk. The talk about the birds and the bees. Not those birds and bees. But the birds and bees I encountered in Uganda. Allow me to explain:

I gave you all a little teaser about a certain little bird.

It was my first full day at my house. It was late in the morning and I was sitting outside with my neighbor, Rachel. We were sitting on a bench on her veranda (or porch if you prefer), discussing education. We're both teachers so we had quite a lot to talk about. As I was sitting there, I saw a little red bird hopping up the stairs on my side of the house. Something startled the bird and it flew off, but it flew off toward the house. I was around the corner so I didn't actually see where it went. I just hoped that it was sitting on the bench on my veranda.

As I continued talking to Rachel I forgot all about the little red bird. Some time later I went back into my house to fix lunch. But as I neared the dining room and started turning left toward the kitchen I heard a strange fluttering noise. I was only slightly alarmed after learning the night before that sounds in that house aren't always what they seem. It can sometimes sound as if something is inside the house when in fact it is outside. But the fluttering persisted, so I started to investigate.

The sound was coming from the window in the kitchen. The curtain had fallen down, so I pulled it back and nearly JUMPED. OUT OF. MY. SKIN!

There was a bird in my kitchen, and it didn't know how to get out.

What's my first reaction you ask? Did I scream? Did I run and hide? No, despite my usually girly responses to such a predicament I rushed toward my bedroom to grab my camera.

"If I don't get a picture, the people at home will never believe me!"

There he is, sitting in my kitchen window, completely unaware that if he just moved about 7 inches to the right he'd be free like Willy. Nope, instead he turned around so I could get a good shot of him from the front.

I named him Lovey Dovey.

I tried my best to get him to leave. I shook at the curtains. That just made him fly into the window like when a fly gets trapped between the window and the blinds and just buzzes around aimlessly until it makes itself tired. I walked outside to try to scare it toward the open window. I walked back inside and made some cat noises.

Nothing seemed to work.

Finally I walked back outside, knowing if I didn't get him out of there I was not falling asleep that night. Apparently from the time it took me to walk out my front door and around to the back of the house where my kitchen window was, he found the open window. Or at least that's what I tried to convince myself of.

I was actually a little sad after he left. But the whole situation made me laugh. (If you watch this clip you'll understand why). I was proud of myself for taking care of things and not acting like a complete girl, something I cannot say for my bee story.

A few days after the bird flew the coop, I was out sitting on my veranda. I was taking some notes to prepare for giving the team their orientation once they arrived. As I sat there with my notebook on my lap and pen in hand, I smiled and said good morning to Maureen as she walked down toward the school. A few minutes later a bug flew right into my face. Unsure of what it was, I swatted it away. It didn't take long for me to learn that it was a bee.

A very angry bee. Fortunately it did not sting me on the face. Unfortunately it still stung me.

Twice.

After I swatted it away that first time it attacked my right arm. It got me good once and started on the second sting before I smacked it away. In the meantime, the notebook on my lap and pen in my hand went flying causing all kinds of racket. I ran into my house looking for the benadryl spray trying not to cry or pass out.

I haven't been stung in over 10 years but I never remember it hurting so bad before. It started swelling up, and I knew if I didn't say something to someone I was going to faint. I found Rachel who put parafin (of all things) on it as I tried my hardest not to cry. The parafin worked. The swelling went down and the pain went away. I ended up with quite a welt on my arm for about a week after that. (You can still actually see the mark on my arm from the initial sting).

Later on, Maureen asked me what happened. She said she left me sitting there writing and next thing she knew she heard something fall to the ground. She looked back and I was jumping around (did I forget to mention that part?) and then disappeared into my house. We laughed about how crazy I looked, and were thankful that the sting was only minor.

Whew. I'm so glad we could finally have this talk about the birds and the bees!

- Aly