Big Bug

If any of you were wondering exactly what that big bug was I sent off a few weeks ago... here it is. Wikipedia says 5 to 40 mm but from the picture of it shows a the head of a 16 penny nail. I would venture to say that this monster was about 150 mm. I have been taking pictures of cool bugs and other wildlife and have quite a collection. Some of the things we see here are quite astonishing.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Amblypygi


Amblypygi is an order of invertebrate animals belonging to the class Arachnida, in the subphylum Chelicerata of the phylum Arthropoda.

Amblypygids are also known as tailless whip scorpions (see also whip scorpion).
The name "amblypygid" means "blunt rump", a reference to a lack of the telson ("tail") carried by related species.

As of 2002, approximately 5 families, 17 genera and 136 species have been described. They are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Some species are subterranean; many are nocturnal. During the day, they may hide under logs, bark, stones, or leaves. They prefer a humid environment.

Amblypygids may range from 5 to 40 mm. Their bodies are broad and highly flattened and the first pair of legs (the first walking legs in most arachnid orders) are modified to act as sensory organs. (Compare solifugids, uropygids, and schizomids.) These very thin modified legs can extend several times the length of body. They have no silk glands or venomous fangs, but can have prominent pincer-like pedipalps.

Behavior

Amblypygids often move about sideways on their six walking legs, with one "whip" pointed in the direction of travel while the other probes on either side of them. Prey are located with these "whips", captured with pedipalps, then masticated with chelicerae.

Courting rituals involve the male guiding the female with his pedipalps over spermate deposited into one or more sperm masses. She gathers the spermate and lays fertilized eggs into a sac carried under the abdomen. When the young hatch, they climb up onto the mother's back; any which fall off before their first molt will be eaten by the mother.

Amblypygids, particularly the species hrynus marginemaculatus and Damon diadema, are thought to be one of the few species of arachnids that show signs of social behavior. Research conducted at Cornell University by entomologists suggests that mother amblypygids comfort their young by gently caressing the offspring with her feelers. Further, in an experiment where two or more siblings were placed in an unfamiliar environment, such as a cage, they would seek each other out and gather back in a group.[2]

Weekly update

Good Day,

 

Today is Saturday and we had games scheduled against La Gaiete. They have a reputation of being the champions of "no-shows" and today is no different. We were ready to go at 12:30 for a 1:00 basketball tipoff at the school and a 1:00 kickoff at Newland for the girls soccer. It started raining enough to cancel the bball but soccer plays in anything. We called the coaches and told them no bball but soccer was still on. They said ok. At 1:00 we called back and they had sent the bball team to come and play and sent their girls soccer team to another school to play another team. This is the team that showed up with 20 guys to play us last time (late) and their "coach" decided his team needed a boost and tried to come into the game. He is 26 I understand. What bugs me is that we lost to them last year in our first game and he scored about 30 points. The junior teams play at 3:00 against another school and we should have the court dried out by then.

 

My Geo 10 class is making a working model of the Panama Canal. It looks good so far but we have a way to go. I will take some video and pictures for you all.

 

World Geo is starting our unit on Western US. I always start the unit by watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I skip a few bar scenes but the landscape shots and the train robberies are good stuff. They seem to like it.

 

30 minutes to game time and the rains have stayed away. I am going to take a look…

 

Well, the AIA Club team showed up almost on time and the court was more or less dry so we played both the boys and girls Jr. bball games. Only one referee showed up so we used the only other available person for the girls game….. me. I have never refereed a game before and I think I did ok. The coach for the club team is my assistant coach and I know our girls coach well so I knew their expectations were low. I managed to fulfill their expectations nicely. I told my PE clerk / Assistant Athletic Director that I want my 2000 cfa ($3.75) for working the game. He said he would get back to me. The boys team won by 9 but the girls fell short even though they doubled their previous point total from last game.

 

That's it from here.

 

Brian & Betsy

WU 15 oct 07

Sorry everybody,

 

I typed it out on Saturday and forgot to send it. I will include a couple of pictures from the trip to visit with the orphans. The house they are staying in is rather nice. The woman who takes care of them is very dedicated. We lost the bball game by 18 points. We worked hard but they were very big and fast. We are getting better though.

 

Greetings from Cameroon,

 

I find myself at my desk at 2pm caught up on most work and reveling in the quiet. It is not typically quiet at 2pm on a Friday. The reason is that here in Cameroon there is a very high Muslim population. In Muslim tradition the last day of Ramadan is cause for celebration. I would probably celebrate too if I had been fasting for the better part of a month. Because the "Fête du Ramadan" is based on the observation of a full moon, it can not be declared ahead of time. The leader of the Islam community determines when it will be usually before first light on the day of the holiday. I found out today at 6am that it was going to be a holiday and school was closed. It is certainly nice to have a 3 day weekend but I had a lot of stuff planned for class today. It really throws a wrench in the lesson plans. Like the soccer coach says… "Awa". Africa wins again.

 

Other then that, things here are busy and we have a lot of things going on. Betsy has not been feeling well the past week and she is having some blood tests done next week. Hope fully we will find out what's up.

 

I am taking a group of students to an orphanage tomorrow morning in quartier Damas. Apparently the facility they were in was condemned and all the kids moved in with Madame Director until a new place could be found and situated. We will be just getting to know the kids and playing some games tomorrow and then start a bible lesson series every other Sat after that. I guess there are about a dozen kids from 2 to 11 and they are Anglophone / francophone. It should be fun.

 

After that we play FUSTEL bball at home and the girls soccer plays them at Newland. Apparently they had a big problem getting girls to play this year and they had to get the other teams to agree to play 8 on 8 soccer instead of 11 on 11. it's a big high school so I don't know what the story is. Our girls beat them pretty easily last time. Our boys bball team lost to them by 20 a few weeks ago. We did not play well at all and got stomped. We didn't play them last year (they didn't show up) and this year they have a very experienced team with some good players. I have 2 seniors and no other kid is over 16. We should be a lot better next year, I hope.

 

That's it from here. Hope all is well with everybody.

 

Take Care and God Bless

 

Brian & Betsy

pics 2: name this thing; the road crew

2456 - This thing was spotted hanging around in one of the classrooms. The teacher was very interested in extracting it from the room so she could continue with her lesson. We are still working on an identification and will keep you posted. (it was dispatched)

1188 - Here is the crew that worked on a project a few weeks ago. We cut some overgrown brush and fixed up a washed out road. Oliver and Alfred came down to help us out too. It was fun and we got done what we wanted but it was really hot that day.

team pics: Girls' soccer & Boys Basketball

100-4775 Girls Soccer team. There are only 4 seniors on the team. They have outscored their opponents 19-4 in 4 games. Our favorite neighbor is the 2nd player from the left in the back. There are 5 Cameroonians, 9 from US, 1 from Ireland, 1 Canadian, 1 Colombian and 1 Scot-Finn. 6 or 7 are on the bball team as well.

100-4776 Boys BBall team. I have a lot of young kids this year. I believe we refer to that as a rebuilding year. I have 3 Cameroonians, 1 Dutch, 5 from US, 1 Indian, 1 Korean, 1 Canadian, 1 Congolese and 1 Jamaican. The assistant coaches are the same as last year including our student teacher who helps out (green).

WU 6 Oct

Good Day,

 

We are in the process of finishing a quarterly newsletter so most of our news will be included there.

 

It has been a very restful break. We managed to get a lot of things done. My world geo class will be playing Inuit Games on Tuesday. The musk ox push, the knuckle hop and a few other interesting ones. A student teacher who has been working with Betsy the past 8 weeks will be coming over to my class starting this week. He has a great relationship with the kids and seems to be on his way to a well-deserved endorsement for his university back in Chicago. Fortunately, he is a Cubs fan. Unfortunately, the Cubs dropped the first 2 games in the playoffs. One more and they are done. At least the Yankees are losing.

 

I wanted to send some pictures this week since we have been getting behind in that department. I will send them 2 at a time. Sorry if it clogs your inbox. I made them as small as I could.

 

Take Care and God Bless.

 

Brian & Betsy

WU 01Oct07

Good Day All

 

Sorry for the late update. It seems that the stomach bug has once again made a visit to our house. I seem to be much better today but my beloved betrothed is still horizontal.

 

Most everybody we know is out of town for the break. I am up at school just working on a few papers and organizing things. The Art teacher's parents are visiting from the US. They are here now touring the school. Judging from their wide eyes I believe it is their first trip to Africa.

 

I was awakened at about 0430 this morning by the sound of some kind of critter scurrying around on the roof. I am trying to find a way to work in the words "bolt-upright" into this. The characteristics of the sound would suggest that it was probably a cat. Either a leopard or jaguar because it was LOUD. It didn't last for more than 15 seconds or so and there was some kind of altercation or conflict in the middle judging by the screaming. I tried to quiet her down so as not to scare the neighbors but once she gets going…. Just kidding. (I hope she chooses not to read this one). I went out into the other room to investigate and it was all quiet and the night guard was as usual. I know I wasn't imagining it. I talked to Henry later and he didn't hear anything. Our dog usually goes off if so much as a frog invades the yard so it is certainly a mystery.

 

It rained like crazy yesterday. We got about 3 inches in about 6 hours. It slows things down all over town and turns everything into mud for a half day. Some genius decided to dig out a drainage ditch on the road up the hill to school and incidentally redirected the flow of water from the ditch on the north side to right down the middle. After the big rain yesterday we now have a 10 inch gully in the road. The trouble is that the school does not own the road and the people who live along there will not pay to fix it. If we want it fixed we will probably have to do it ourselves.

 

That's about it. The Twins are done for the year. Only 179 days until Opening Day 2008.

 

Brian (& Betsy)