Bats & Mystery Object

Bats in the Night

My house mate Misha was away on Saturday evening to visit some friends in Jinja. I made a meal to share with Vanessa who is another long term volunteer from Australia, read my book and had an early night. As I was on my own in the house, I locked the front door but left my bedroom door open so that I could hear the rest of the house.

At about 4.30 in the morning I heard a noise like an ornament falling over which work me up. As I was lying in the dark trying to think what had happened I heard a high pitch squeak above my head. I grabbed the torch from under my pillow and sat up in bed. I could see an animal about 4 inches long in the mosquito net right over my head. I leapt out of bed – I wasn’t going to sit underneath an unknown creature. When I looked in the mosquito net I could see it was a bat. My heart sank; I thought what on earth am I going to do with this? I didn’t really relish the idea of picking it up with my hands and what if it bites me – had it got rabies????

I looked out of the window to see if anyone else was up and about to help me – normally I would not be on my own but it had to be tonight. Obviously at 4 in the morning everyone else is fast asleep. I wondered about going up to the gate to get the security guard but felt it probably wasn’t a good idea in my pyjamas.

I decided the thickest cloth was the oven gloves – so I got them from the kitchen to try and pick it up to take it outside. The little bat held on for dear life to the mosquito net and wasn’t budging – then it decided to flap and fly away just over my head but it flew into the wall and landed stunned back on the mosquito net – not my favourite moment. When I tried to pick it up I didn’t really like the sensation of the small creature trembling in my hands and I was still afraid it might bite me.  

I wandered around the house for a few minutes looking for some inspiration and then spied the waste paper basket which is made from plastic with lots of holes up the side. I emptied the contents into a bowl and then got an old towel. I gradually managed to persuade the bat to inch forward into the bin and put the towel over the top to stop it from flying away.  Then I took it outside and managed to get it to crawl out onto a bush.

Just in case there are any sceptics amongst you I did get a photograph. (Yes that’s my socks hanging up to dry).

We have a lot of bats in the roof in the day time and they roost in the tree outside the front door at night. They are very noisy and fight a lot with each other, as we walk along the path they flap overhead, and don’t really seem to like it if you shine a torch up into the tree. I think they are fruit bats but not really sure.

Mystery object  

As you seem to have guessed the mystery object is a solar cooker. It works best when a pot with a black exterior is used as a silver exterior reflects the rays. It works best for dried beans (that need a lot of cooking) if the water is brought to the boil first; it then simmers away when the sun is out. It reaches quite a hot temperature – one of the previous volunteers tried to warm water in a plastic bowl but it melted a big hole in the side of the bowl.