On Lizards and Blossoms and Other Random Thoughts

This is a collection of some random thoughts about things around my life here in Monrovia.

I’ve mentioned lizards before.  We have lots of lizards, though more on the old compound than on the new compound (so far at least).  It took me a bit of research, but I found out the name of the most interesting, and colorful, type of lizard around.  It’s the Red Headed Rock Agama (aka Common Agama; Rainbow Agama; Agama Agama).

Wikipedia says they’re pretty much insectivores, “Their incisor-like front teeth are designed for quick cutting and chewing of their prey.  They may also eat grass, berries, seeds and even the eggs of smaller lizards.”  They’re pretty small themselves, and I haven’t seen any really smaller lizards, but if wikipedia says so, it must be true.  There are also at least 37 species of the Read Headed Rock Agama.

So generally the ones around here have red to orange heads, purple/bluish bodies, and orange to yellow tails.  I’ve learned that the other lizards we see a lot around here, a bit smaller and brownish, are the females.  No wonder you often see the orange head ones chase after the brown ones - they’re not looking for dinner.  Sometimes when you’re walking around you’ll see this:

And as you get closer, they’ll start to scramble.  When they’re on the ground, they really move pretty fast. Apparently when they really get going they run primarily on their hind legs.  At the old embassy they would run for cover, but on my walk to the new embassy there are more buildings, so they’ll run along the sidewalk and then leap onto a wall and scamper up the wall.  I’ve seen them leap a 3’ gap between the sidewalk and an adjacent building. Pretty cool.

My colleague Kristin says she likes it when they do the “push-up thing” as she calls it.  It is pretty funny.  They’ll walk a bit, then stop and all of a sudden lift up their heads, pushing with their legs as well, then lower themselves, up and down and up and down.  Well, it’s not a workout thing.  Again Wikipedia: “During courtship, the male bobs his head to impress the female.”  I believe Wikipedia is correct on this point - Kristin sure was impressed.

I can’t really say whether I like the new embassy over the old one.  The old embassy compound has a lot of character.  Lush landscaping, lots of plants.  It’s laid-out like some 1930’s estate; the Ambassador’s residence is like something you’d see in Casablanca or any other old black and white movie.  The new embassy is pretty much barren though they’ve kept quite a few big trees on part of the compound.   The plantings are in, and some of it is taking root, but it will be a long while before I would want to just wander around the new compound.  But then again, the building is much nicer, and my workspace is great!  And the new embassy compound has the bats.  Bats or lizards?

Speaking about the bats, something got them going yesterday evening as I was leaving the chancery.  It was like someone had taken a dandelion and blew it, except the puff of seeds were bats.  They started flying out of all the trees and kept circling and circling, eventually circling around the chancery, around and around - the circle must have been a quarter mile around with bats flying in every which direction.  Think Hitchcock’s The Birds except with bats, and with none of them flying down low enough to make one fear for their lives.  All I can say is, “Wow!”

You really have to keep your eyes open for interesting plants around here.  Plants blossom for the shortest periods and in really odd places.  My suspicion is that plants blossom throughout the year (folks say some fruits are seasonal, and when asked when is pineapple season, you’ll be told year around) so some plants do so quickly.  I noticed it when one day I was walking and caught a glimpse of yellow from the corner of my eye.  I turned and sure enough a bush that had been green the day before had a bunch of yellow blossoms.  One day later they were all on the ground and the bush was all green again.  On the way to the Rec Hall where I hop on the internet, there’s this tree by the Ambassador’s residence.  It’s not a spectacular tree, perhaps 30’ tall, with several trunks.  Well, on one of the trunks, about 25’ up is this 6-armed, red flowering thing that seems to just come out of nowhere.  It’s like 5-6’ in diameter with branches about the thickness of a thumb.  Beautiful deep reds, but just odd looking.  Similar thing on the drive to Gbarnga - out of nowhere you’d see the strangest flowering trees and bushes.  I’ve learned that it’s definitely worth my while to pay close attention to the plants, and to look up and down.

What’s really kind of odd here is when it’s overcast.  Dark grey, heavy gloomy clouds.  It’s almost like there’s something wrong with it.  Of course it’s normal, it gets cloudy everywhere.  It’s just that even when there are clouds there are all sorts of trees and bushes and bats that remind me, “Hey! this is Africa!”  And I guess a small part of my brain keeps trying to say - but it’s never like this in the movies!  I don’t get the same feeling when there are billowy clouds in the sky.  So for what it’s worth, it gets overcast here too.

The birds are pretty interesting too.  The big predator around here are kites and we’ve got several of them.  I guess that one of the advantages of the new embassy compound is that it’s open enough to see the kites fly over vast distances.  Occasionally they do that play/challenge thing where they fly into each other and drop 50-100 feet with entangled claws before they break away and fly off in different directions.  You also know they’re around by their shrill calls.  This morning I was listening to one on my way to work.  It never took off, so I couldn’t figure out where it was.  On a couple of occasions, I’ve been talking with Ann later on in the evening, which meant that I was out on the rec hall deck because it was closed (you gotta love wireless).  There are a bunch of trees around the deck.  Twice so far I’ve had kites launch themselves from branches not 15-20 feet away, once it was a pair of them.  I’m sitting there oblivious typing away to ann and suddenly the branch sways down, the leaves rustle and this big body drops, unfurls its wings, takes a few big strokes and soars away.  Pretty impressive!  Yeah, it’s funny to watch the other birds when the kites are flying overhead.  One will pass and suddenly you’ll see a small bird take off from a tree in the opposite direction, flying as fast and as low as it can to get to another tree.  I guess I can’t blame it.  

Palm trees aren’t the same here as in Iraq.  Well, most aren’t.  Best I can tell, we have three types of palm trees.  One type is the typical tropical island, stark upward curve and pretty thin - almost as if they’re floating on air.  We have another type that is particularly interesting because they’re thicker in the middle than at the base or near the crown.  The more you look at it, the more odd it appears.  Then there’s a stout, solid-trunked palm tree that resembles those I saw in Iraq.  Pretty much they all look like they have coconuts, so I walk around them.  Man, wouldn’t that be strange, come to Liberia and get bonked by a coconut.

Well, I guess that’s enough of my random thoughts.  I’m sure more will follow.