Meet the moot-moots

After joining the kids one morning to see off their dad on a supply trip to Kumba, we returned to the schoolroom and resumed our work. Suddenly, I noticed little red spots up and down my arm. It looked like I'd been attacked by a pink marker, or had developed a case of chicken pox -- but only on exposed skin. I was puzzled, but saw no cause for extreme alarm unless it spread everywhere or didn't go away in a day or two.

At lunch, the mystery was solved when one of the girls noted, "oh, you got bitten by the moot-moots!" Apparently, they're tiny biting flies that are at their worst mid-morning -- exactly when we were outside. To my very great surprise (and initial puzzlement), the bites weren't itchy at all, but apparently I'm lucky that way. Some people don't find them the slightest bit itchy while others nearly go mad.