Typically when we're wandering around temples there are lots of monkeys, too, but this week we haven't seen any yet. Inside my house, I always see a bunch of small lizards and spiders of various sizes, but typically I don't allow the larger spiders in my bedroom to stay. I'm very happy to say that there aren't any mosquitoes in my room, though, despite there being a bunch of mosquitoes outside, especially in the morning and at night.
When we were exploring the Bouddhanath stupa, on one side of the stupa we saw an area filled to the brim with pigeons. A few were sitting, but many were slightly hovering over the ground. They seemed to move as a unit, flowing through the wind like a wave. With a big gust of wind, they all flocked in one direction. Soon afterwards they all flocked back in the other direction and gently floated back to their original area. I asked why all of the pigeons were around, and there seem to be two ideas. One reason is because people really enjoy watching and feeding the birds. The second reason is that people believe that if the birds poop on the wooden structures, then termites won’t eat the wood. In that case, it’s a bit of a symbiotic relationship. The birds get fed and in return, their poop keeps the wood from rotting out.
First, I’ve noticed the crop season is beginning to change again! When we first arrived, the mango season was ending and all of the corn fields were up and waiting to be harvested. Now all of the corn has been harvested, and we’ve been eating slightly different vegetables with our meals.
