where do butterflies go when it rains?

For the second night in the row we are still awake at midnight. I know, I know- we are grown ups and that is pretty normal for people who aren't ten and all, but...this is the jungle. We sleep in a hut made of bamboo with palm fronds for a roof. It is glorified camping and everybody knows that when you are camping your days are determined by the sun. And here the sun sets at 7.30. So what's going on??

Yesterday we worked (quite) hard, digging holes and building stone paths and transplanting some peachy hued flowers, and so we celebrated our physicality with a few hard-earned beers. So we were still awake at midnight.

Tonight it was the Our Home talent show (the initiative of some visiting Americans) and we watched our kids sing and dance and impress and entertain us all. Then I played an abysmal (on my part- my 10 year old opponent had nothing to be ashamed of) game of chess and we ate rice with green banana curry and turmeric spiced curd. And then we drank TicTac flavoured vodka. And so we are still awake at midnight.  

And elsewhere...We have been building huts and learning Indian curries (soon there will be a book, illustrations and all) and playing playing playing. Chess, mud soccer and skipping are what's what at the moment. Between us we have it covered. Will is all over the chess; my game is, as I said, abysmal, an embarrassment to the sport. I think I'll stick to skipping. The other night Neha and I did 100 tandem skips. The fact that she and Will managed 248 does not dampen my spirits. I am good at skipping. We have been dodging the monsoon, and admiring the rainbow of enormous butterflies that flit about the plants in front of our huts when the monsoon rests. Now I know where butterflies go when it rains (does anybody else remember that book?). They hide under the leaves of the benevolent trees. Or, if they are unlucky or unprepared, they freak out and fly like mad things through fingernail sized raindrops.

And so it goes with our family in the jungle. Our Home is starting to feel more and more like our home and I am beginning to get worried about how hard it is going to be to leave this place, these people. But that is a fret for future me...right now I am happy to enjoy the love and smiles and insanity of this family of forty.

And this table- the very first thing we built here and of which we are inordinately proud. As you can see...(there isn't a lot you can't do if you have coconut rope and electrical tape.)

p.s. now you can  Follow my blog with Bloglovin