Thunderstorms and Scorpions and Bats

When I was little, I used to be so scared of storms; to ease my fears, I was told that thunder was just God bowling in heaven. As I grew older, I came to love thunderstorms; I can sit by the window watching for hours. After four months, with literally less than 10 cumulative minutes of rain in all that time, this weekend brought the first spring thunderstorms of the season in KwaMhlanga. I didn’t realize how much I had missed them; I opened the window and happily enjoyed the smell of the rain in the air, the feel of the wind on my face, the show of lightening in the air (better than fireworks), and the roll of thunder. An hour later, I poured myself a glass of pinotage and continued sitting contentedly listening to the sound of rain hit the earth and the leaves rustling in the trees. Go Spring.
Another memory this week, I awoke and went to run a bath, when I noticed something in the tub…a spider, no, a scorpion! Ok, it was just a little thing (maybe 3 cm long) and I easily squashed it with my shoe, but I really don’t remember anyone mentioning scorpions. At work, I asked about this and was told yes, there are scorpions in SA. They asked the color, I replied brown, and was told this was good, the black ones are the ones to watch out for. Good to know. (But really, seriously, I don’t remember being told about scorpions…)
Also this week, I took my grade 10s to SciEnza, a science center at the University of Pretoria. It was a beautiful day outside, not too hot, and clear blue skies. They had a great time on the way to town, the taxi buses were literally bouncing with learners jiving with the music. Once we arrived, we sat down for a science lecture with demonstrations. The lecture of the day was about sound waves. Very interesting. Did you know the sound of flat-lining at the hospital and the emergency testing sound is exactly 1000 Hz? Our ears are most sensitive to this particular frequency. Also, I learned that bats (besides “hearing” very well) eat over 1000 insects an hour! In South Africa, it is actually against the law to kill bats because they help keep the mosquito and moth populations under control. After the lecture, learners were able to play around with all sorts of science equipment and puzzles. They had so much fun and were genuinely interested in everything; I really had to work at getting them back to the buses a few hours later, they wanted to stay longer.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was seeing the camera obscura. I am a movie buff, love movies, and I remember seeing a movie called Addicted to Love (Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick), ok maybe not the best movie ever, but I remember being intrigued by the camera obscura (in the movie they it to spy on their exes). A camera obscura is a series of lenses that produces an accurate, real time image. It was used long ago for spying on enemy forces. Well, I finally was able to see one and it was pretty cool; I have to say, science rocks.