hippopotamus balconius

Lady Kiboko, who diligently supervises all human activities on the balcony, had an unpleasant encounter with wood worms (anobium punctatum) right after her birth.
Since all attempts to persuade these uninvited visitors to go away and look for another host failed, Mr Kamau wa Gitau suggested that I should bath her in kerosene for about a month. Which of course didn’t change anything except for Kamau, who ended up with 5ltrs. of free Kerosene.
One day she was asked to join me on my trip to Germany, where she would guard the balcony. Being exposed to an extreme climate over here, which ranges from a temperature of -20°C during winter time up to a maximum of +40°C in direct sunshine, the people from Woodwormistan eventually decided to come out of their hiding – covering Lady Kiboko’s warm belly with a fine layer of wood flour. Well…as an external incentive, I used some chemicals on her that would kill all remaining dudus, so in the end it was only her and her perforated belly – which I painted with some brown varnish (hence the dark colour).

And today, while cleaning up the balcony and preparing it for tomorrows Nyama Choma BBQ, I discovered this:

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A little plant growing out of the belly…

Author: jke

Hi, I am an engineer who freelances in water & sanitation-related IT projects at Saniblog.org. You'll also find me on Twitter @jke and Instagram.

3 thoughts on “hippopotamus balconius”

  1. That picture with the plant coming out its belly made me feel thiithii (I am not sure of the spelling or English translation)

    We have a wooden elephant, Rafiki, which didn’t seem to take to the English weather. It started cracking. We also had to use varnish. So far Rafiki has been fine.

  2. That is truly weird.

    The question Mama Junkyard did not ask though; how in the world did the holes get there?

    -Steve

  3. looks very nice!

    wait and you might have a nice collection of different kitchen-herbs growing out of her, i would love that

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