Cute but not cuddly!

These guys look innocent enough but they are extremely poisonous. It's one of the first things they warn visitors about when they first come to Uganda.  One of the teachers told me her arm felt like it was on fire and she got dizzy and was sick for 3 days.  Everyone who is touched by one talks about the burning sensation.  So you can imagine our distress after we got all set up for Bible School (VBS) and Jonas looked up.....

Thousands of them hatching out of their shells, ready to drop at any given moment.  On each branch, you looked, hundreds grouped together in black blobs.  We have never been here in June before, so we've always missed their hatching season.

When we sing the song, "Lord let your glory fall" we need to change the words to "Lord don't let your caterpillars fall".  This is the spot they designated for us and it truly is the "perfect" spot in every other aspect...it is the largest level spot of ground to put all the benches in the shade, it is attached to the field where we play the games, and it is right next to a covered porch where we can store the benches at night and quickly duck if a sudden rain storm hits (that is something else new to us this time around...June is the end of their rainy season and we've only come in July in the past).
     Fortunately we made it through the first day of VBS with no droppings from above and then that evening they sprayed them all with chemicals and the next morning we found a carpet of dead caterpillars on the ground!