Uvumilivu Hula Mbivu

This is Swahili proverb meaning - 'patience eats ripe fruit'. Continuing my reflection in my morning post, I recall the time I was done with the construction of the new mission in Kiabakari back in July 1992 and as I was sitting in the house on the barren hill, I kept asking myself - 'when will I hear the singing of birds, playing in the trees around my house?' There were no trees at all on the hill at that time as you can see on these pictures taken in 1992 around the time of the official opening of the mission (July 28, 1992)...

I had to wait several long years, but eventually, when the trees I planted on the slopes of the hill grew up to the size which encouraged local birds to come visiting, my patience was rewarded at last... And this morning as I was working in the office, the noise of tens if not hundreds of birds of various sizes, getting on with their daily business, quarreling, calling each other, chasing through the branches, singing and dating - was the most beautiful music to my ears ever! The hill is covered now with tress and shrubs, a real paradise for many species of birds... Truly - 'Uvumilivu hula mbivu!'

Among those birds are my two favorite - my longtime friend I called Angry Bird who never looks at me but sits on a branch or power lines and just looks straight ahead full of himself...

The second is an owl - living by the house and making herself/himself heard - mainly at night and dusk / twilight hours with its ominous voice. Hard to get a good picture of the Wise Bird, the one I like is this I took just recently in the morning when the Wise Bird sat on the water tower and was contemplating a sunrise...