Not your average playground

The highlight of Saturday morning’s playground duty was the discovery of this chameleon which happened to fall out of a tree. A group of about 8 boys put it into a box with some leaves (picture 2) to observe it carefully. It was amazing!
There is something incredible about creation, and the chameleon is one of God’s special tricks. The 2 pictures are of the same creature. It really did change its skin patterns and colour before our very eyes! These are survival techniques at their finest.
We let it run along a wall (picture 1) and it has the oddest way of walking, like it’s hesitant at every step and has to double take. Its eyes are constantly looking all around.
The boys took it to a tree nearby and set it free and in under a minute it had blended in with the green leaves and was gone. It was a completely beautiful colour. Amazing!
I was also amazed at the way the children handled it. Given the excitement with which they set about attacking snakes, it was great to witness a big contrast. The boys were so gentle and quiet with it, which was brilliant.
About an hour later, however, the same group of boys all leapt out of the swimming pool in terror at the sighting of little frog in the water! Weird what they are afraid of! I had a very similar frog in my kitchen the other evening. Having failed to catch it before it disappeared behind my cupboard, I resolved to let it live in peace and to give it a name, which somehow takes away the scariness of the thought of it in my house… So, Bernard the frog might be the same one who decided to go swimming today, although he’d need to be fit, it’s a fair walk down to the pool!

PS: apparently, I’ve just found out, the Zulus are afraid of frogs because they are often followed by snakes…