Stories of Alexander the Great, part 1

I volunteer at the site of a former builders tip/landfill. It's a huge mound of barely buried construction refuse on a small part of what used to be Tom Thumb's lagoon (What once was 500 hectares of lagoon is now 5).

Some interesting men and women volunteer with me. One man I find particularly interesting is Michael (pictured above). He grew up in Postwar Macedonia/Yugoslavia . . . anyway, somewhere in the ballpark of where Alexander the Great was born.

But, Michael is at least almost as interesting as Alexander the Great. I'll share one story today and more later.

Michael is telling me while we're eating lunch that yesterday he was working on his hill again up in the trees and tall kikuyu grass as primary/elementary school children were walking along the path below. As they were following their teacher, the five and six year olds looked neither to the right nor to the left. But Michael was hiding in the grass just a few feet above them in the tree shadows watching them like a tiger. Somewhere on the left (in the picture) is where Michael was hiding. He slowly raised up so that if they looked, they'd be able to see him from the nose up. One girl with spider like senses turned to the left suddenly. As she looked right at the wild looking man in the grass, he sunk smoothly back down into hiding. But he could still see her through the tall blades of grass. She mentioned what she'd seen to her classmates who all stopped and started staring into the grass trying to find him. Some of them, of course, didn't know why they were stopped and were just looking around at butterflies or asking the person next to them, "Why are we stopped?" So, this little girl was busy telling and the news was passing down the line.

Michael said eventually the teacher, a male, came over to the girl who'd witnessed the bush animal. She made the teacher bend down so she could whisper in his ear. The teacher looked into the grass as she pointed to where she'd surely seen whatever it was. At which point Michael slowly raised up once more so that he was only visible to them from the nose up. At which point a boy looking intently to where the girl was pointing shouted, "TARZAN!" Then, there was more great commotion as everyone saw what the little girl had witnessed. The line moved on anyhow and Michael was left laughing in the grass before he got back to work pulling invasive species out or planting or whatever it is he does on his hill.