Isabelle's Bat

Isabelle has bought a bat in the market and she is trying to remember how her mother used to cook them. This poses a problem for the author, who is working in Madagascar to protect the same animals that Isabelle likes to eat. The adventures of thirty years of living and working in Africa and the Caribbean are recounted in this amusing and highly original series of true stories by Martin Bush, who tells of his adventures with lemurs, bats, centipedes, and butterflies in Madagascar. We meet Isabelle, who eats bats and prefers lemurs in a pot; Mickey the Bamboo lemur, who likes to sit on your head; the magical but slightly alarming Aye-Aye, with its witch's finger; and last, but certainly not least, we learn of the medicinal properties of certain bodily fluids. Not all the tales are amusing; several are dramatic. The author was wounded by a terrorist attack in Khartoum, survived a home invasion in GuineaConakry, and describes what he witnessed in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake.

The author also recounts his years as a teenager at school in England, where he was responsible for a famous graffiti on the wall of his school-still remembered to this day-and his first teaching positions in Canada, the USA, and Trinidad, the most memorable of which was working with Dr. Erich Farber, a brilliant professor of solar energy at the University of Florida.

Martin Bush has led development projects in Djibouti, Sudan, Guinea, Egypt, Madagascar, and Haiti since 1988. His technical background in natural resources management, conservation, and climate change, coupled with a compelling and amusing writing style, make this book a one-of-a kind account by someone who not only wanted to explore the world, but sought ways to help solve its environmental problems as well.

All the events described in this book are true. A few names of friends and family who did not want to be identified have been changed.