chocolate covered termites

February 26th (part three)

I know my blog posts are full of great stories today, so I figured I would give ya one more for the long week ahead.

Two Friday’s have passed since I last took a walk past a soccer game at the school’s field. Lindsay and I passed by on our way to buy some vegetables when I stopped to look at some children catching bugs in the air. For the last two months there have been thousands of termites flying in the air. Lindsay tells me they are not termites because their wings are too long, but I don’t know what else they could be. They dig into the ground and their wings shed like termites. Umbege calls them termites and I am sticking with the fact that they are termits. Now, back to my story. I thought the kids were just playing, sort of like catching a lightening bug. I caught one proudly and showed the girl. She took it from my hand and put it in her mouth. I must have projected a shriek or something of the sort because everyone turned and stared at me. The children realized my horror and continued to catch and show me that they were eating them. I ran away. I caught up with Lindsay and told her and she didn’t believe me.

After buying bananas and tomatoes, we crossed back by the soccer field where we ran into some of our students. We asked them about the eating of the termites. One girl, Love, found a hole, picked up a termite, and plopped it into her mouth. Lindsay was horrified. We left the game shortly after that still talking about the bugs.

The termites have made a lasting impression in my mind, but I have tried to avoid thinking about it over this past week. Yesterday, I went to school all morning and taught my form two students. I planned to walk to a market in Ndembo with Umbege that afternoon but had a lazy day instead. It rained really hard that afternoon and I didn’t want to go trudging along footpaths in the mud. Around 5:30, I went for a walk. Most days, I try to go for a run on the main road but I was in the mood for a walk and knew I would have trouble with all the mud. After thirty minutes on the road, I reached the only village on my walk: Chija. The entire village was out picking termites out of the ground. The old women asked me to join them and I refused. A man came up, grabbed my arm, and tried to convince me to eat the termites. I think, at least, that is what he was doing. He was speaking in really fast Swahili and I just kept saying sorry and that I don’t like. Everyone stopped to watch my reaction and laugh at the situation. Eventually, I got free and continued to walk. I passed the bend in the road and found these two small boys. They were bent over the side of the road picking up termites and putting them in their mugs. I wonder if the termites are better on the outskirt of the village…?!

Today, I am inside hiding from the torrential downpour that we’ve had since last night. There was a two hour break this afternoon in which I washed my laundry but it has failed to seize ever since. My laundry is nice and wet inside my house and hopefully will dry by morning. During the break in rain, I went outside to find the flowers on my zucchini plants have finally sprouted! Also, there was a mini-landslide outside our house but no damage came from it. Other than that, just a lot of rain and a lot of mud to hold me over for the weekend!

Love,

Gretchen