Grasshoppers and Line Crossing

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Sleeping in is nice! Really nice. We sort of woke up whenever, with not much of an agenda today, just a short drive. Sarah and I watched some country music videos as we packed. 11:30 was set as the launching time, which turned into 12:30. Auntie Bev stayed behind, in the hotel with high ceilings and towels big enough to wrap around you, as she is hopefully having surgery tomorrow, or possibly early next week. Ideally, she’ll be able to join us again soon.

A quick excursion to Wal-Mart, again, and lunch, and Lowe’s. On our way to running errands, where I was going to replace my sunglasses that had gone missing in Fayetteville, Kyle called me to tell me he’d found them! Oh yea!

Drive went well. Some sleep, but not as I would’ve liked. Then some reading and writing. The usual. Arrived at the new hotel in College Station, veged for a bit, off to dinner (after some parking lot dancing.) Several of our rooms are joined by doors in between, and we found out I don’t fit between them. Not of the children we tried to either 😉 but they all wanted to give it a shot!

The bus ride was fun. Vivian was my seat mate and she could not remember my name. The kids started giving me different names. Auntie Blond Hair. Auntie In A Box came back. I showed her butterfly kisses, which she liked, except they tickled her, which was kind of the point.

At dinner, I chatted with Auntie Harriet about living in Uganda. She said the hardest part about being here for her is that some days are longer than others. Uganda is on the equator, so everything is pretty much the same; I guess days between seasons only change about 20 minutes in length, which you can’t really notice. This is good, she tells me, because not everyone has a clock, so people judge when to do things by the sun and shadows. She also talked about the heat. Here, according to her, it gets really hot and you can’t function. In Uganda, it gets pretty hot, but is quite humid, so in the shade, it actually gets cool.

Then we got to talking about food. Brenda was eating shrimp and I asked if they have that in Uganda. Harriet explained that lots of people from home would not eat it, thinking it’s gross, but there are lots of things they love that Westerners would never consider eating. Like what? Grasshoppers. At mention of this (I can’t remember what they called it) all the kids at our table got really excited. Harriet said that if I had a plate of these, none of the kids would eat anything else, not even dessert. They eat them fried, and seem to be just a bit bigger than our hoppers, just about 2 inches long. Taste like pork, according to Brenda. And White Ants. There are lots of types of these, some you fry, some you eat plain. Each village cooks them differently and has different insects they cook.

Then the girls asked if I’d ever had awfuls- cow intestine. Apparently they’re amazing. I told them that we don’t eat them, but in Scotland, they have a dish called haggis which is all the insides of a lamb. This totally grossed them out (go figure) so Kyle joined the conversation. The girls kept telling us how great awfuls are, and Kyle described haggis to 4 wide-eyed children. He’s had awfuls, in a host family in England, who described it as “beef” to him. Apparently it’s smooth on the outside and rough like you’d imagine a lion’s tongue on the inside. Neither sound particularly appealing, but I told them that if I’m ever in Uganda, I will try their insects.

There’s a billiard hall near by, so most of the crew went over for a few games. Kyle and I were playing 9 ball, and I shot and then looked at them and made some comment to him. Both their jaws dropped. I looked at the table and said, “Did I get one?” Yes. So I go to shoot again, and Kyle says, “Jami, which ball is missing from the table?” I won! (In 9 ball, you have to get the 9 ball in to win, but you have to hit the lowest ball first.) We then proceeded back the hotel where we smelled thoroughly smokey. When Anne got sick in KY, her doctor got on her about her smoking habits. She then didn’t smoke again, until she went home for a break, but only smoked a few, and hasn’t smoked since then. We are very proud of her! Sarah and I are split up again, so Kyle hosted the evening. Good times, and Sharye got to join us!

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Comments

[dave]

Food
To a man who gets little variety in his diet now days, grass hoppers might be good to have. Don't forget a little tripe, cows stomach. Miss your cookies, Dave