Grasshoppers

Early yesterday morning, Sister Rose (one of my students) and I were walking back from mass at the cathedral. We don't usually go to the cathedral, but there's no more mass at the Social Center since most of the classes are over and the students gone.

It's not far, maybe a couple of blocks, if there were blocks. It's right up the street at the top of the hill. In the old days the Buganda king gave a hill to each of the major religious groups, so the Protestants have a hill, the Muslims have a hill and the Catholics have a hill, each with their respective edifices perched at the top.

Anyway we were walking back from mass when we saw a grasshopper leaping/flying through the air. Rose asked if we have grasshoppers in the United States. "Yes," I replied. "We do."

"Do you eat them."

"No, we don't."

I wasn't especially surprised by the question since my friend, Fr. Modest and I had had a very similar discussion a week or so ago. Actually, that conversation was about the scarcity of grasshoppers this season and how it was creating tension in some communities. People were upset because some people had grasshoppers and others didn't. Grasshoppers are considered something of a delicacy and those who missed out were unhappy about their loss.

What's weird about the whole discussion is the sheer normality of the conversations. Modest and Rose are intelligent, well-educated, entertaining folks. They're friends of mine. It's just that they have a broader perspective on edible protein than my American palate recognizes.

If anything, I feel sort of ignorant in not appreciating the delicacy that is clearly valued by some perfectly normal, rational human beings.

By the way, grasshoppers are served fried.