Rodents and Grasshoppers

I saw my first mouse in Uganda on Friday in the slum by Nsambya. I saw my first rat today on campus--dead in the mouth of a cat. I haven't really thought about it, but given the climate and the availability of food, I would have expected to see more of a rodent population than I have. Shoot, I've seen more rodents in Chicago than here. The rats in Chicago are bigger than the one I saw this morning the the cat's mouth.

The most interesting thing I have learned about rodents is not part of my personal experience (thank God). People talk about edible rats. It sounds like an oxymoron to me. Edible and rat do not belong in the same paragraph, let alone in the same sentence.

Evidently, there are rats in some parts of the country that people eat. I guess meat is meat, but edible rat does not sound appetizing. I'd have to be really, really hungry with no other options to even consider eating a rat.

There is another delicacy I have no desire to try--grasshoppers. Saturday when Jessica, Hope's mother was showing us through the market there was a vendor sitting on the ground by her stand cleaning grasshoppers--cleaning, as in taking off all the appendages and putting them in a basket. People were coming to buy them. Grasshoppers are considered a delicacy. One that I will take a pass on.

Later on Saturday when Bry'Chell and I were in the bus, Richard, the driver, passed two bags to grasshoppers to his son, Michael. I think Michael was taking them home to his mother. I believe they're served fried.

Michael is one of Bry'Chell's friends. He's a nice boy who has been over to visit a couple of times. I told Bry'Chell that before she kisses any Ugandan boy she might want to think about what goes in his mouth.