and this wasn't unintentional, it was on purpose!! It's pretty shocking that the self-proclaimed pickiest eater in the western hemisphere, ate a grasshopper! But now here's the thing: the next time anyone tries to make me try mayonnaise or anything else absolutely disgusting my response will be: "go eat a grasshopper and then come back and talk to me". So by eating this grasshopper I've pretty much secured myself from ever having to eat anything I know I won't like, ever again.
Okay so lets back up and I'll tell you the whole story of how I got to eating a grasshopper.
Ever since I've been back in Kampala, a little bit over a week now, everyone in the city has been selling grasshoppers and it just came out of nowhere. The first time I noticed this was when I was in the taxi park and this guy came up to my window and asked me if I wanted to buy crickets, and I was like what? Did I hear him right? And yes, yes I did. People eat grasshoppers here, and there's actually a grasshopper season, that's why it just seemed like they came out of nowhere. I wasn't too bothered by it because I wasn't expecting my family to bring them home....
I woke up Saturday morning, strolled into the kitchen to find my mom, my 2 sisters, and one of my brothers circled around this huge bowl of big green grasshoppers. They were removing the wings and feet, and when they saw me they said:"have you ever eaten a grasshopper". I was so terrified in that moment that all I could do was laugh and say people where I'm from don't eat grasshoppers! I spent the whole day afraid that I would be served them for lunch or dinner, but luckily I was not.
After dinner my mom and I were talking about them and she asked me if I wanted to try one. Knowing this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to eat a grasshopper, and knowing how much this would shock everyone back home, I said yes. She pulled out a bag full of them, they were cooked mind you. I asked her how she cooks them, and she said they fry them in a pot over the fire, but I wouldn't call it frying, because I was hoping for a tempura style grasshopper, where you wouldn't actually be able to tell what it was. But no, it had just changed colors from a bright green, to a yellowish/brown. And the little beady eyes were staring at me!
She instructed me to pull off the legs if there were any remaining and she said I could take off the head since its a little more tough than the rest of it. So I did what she said, relieved I didn't actually have to eat the head with the beady eyes. And then I ate it! And believe it or not...it wasn't half bad! I wouldn't say its my new favorite snack, but it could have been far worse. It tasted a little salty and was a little crunchy but other than that it wasn't terrible.
So there is my grasshopper story! I feel like now I could go on fear factor and win some money no problem!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Summary of the last 3 weeks....
So I've been trying to decide what to write about the last 3 weeks and its really hard to think of the words to summarize my experience at Kyangwali Refugee Settlement. I wish it were easier to explain than it is. And I think I'm going to have an even harder time trying to explain to people in person what this experience was like without having the person also experience it. If I could choose 3 words to describe it, I guess I'd say it was: heart-wrenching, challenging, and amazing.
It was heart-wrenching because as an outsider looking in, its incredibly difficult to imagine the life of a refugee. A poster I saw in one of the NGO offices I visited summed it up pretty well by saying, "A refugee wishes to have your problems". To see these people who are completely out of their element, who have been randomly moved to this settlement, and expected to carry on their lives like nothing happened to them is what was heart-wrenching for me. Then to be interviewing unaccompanied minors, whose parents were killed in the Congo, and some of them witnessed the death of their mom or dad, and be in a position where they are asking you advice for how they can get money to go to school is heart-wrenching to me. And then to have to tell them that you're just a student and you're not in any position back home to be able to support them or to be able to lobby for their resettlement in the US is even more difficult.
This experience was challenging because I've never been so acutely aware of my skin color, and the incredible meaning behind what it means to be white, until being surrounded by refugees who have no power or voice in this world, and who look to you, the mzungu (white person), like you are there to fix all their problems and knowing that I can't. During one of the home visits, the UNHCR official I was working with told me this family said they felt so blessed that I had come to their home because I was like an angel to them. It was very hard to then leave, go back to my semblance of a normal life at the guesthouse on the settlement, knowing full well that I couldn't save them or provide any salvation from their suffering. I started to feel like being white was almost an additional burden I carry here in Africa, because it alludes to so many expectations that I cannot fulfill and it breaks my heart that the world is set up in such a way that it is only the white person who can come in and fix Africa's problems.
In the end, the 3 weeks at Kyangwali were amazing because I learned so much from the minors I spoke to and the people I met that I would never regret going there. Everyone I met, from the UNHCR people, to the children I interviewed, were incredibly gracious and welcoming and I will miss all the people I met there. I hope to remember all the stories I heard because I was so fortunate to be witness to the plight of refugees. One of the most inspirational moments I had there was through meeting my translator DJ who works for an organization called COBURWAS which stands for Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Sudan. It's a youth organization formed by refugees 4 years ago in order to improve the lives of the youth through leadership training and providing educational opportunities for the many orphans who do not have access to school. He was so nice, energetic, and optimistic about the future of youth here that it really made me feel like I could contribute something to the lives of the orphans here by contributing to the work of COBURWAS. He described the work of COBURWAS as a way for the people to not become a slave to the name refugee. He said people can be a refugee by name but not by action and it would be through refugees solving their own problems by working together that they could improve their lives. I thought that was a very powerful statement and I couldn't be more grateful that I had the opportunity to meet DJ and spend time learning so much from him. If you want to learn more about COBURWAS go to www.coburwas.org.
It was heart-wrenching because as an outsider looking in, its incredibly difficult to imagine the life of a refugee. A poster I saw in one of the NGO offices I visited summed it up pretty well by saying, "A refugee wishes to have your problems". To see these people who are completely out of their element, who have been randomly moved to this settlement, and expected to carry on their lives like nothing happened to them is what was heart-wrenching for me. Then to be interviewing unaccompanied minors, whose parents were killed in the Congo, and some of them witnessed the death of their mom or dad, and be in a position where they are asking you advice for how they can get money to go to school is heart-wrenching to me. And then to have to tell them that you're just a student and you're not in any position back home to be able to support them or to be able to lobby for their resettlement in the US is even more difficult.
This experience was challenging because I've never been so acutely aware of my skin color, and the incredible meaning behind what it means to be white, until being surrounded by refugees who have no power or voice in this world, and who look to you, the mzungu (white person), like you are there to fix all their problems and knowing that I can't. During one of the home visits, the UNHCR official I was working with told me this family said they felt so blessed that I had come to their home because I was like an angel to them. It was very hard to then leave, go back to my semblance of a normal life at the guesthouse on the settlement, knowing full well that I couldn't save them or provide any salvation from their suffering. I started to feel like being white was almost an additional burden I carry here in Africa, because it alludes to so many expectations that I cannot fulfill and it breaks my heart that the world is set up in such a way that it is only the white person who can come in and fix Africa's problems.
In the end, the 3 weeks at Kyangwali were amazing because I learned so much from the minors I spoke to and the people I met that I would never regret going there. Everyone I met, from the UNHCR people, to the children I interviewed, were incredibly gracious and welcoming and I will miss all the people I met there. I hope to remember all the stories I heard because I was so fortunate to be witness to the plight of refugees. One of the most inspirational moments I had there was through meeting my translator DJ who works for an organization called COBURWAS which stands for Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Sudan. It's a youth organization formed by refugees 4 years ago in order to improve the lives of the youth through leadership training and providing educational opportunities for the many orphans who do not have access to school. He was so nice, energetic, and optimistic about the future of youth here that it really made me feel like I could contribute something to the lives of the orphans here by contributing to the work of COBURWAS. He described the work of COBURWAS as a way for the people to not become a slave to the name refugee. He said people can be a refugee by name but not by action and it would be through refugees solving their own problems by working together that they could improve their lives. I thought that was a very powerful statement and I couldn't be more grateful that I had the opportunity to meet DJ and spend time learning so much from him. If you want to learn more about COBURWAS go to www.coburwas.org.
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