The other night, Jennifer and I were sitting in our room having a good discussion at about 10pm when this large flying bug suddenly appeared fluttering around our light bulb. We immediately sprayed it with DOOM and proceeded to chase it around the room until we finally killed it. A few minutes later, however, we noticed that there was another of these large, winged creatures buzzing sporadically around the room. We chased it down and killed it, only to realize that there was now ANOTHER one to kill! We realized that these bugs were coming in from the crack under the door, and as we were looking at the door, probably ten of the bugs began to crawl in under the door, one right after the other! We began our valiant effort to kill all of the bugs, running crazily around the room swatting at bugs and spraying DOOM at all of them. Finally, we had killed all of the strange bugs and Jennifer said, “What is this? A PLAGUE?” We laughed about it and finished our conversation in peace.
A little bit later, Jennifer went outside and I could hear her gasp from inside the room. I went out to see what had happened, and I saw one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen! Three of the others were sitting under a mosquito net at one end of the verandah, and at the other end of the verandah—right next to our doorway—there was a massive swarm of bugs! Thousands of these bugs were swarming all over the porch, the wall, the doorframe, a desk sitting next to the door, and the light at that end of the porch. There were thousands more swarming all over the ground right beyond the porch. Jennifer said, “I was just joking when I said this was a plague, but I think it really is a plague!” The other three were watching the whole spectacle from the comfort of the mosquito net, and apparently they had just turned the porch light off, enticing all of the bugs to attack our window and door. This is when we experienced the onslaught of bugs coming in under the doorframe.
The following morning, we found out that every year, thousands of these bugs, which are actually African termites, come up out of their holes in the ground. They fly around in huge swarms when the weather gets cooler, then they shed their wings and crawl back to their holes. Unfortunately, not all of the termites did this during the first day of cool weather, but instead, we had a second termite invasion about a week later. The most interesting part of this whole escapade is that the Dinka eat the termites. After the wings fall off, the Dinka collect the termites and fry them. We ate termite at a house the day after the second invasion, and they are not too bad…kind of crunchy, and they taste a bit like corn nuts!
Through this whole experience, I have gained a newfound appreciation for what a plague of locusts might have been like. Not a pleasant experience, for sure!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
So what shall I do?
I learned two things from my supervisors shortly before we left to go to Zambia. Both pieces of advice have come in so handy during my short time in Africa.
First, my supervisor's wife told us to always make your luggage appear light, regardless of what it weighs. This is so true. Frequently, we have arrived at the airport knowing that our luggage was a pound or two over the weight limit. If you look as though you are struggling with it, they will make you weigh it. If you look as though you could run a mile with the pack on your back, they will smile and let you pass without weighing the bag. This, of course, would never work in the United States, but in Africa, anything goes.
Secondly, she told us to always remember the phrase, “What shall I do?” This is an incredibly helpful phrase as it gives the African the ability to decide how THEY want to solve the problem…rather than having an American tell them what they want to see happen. It is really quite effective. For instance, the first night that we were at the resort at the end of 40/40, I left my room at about five in the evening and didn’t return until after dinner at about 8. When I came back, I found my room completely flooded with about an inch of standing water flowing from under the door. My toilet was leaking. I immediately went to the manager of the hotel and told him the problem. His response to the situation was, “Well…the man who fixes those kinds of things is gone for the night, so we will fix it in the morning.” And that was all he was going to do about it. After informing him politely but firmly that I would not stay in a room that was flooded that badly, he realized that he was going to have to do something about it. He followed me to the room and was shocked to find the room in the exact state that I had told him he would find it. He then said, “Well, I do not know what to do. We have no rooms available to put you.” At this point, I remembered my supervisor's wife's advice and pulled out the “well, what shall I do?” phrase. It worked like a charm. After I asked him what I should do, he immediately said, “Well, now that I think about it, we may have one room…come with me.” Within five minutes, I had a new room and the water problem was solved. Amazing!
First, my supervisor's wife told us to always make your luggage appear light, regardless of what it weighs. This is so true. Frequently, we have arrived at the airport knowing that our luggage was a pound or two over the weight limit. If you look as though you are struggling with it, they will make you weigh it. If you look as though you could run a mile with the pack on your back, they will smile and let you pass without weighing the bag. This, of course, would never work in the United States, but in Africa, anything goes.
Secondly, she told us to always remember the phrase, “What shall I do?” This is an incredibly helpful phrase as it gives the African the ability to decide how THEY want to solve the problem…rather than having an American tell them what they want to see happen. It is really quite effective. For instance, the first night that we were at the resort at the end of 40/40, I left my room at about five in the evening and didn’t return until after dinner at about 8. When I came back, I found my room completely flooded with about an inch of standing water flowing from under the door. My toilet was leaking. I immediately went to the manager of the hotel and told him the problem. His response to the situation was, “Well…the man who fixes those kinds of things is gone for the night, so we will fix it in the morning.” And that was all he was going to do about it. After informing him politely but firmly that I would not stay in a room that was flooded that badly, he realized that he was going to have to do something about it. He followed me to the room and was shocked to find the room in the exact state that I had told him he would find it. He then said, “Well, I do not know what to do. We have no rooms available to put you.” At this point, I remembered my supervisor's wife's advice and pulled out the “well, what shall I do?” phrase. It worked like a charm. After I asked him what I should do, he immediately said, “Well, now that I think about it, we may have one room…come with me.” Within five minutes, I had a new room and the water problem was solved. Amazing!
Clash of the Cultures!
During our village homestay, our hostess, Agness, provided us with a loaf of bread to eat for breakfast. This loaf had been partially eaten by a rat, and the remaining portion was feeding several cockroaches. We decided to swap out the nasty, unopened loaf in favor of a clean loaf we had opened earlier in the weekend. We finished off that loaf and threw away the wrapper. Unfortunately, Agness came back in, saw that the first loaf had not been touched, and left in a huff, thinking we had not eaten anything! We finally realized that she was upset with us because she thought we didn’t want to eat her food, so we apologized profusely and told her numerous times how we thought she fed us so well! Then we gave her a cultural lesson from America as one of the girls told her, “In America, my mother always told me to finish the loaf and THEN open the second loaf…never open two loaves at once!” It eased the problem, but we all decided that if we were served the rat and cockroach loaf again, we would simply have to eat it!
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