A Chadian Treat

When the centre doctor walks up to you with a mischievous grin, brown paper bag in hand and then says, “I have a Chadian treat for you to try,” you know you’re about to experience something out of the ordinary...

From previous conversations with other SIL folk, we quickly decided this was likely to be an edible insect, however the doctor wan't about to give anything away. Katie was first...

[German accent] "Close your eyes and open you mouth. John, you can't watch!" With an ominous rustle of her paper bag the doctor put the treat in Katie's mouth. At that very moment, Katie could feel exactly what she had gotten herself into. Hesitantly, she began to chew, the crunching making her squirm and shiver, until the 'treat' crunched no longer.

Now it was John’s turn. While the doctor was sifting through her paper bag excitedly for the perfect morsel, John waited with eyes closed and mouth open, uneasy anticipation written all over his face. The doctor then took her choice specimen and put it in his mouth. With a slight inkling of what he was about to eat, John hesitantly began to chew. 

The chilling crunch also caused John to shiver but it wasn’t enough to deter him. After missing the photo opportunity from the first try, even though he now knew what he was eating, he ate another.

While there was a slight earthly taste, the crunch resembled that of fried chicken wings. We had just eaten our first fried and salted grasshoppers!

Meanwhile, Aunty Elly came out to see why there was intermittent flashes of light [the camera] and laughter out on her verandah. As if the two grasshoppers weren’t enough, John went for a third, together with the doctor and Aunty Elly, who had managed to avoid eating grasshoppers ever since she first came to Africa in 1992! We got the photos to prove she has now taken the plunge.

John, our SIL doctor and Aunty Elly - crunch, crunch!

Apparently, fried grasshoppers are out of season at the moment, so it was very kind of the doctor to share hers (given to her as a gift) with us. She did seem to enjoy watching us squirm
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