Once the rains came, everything came alive in Uganda. It was like night and day. The seeming desert would bloom and everything would turn green. Cool breezes would blow at night. The air would be cleaned of all the dust. Most important the “white ants” would come.
We heard it one night. The sounds of celebration could be heard from every direction. It was really amazing. Singing, banging on drums, fires lit all around. We couldn’t figure it out until our chef, Vincent, told use what was happening.
Every year after the rains began; the white ants (flying mind you) would emerge in huge clouds from their nests. The children, who pluck them from the air, pull the wings off and eat them, consider these a huge treat. The adults will set up traps to capture them in bulk as they come out. These are either toasted to preserve them a little longer or simply eaten.
Most African love them. A few adventurous Americans try them, and find they taste a bit like peanuts, or wood chips… either way, I wasn’t interested. We would get them in huge numbers inside our house. After a few hours of flying around, their wings would fall off and we would sweep them up. At times we would collect mounds of them 6 inches high and a foot or more across.
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