Malawian Delicacy

It was almost dinner time and we were all hungry, but we couldn't eat because we were in the van headed home to SAFI. Suddenly Akim and Dr. Steele notice a farmer standing by the side of the road selling a Malawian delicacy--field mice. John said he'd try it, so we pulled over. We bought a whole stick of field mice for 300K (less than a $1).

The farmers catch these bad boys in the fields and gut them. Then they boil them and roast them, and sell them by the side of the road for a little extra cash. You just eat them. Everything. Everything.

John didn't eat one. He said he didn't know they would still have fur on them, which you know, is fair enough. We didn't make him eat one.

Field mice.

Mhmmm.

Somehow the stick got passed to the back of the van where I was sitting, despite never having asked for it.

So that's the story of how I got to hold one end of the mouse stick the entire way back to SAFI. I got to smell it for at least an hour, and let me tell you, the smell of wet, roasted mouse fur is nauseating.

When we finally got back to SAFI, Adam handed the stick full of mice to Chimango and said we'd gotten her a gift. Chimango is one of the college-educated Malawian interns, and she's something of a city girl. She looked at him and said, "I don't eat that."

We explained that we were just joking, and she laughed. She told us she could find somebody who would be happy to eat it, so we ended up giving her the stick of mice, as none of the interns (including myself) were interested in trying even a bite. I will try crickets and bugs, but field mice with fur is too much.