After the rain

I haven’t seen the sun for more than a half hour or so over the past three days. In that time, we’ve had over 160mm of rain. That’s almost half the average annual rainfall for Okahandja in only 3 days. The river’s flowing for only the second time in over 20 years. And with the rains come some special treats.

There is a giant mushroom that grows out of the huge termite mounds only after it rains. I’m not a mushroom fan myself, but they’re considered a specialty here in Namibia. Also after it rains, out come the ‘mopane worms’ (named because they feed on the mopane [pronounced mo-pon-ie] tree). On the way into church this morning everyone was headed out to the bush with their buckets to fill with the large caterpillars of the emperor moth. They’re quite plentiful, so you could conceivably find up to 10-20 on one bush. They puke up this green juice when you try to pluck them off the branch, kind of like a toad will pee on you when you pick it up. The harvesters will take them home in these big buckets, squeeze out the guts, dry them in the sun, then fry them up for eating. Apparently it’s an excellent source of protein.

After church today, Buddy, Julia and I went out mopane worm hunting for ourselves. We collected a pretty good bag full. Julia knows a couple different ways to prepare them so they invited me back tonight to join them for the fruits of our labor!