Cats, rats and other things..
I actually started replying to an old comment someone had left..and thought it may never get read there...so while I am waiting for my nummy apple crisp to finish baking, I will respond here.
As for the cat and bush rat, I didn't have much choice. The cat we were in the middle of nowhere...on an 18+ hour long bus trip...We actually had run over the cat, threw it into the back of the bus, and when we stopped at the border for the night (because the border isn't open late at night), we borrowed a pot from a villager nearby, and cooked it over a fire...it was an amazing experience actually. I was the only toubabou (white person) on the bus. Everyone was so excited to teach me different phrases in dioula and just to get to know me...It is likely my most "African" of my African experiences.
As for the bush rat, well, I was in a very small town for the weekend. We actually were staying at a hotel outside of town and had walked about 3 miles into town for dinner. We were looking for a maquis (an open air restaurant that usually serves chicken, fish, rice, etc..) but could only find bush restaurants. Bush restaurants cook one meal a day in a big pot. You eat whatever they are selling. We were so hungry by the time we got there, it was like our 3rd bush restaurant we had run into I think...so we sat down and had "agouti". The truth is, I didn't know what it was when I started eating it. It didn't look like anything I had ever eaten, and the sauce it was in was so spicy you didn't taste much of it. You eat at this long table, kind of like a cafeteria, and as other people come in they sit with you. Well, eventually, a man who spoke French came in, and he is who told us what it actually was.
In the end, neither of these two meals were nearly as scary as the fish I ate last week. I think probably because I have had bad experiences with fish before..and I didn't have any bad experiences with cat or bush rat to be that afraid. :)
My first year teaching at my present school, I asked the kids what was the weirdest thing they had ever eaten when we were studying food vocabulary. I shared with one period that I had eaten cat.......I will never live this down. At last year's graduation ceremony one student gave a speech about his first day in his senior year...when he got to talking about my class, he said "I was pretty frightened about Spanish...I don't know...I hear she eats cats." hahaha.
As for the cat and bush rat, I didn't have much choice. The cat we were in the middle of nowhere...on an 18+ hour long bus trip...We actually had run over the cat, threw it into the back of the bus, and when we stopped at the border for the night (because the border isn't open late at night), we borrowed a pot from a villager nearby, and cooked it over a fire...it was an amazing experience actually. I was the only toubabou (white person) on the bus. Everyone was so excited to teach me different phrases in dioula and just to get to know me...It is likely my most "African" of my African experiences.
As for the bush rat, well, I was in a very small town for the weekend. We actually were staying at a hotel outside of town and had walked about 3 miles into town for dinner. We were looking for a maquis (an open air restaurant that usually serves chicken, fish, rice, etc..) but could only find bush restaurants. Bush restaurants cook one meal a day in a big pot. You eat whatever they are selling. We were so hungry by the time we got there, it was like our 3rd bush restaurant we had run into I think...so we sat down and had "agouti". The truth is, I didn't know what it was when I started eating it. It didn't look like anything I had ever eaten, and the sauce it was in was so spicy you didn't taste much of it. You eat at this long table, kind of like a cafeteria, and as other people come in they sit with you. Well, eventually, a man who spoke French came in, and he is who told us what it actually was.
In the end, neither of these two meals were nearly as scary as the fish I ate last week. I think probably because I have had bad experiences with fish before..and I didn't have any bad experiences with cat or bush rat to be that afraid. :)
My first year teaching at my present school, I asked the kids what was the weirdest thing they had ever eaten when we were studying food vocabulary. I shared with one period that I had eaten cat.......I will never live this down. At last year's graduation ceremony one student gave a speech about his first day in his senior year...when he got to talking about my class, he said "I was pretty frightened about Spanish...I don't know...I hear she eats cats." hahaha.
posted by Katrina | 9/19/2004 02:10:00 PM
4 Comments:
This is one of my favourite stories of yours -- what a great adventure!
You may have posted about this previously and I missed it, but when were you in Africa and why were you there?
I guess that eating cat and rat in those circumstances would be a little different than here in the states. Is there much meat on a cat, by the way?
I don't think I have talked about why I was in Africa on my blog...
I was on a youth international internship program sponsored by the Canadian Foreign Affairs. I worked in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire for 6 months with a local NGO in AIDS education, reproductive health and family planning. That was in 1998.
You can read of my adventures at:
Katrina's African AdventuresOf course, I have not updated that web site in years...I think it still has me living in Montreal maybe? That would be about 4 houses ago;)
I also never ended up writing up my last travel adventure which included the cat post...sigh..but there are some other interesting (at least they were to me) stories of my travel adventures there. :)
As for meat on cats...no..there was not that much meat on the cat...Now, my cat Spaz...that would be another story! hahaha
I finally had a chance to look at the Africa page. Looks like you had a fun time there.
I haven't heard from you in a while. Everything okay?
Have a great week (or what's left of it) !!
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