Mopane Madness: Tastes like Chicken

These next few posts may cause you to ask yourself, "Is Claire really on a mission trip?" because what I'm about to show you is a few of the coolest experiences OF. MY. LIFE! I promise you that I'm on a mission trip, though. If you become a little jealous, just remeber all the times in the past month I've lifted a baby covered in poo into a bathtub and started scrubbing. Ew.

This week two new interns arrived: Britt from my home church, and Vinson from Pennsylvania (Donovan and Heather Drew's home church). In the time that they are here and before Sarah leaves this Sunday we are fitting in lots and lots of fun things!

Okay, this one might not cause you to be quite so jealous now that I'm thinking about it.. but the next two will! :)

One of my first nights here I met the newlyweds, Lerato and Akani. Akani told me about one of his favorite African foods: Mopane (mo-pa-ney) worms. These are catipillars which you harvest out of trees and dry. Sometimes you munch on them dried and sometimes you bring them back to life with seasoning and... well I'm not really sure what all goes into preparing them. That night Lerato promise she would make these for me while I was here. I was also promised a taste of chicken's feet.

So! We all gathered around the table for a new experience this week!

Left and Around: Maquena (Sorry if you read this and I've spelled it terribly wrong!), Lerato, Akani, Kerry Drew,  Newton and Vanessa, Britt, Me, Sarah, Vinson, Donovan.

Chicken's Feet

Mopane Worms!

Pap. A staple food here I'll tell you more about later!

Choco lata (A sauce to go on the pap)

The pap and sauce are foods extremely common here in South Africa. A meal is simply not considered complete or filling without pap. It doesn't have a whole lot of flavor to it but is really delicious. This sauce that Vanessa made was really good as well!

The chicken's feet are a little more commonly eaten than the mopane worms. They are a much loved food here. They smelled good; it was mostly the toe nails still attached that I had to get past. All in all I liked the flavor. I wasn't very good at eating them though, there is very little meat on them so it is hard to find. 

The mopane worms are only eaten by certain tribes here. Akani has grown up with them and loves them. First, you get some pap in your hand. Then, you stick on on the Caterpillar and pop both in your mouth! I didn't prefer the mopane worm , but it was a great experience to try it!

My plate!

Sarah tasting the Delicacies :)

Kerry was being silly while she ate her first chicken's foot.

Newton and Vanessa

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me eating mine; however, I do have videos so if you are curious just ask me to show you sometime :)

It was very fun night of fellowship and I'm so thankful to our hostess, Heather, and our cooks: Maquena, Lerato, and Vanessa!