Lira

Jake and I have a friend named Bosco here who invited us to visit his family up north. He accepted Christ while we have been here and Jake is namely the tool that God used in that, the reason for the invite. Two days after the Kisoro trip we left for the town of Lira.
We three get to the bus barn at 6am since it is suppose to leave shortly there after. After 2 hours we got to wait a little more. It was around this time that Jake’s backpack went missing from the over head luggage compartment. We looked everywhere but alas it was stolen. His clothes and camera were all that was stolen but we have insurance and thank God for that. We finally leave around 10am and I get two of the most selfish travelers that I have ever met. These two ladies take up most of the seat and no isle to place my feet in due to all the boxes and bags in it. It basically means that a 6’4” 210lb. guy is sitting on a seat of maybe 10 inches for what took almost 7 hours. Towards the end of this trip these two ladies end up buying 2 live chickens, yes live ones with their feet tied up. These ladies bring them in and their wings are practically flapping me in the face and arm. (Chickens say, “Who’s your daddy? Whack!) These ladies then want me to move my feet so they can place the chickens there. I kindly turn to them and say, sure take the only place for my feet so that I can be even more uncomfortable on this trip. I then began singing, “happy days are here again”. KIDDING!!! I really just kindly told them no, that there is no other place for my feet. They placed the chickens behind the driver of the bus, safely.
We get there and the three of us stay in a nice yet cheap motel; 21,000 shillings/$10 per person. We end up going to the village the next morning and had to rent motorcycles with drivers for the whole day. Not bad for $30. We stay there and have food and later head back where Jake gets some new clothes and I got some cheap shirts. These clothes are mainly used American but good quality. Each shirt at this market cost $1.50, Yes!
The next and final day we go to the village and get a surprise; white ants. I believe that is what they are called anyway. These are interesting insects. Their upper half is that of an ant, the bottom is of a bees (minus the stinger and all a dark gray), and huge white, almost see through wings. The people here collect them and place them in a basket where they shake it up and the wings easily come off. From here it gets interesting for there are several different ways to prepare them. Our first bowl of ants were fried in a pan, so made crunchy and covered in salt. We had sodas with us for this so it actually was not as bad as I feared. I still almost vomited though. After this I walked around outside the hut to make sure I was not, or if did not in their presence. We had lunch, chicken again, and this time got to see the woman chase the chicken while another had a knife; then see the end result.
Then we got a huge surprise. Jake tells me that he smells bugs again. The thing is that these people eat meat rarely, if not once a year and the same goes for the ants. We get two meals with chicken and now our second bowl of ants. This is a huge honor and cannot be passed up until the hosts are satisfied with your eating of it, meaning all of it or full. These ants were not crunchy at all. These ants were ground up, boiled, and then made into patties. I like to call this dish an ant meatloaf. These were served with rice and oh the taste was interesting. We had no seasoning, ketchup or sodas; just grin and eat away. Jake ate almost all of his, I did not fair so well. I ate enough with much still left in the bowl, but passed the hosts requirements. I quickly left and walked around to avoid what you may want to do after reading this segment.
We left shortly afterwards and were blessed beyond measure. We left with prayer and praise, but mostly were honored by them giving us a chicken and a goat. This is a huge honor and we left feeling as much. It was a great honor.