So right now in Zambia it is caterpillar season, that is right - caterpillar, and I recently got to participate in the main activity of the season, going in to the bush and hunting caterpillars. It was a lot of fun. I was in Chipili Village with another volunteer assisting with an HIV/AIDS education and testing program when we were invited by the children to go with them to pick caterpillars in the bush. How could I say no? So Staci, the other volunteer I was visiting, and I headed into the woods with five children, the oldest of which was probably ten or eleven. Now at home I would never blindly follow a child into woods, but here I did not even think twice. We hiked just ten minutes way from Staci’s house and into the woods and right away the children started to yell. They then ran and started to climb different trees, Staci and I just stood there confused. We had no idea what had gotten them so excited, but soon we understood, when the each climbed down from their trees they had handfuls of bright green caterpillars. There are three different kinds of caterpillars that are eaten here, but the children informed us that the green ones are the best (I just took their word on that seeing that I had no desire to taste test caterpillars.) It took a good hour of hunting before Staci and I were able to spot the green caterpillars, I mean how are you supposed to see green caterpillars on green leaves ten to fifteen feet in the air? It was amazing, I swear the children could spot them from 10 yards away. Thankfully there are also black and white caterpillars that are quite easy to see and these are the ones that I mostly picked.
There are many types of caterpillars that can not be eaten, unfortunately Staci and I had no idea which caterpillars were good to eat and which were not. So the children kept a close eye on every caterpillar we put into our jars, and every once in a while the would remove one or two. When we would ask why they would shake their heads at us and just say “That one will make you itch.” We could never tell the difference between the good ones and the bad ones, to me they looked exactly the same. We collected three tin cans, one large peanut butter jar, and one large Tupperware full of caterpillars and we could have gotten many, many more, but we just ran out of containers to carry them home in.
When we returned home we had to kill and clean all the caterpillars before they could be cooked and eaten. To kill them you just squeeze them. And to clean them you once again just squeeze. When you squeeze them pushing from the head down all of there insides literally squirt out. Sounds gross, but actually it is pretty cool. After they are cleaned you boil them in salt water and they are ready to eat. I did taste one, it kind of tasted like beef jerky, but honestly I would not recommend them to anyone else, there is something about eating caterpillars that makes the gag reflex kick in. So even though caterpillars are not exactly suited to the American palette, they are very important to the Zambian diet. Most village children get little to no protein in their diets, meat is very expensive and fish is hard to find unless you live close to water, so caterpillars are very important part of a child's diet here in Zambia.
As much fun as I had caterpillar hunting I was actually in Chipili to work. Staci and I were doing HIV/AIDS education in preparation for a day of counseling and testing. We talked to the students at the high school and many of the people through out the community teaching about HIV/AIDS and encouraging them to be tested. When the counseling and testing team come from Mansa we had 85 people get tested. This was an amazing day for me. To help 85 people to get tested and know there status is huge accomplishment and was very proud to be a part of this program.
