grikatagrika

IMG_0894
Originally uploaded by jlovegren.

children generally don't talk to me in the dialect, because it would be disrespectful: implying that there's something that they can do better than me. something that boys do for sport, if they have a dog, is to rustle around in the bush with a machete and a dog, looking for cane rats and porcupines. in pidgin they are cutting grass and chuggehchuggeh, ngwe they are ndung and ngung a tie.
if you catch the rat, then you have to look for someone to buy it. they always come to my house because i'm rich and will pay a good price, or they think i deserve the first chance to eat it, as fresh as it is. whenever i tell them that i don't know how to prepare it, they sell it to the woman in the market that cuts it into individual servings. then i go to the market and eat one of the servings with abe eru, towards which i recently developed a taste. it eru is two different kinds of wild greens cooked together with palm oil and other spices. abe is water fufu, not to be confused with the western province couscous de manioc. the former is fermented.