Ugandan children scamper in the bush, jumping here and there. “Quick!” they call. “Catch those grasshoppers before they fly away!”
On a good day, the children will walk away with plastic bags filled with grasshoppers. What will they do with them when they get home? They will fry them and eat them for a snack!
In Uganda, people love to eat grasshoppers. They call the bugs “nsenene.” Some grasshopper hunters use bright lamps to attract the insects. The grasshoppers, moving toward the light, crash into sheets of metal and slide into barrels where they get trapped. After that, it’s off to market. Street vendors sell the bugs. You can buy a plastic mug holding a pound of ready-to-eat grasshoppers for about $2.75.
O.J. Gerald waits at a roadside grasshopper seller in Kampala, Uganda. “I’m buying them because my wife has sent me to buy them for her,” he says. “She really loves them.” His wife eats the bugs fried with some onion and a little bit of salt. “It's very tasty,” says Mr. Gerald. “Very crunchy in your mouth.”
At a busy market stall, Sylvia Namwanje fries the grasshoppers. They turn from green to golden brown. Their earthy smell floats up from where they cook. Motorists park their SUVs and wait to be served.
The insects are in season from November until January. Uganda usually gets a lot of heavy rain around then. Millions of grasshoppers hatch. “The nsenene are so delicious,” Ms. Namwanje says. “People will eat them because they know that's the only period they can.” She says the bugs are way more delicious than chicken—or any meat!
Better yet, the insects give Ms. Namwanje the money she needs to live. With her earnings, she has managed to educate her children and take care of her mother and family.