We were invaded by big swarms of locust coming into the city a couple of weeks ago. Antananarivo is a city with many hills and valleys. From just outside the office we could see brownish black clouds coming in over the hills toward our part of town.
As these clouds got closer, we could see that they were made up of many, many individual 'things'!
We had heard that they had a locust invasion down near Antsirabe last year; but it is hard to imagine what it would really be like until you experience it!
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| They landed all around us and were super thick everywhere. This is the patio area just outside the office doors. |
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| President Adams went out and took care of them for us! |
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We tried to get Sister Zanirasoa, one of our local Malagasy Missionaries, to eat one; but 'No Way', she would only pretend!
In the areas where they crow crops the locust caused lots of problems, as they eat a lot! The people here in Tana, where they really don't grow too much, thought that they were a great blessing. It is getting to the end of the dry season, and the rains haven't started yet, so lots of the food is getting a little harder to get for some of the people here.
Many of the people were out gathering up big bags of the locust. They would take them home and boil them in salt water and then deep fry them in oil. They must have had some kind of bacon fat in the oil because the cooked ones sure smell like crispy bacon.
Our Office Elders, Elder Rice and Elder Coleman, (yes, Joe; he is from Kanab) were invited to a members house for dinner that night. They had rice with fried locust on top! They sent them home with a bag of the fried locust; being the good missionaries that they are, they brought them into the office the next day to share with everyone. Several of the missionaries tried them. Thought it was a once in a life time opportunity; but some of us just didn't need that experience!
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| Elder Rice sharing a few of his deep fried locust. |
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| Sister Johnson, from Boise, Idaho, trying a locust; she actually ate several! |
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| Elder Delbar, a brand new missionary who had only been here a few days, tried them. |
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| Elder Cloward, Sister Rossiter and Sister Adams all tried them. Guess what Sister Rossiter thinks?! |
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| President Jacqo and President Lalari both had several. They are the counselors in the Mission Presidency. |
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When we got home the evening of the invasion, we had four or five of them inside our house. Don't have a clue how they got in. We have metal doors and shutters on the outside of all of our doors and windows; but there were lots of them and they were Everywhere! Maybe they just needed a little 'quiet place' away from all of the crowds! Dad's garden didn't look too bad though, it didn't look like they had eaten much of it.
Now it is easier for us to imagine what the pioneers must have thought when the crickets hit the Salt Lake Valley all those years ago, and how thankful they were for the seagulls who came to get rid of them.
