a plague of locusts

Grasshoppers have taken over Sembabule. I kind of feel like I’m in the middle of a Biblical plague… okay, maybe I’m being dramatic. But grasshoppers (a good thee inches long and bright green) are EVERYWHERE. Falling on my head when I open the door, buzzing around my bed net, flying erratically into my face, and of course, roasted and in heaps outside of the kitchen and in bags for sale on the street.

I’ve been sleeping really deeply lately, and a couple of nights ago I half-woke up in the middle of the night because I heard something that sounded like a flapping of wings on the top of my bed net, where it hangs from the ceiling. The noise was so loud, I seriously thought it had to be a bird. Still in a sleepy stupor, I tried to figure out if I was dreaming or really awake, and when I couldn’t decide, I just fell back to sleep – I really didn’t want to deal with trying to get a bird out of my room in the middle of the night. The next day, when I was awake and coherent, I heard the same buzzing/flapping noise, which turned out to be a grasshopper that was hanging out in my room. I spent a few crazed minutes trying to trap it in a washcloth and throw it out the door, only to have it fly back in my face several times. Apparently it really wanted to hang out in my room (probably because it’s so clean and organized now).

Last week as we were driving through Masaka after dark, I finally got a glimpse of the grasshopper trapping process that happens in every town. It’s kind of hard to explain without a visual, but I’ll try - dozens of metal barrels are arranged in a square, with enormous sheets of corrugated tin shooting vertically out of the top of the barrel into the sky. Blindingly bright lights are used to attract the grasshoppers, who apparently become dazed by the light, hit the metal, and slide down into the barrels, where they are trapped. From, the creatures are roasted, salted, bagged, and sold by people everywhere you go.

I realize they’re not harmful (and a good source of protein) but I just wish they would stop sneaking into my room and making me look like a crazy person as I try to shoo them out.