A Recipe for Rat and Other Bits

I grew up eight miles east of Bertha, Minnesota on County Road 24 and graduated from Bertha-Hewitt high school in the year 2000. I’m submitting this article from Solwezi. Solwezi is the capital of the Northwestern Province of Zambia, and Zambia is the Sub-Saharan African country that has been my home for the last twenty-two months. On a map, Zambia is the bean-shaped country between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe. You should feel free to Google it. I had to Google it three months before coming here.
I’m in Zambia working in the Rural Education Development (RED) program. I was placed in the RED program, I imagine, because of my degree in education. To be clear, I should say that I have a degree in music education. It didn’t take a long time for me to figure out that clarinet lessons are not in high demand here, so I’ve had to improvise a bit. I think I’ve done quite well. I haven’t saved the world yet, but I’m still here.
I’ve spent most of the last year and a half working with schools and community groups interested in education. The program’s policy is to give knowledge (mostly non-clarinet related), not money, to those in need. A main goal of the RED program is to bring education to children that may not get it otherwise. We try to focus on orphans and vulnerable children in rural areas that don’t have access to learning materials. While busy with things of that sort, I’ve been living (as much as possible) in local standard conditions. That means that I live in a mud-brick hut with a grass-thatched roof and I have a pit latrine and I bathe with a cup and a bucket. Living this way assists volunteers in fulfilling two main goals: to learn about the local culture and hopefully show that a complete understanding of American Culture can’t be gained by viewing Chuck Norris films.
Having said all that, I would like to let you know that I’m not writing this to tell you about my program. I don’t want to bore you. I don’t even like to read a detailed description of what I do here. If you really would like to know, write me a letter and I’ll be glad to respond with something long and dull. For the quickest response, send chocolate along with your letter.
What I would really like to write about today is the sensory experience that is Zambia. The country that I had to Google twenty-five months ago is now very alive for me. It’s bright, loud, sometimes quite pungent, and that’s what I would like to share with you. I don’t know if I can do this country justice in writing- especially those pungent aspects- but, doggonit, I’m going to try.
I told you that I am writing from Solwezi, but I don’t live here. I’m here for a workshop. This workshop is about the same as any workshop in the U.S. - ice-breakers, flip charts, role playing- only it’s given in three different languages and there’s a greater number of biting insects.
Four districts from the Northwestern Province are represented at this workshop. We are here to learn about HIV/AIDS prevention- a very important topic in Zambia today. Each volunteer has come with a counterpart from his or her village, and not everyone speaks English. There are nine provinces in Zambia and something like seventy-two different languages spoken. If you can’t speak the language where you are, you need simply ride you bicycle a few kilometers down the bush path and try again.
I stay in Kasempa district. Kasempa district is to the south and west of Solwezi and the language spoken there is Kiikaonde. It’s 130 km from Solwezi to my house, and that trip is generally made with the help of the terrifically interesting public-transport phenomenon known as the mini-bus.
Thanks to the British, who held Zambia as a province until 1964, flatbed trucks are known here as lorries; pickup trucks are known as vans; and vans are known as mini-buses. Also fries aren’t French here, but simply known as chips- proving that the British stuck it to the French long before we thought up the whole “freedom” thing. But forget the French for now. I want to talk about the minibus.
Mini-buses are usually light-blue in colour (the natural color of Zambian public transport) and about as big as a midsize van in America. They’re designed to hold maybe nine or ten people, but this specification is uniformly ignored by mini-bus drivers. I was on a mini-bus once with three other volunteers, nineteen Zambians (not including the driver or conductor), two fifty kilogram sacks of potatoes, and three chickens. It was very close; a sort of cultural exchange by osmosis. In addition, it’s a sort of unspoken rule that mini-buses drive as fast as they can at all times. For most of these vehicles, this still means that they could be overtaken by an oxcart. But there are the occasional mini-buses that can exceed a speed limit. This can be quite unnerving as mini-buses aren’t all necessarily endowed with brakes. Those without brakes don’t make “stops,” they make “slow downs.” When a potential customer is in sight, the bus slows down to roughly the running speed of the conductor. The conductor then throws open the sliding side door- filling the bus with the acrid smell of burning metal- and jumps out. He helps (throws) the passengers into the bus and leaps in himself so that the bus can resume cruising speed. This process doesn’t leave much time for price negotiation, so if the passenger doesn’t have enough money, the process is repeated in reverse and the passenger then has to catch the next mini-bus; or oxcart- whichever comes first.
Transport for people and transport for livestock aren’t necessarily separate services in Zambia. It’s a rare mini-bus trip that doesn’t involve a chicken or a goat. I once saw a mini-bus with at least fifteen live pigs tied to the luggage rack on top of the bus. They were making probably the most disturbing sound that I have ever heard. Goats are also sometimes strapped to the outside- depending on size or term of pregnancy- but chickens are usually considered carry-ons. Chicken poop is something that happens on these buses, and people generally deal with it with stoicism and a noted lack of giggling.
Babies occasionally poop as well. They don’t just poop on the bus of course, but it is on the bus that a baby poop is most easily shared with the general public. In Zambia, this event is taken in stride. I will be quietly sharing a day on the bus with twenty or so new friends when the bus will suddenly be filled with the distinct smell of human doody. No one’s facial expression will change in the least, and the only one to move will be the man sitting next to the only open able window. The window will be opened and stern looks will be fixed on the faces of all passengers. We will then reflect, as a group, on the fact that we have a mere three hours to go before the next “slow down.”
Similar to the unspoken rule that mini-buses need go as fast as they can at all times is the unspoken rule concerning radios here. Radios need be played at their maximum volume at all times. An un-blown speaker is an uncommon thing in Zambia. This gives Zambian music an interesting flavor: the mid-tones are a sort of hiss; the bass-tones are a nerve fraying rattle; and the treble is something like a malicious garden gnome tittering maniacally and hitting you on the head repeatedly with a ball-peen hammer. Of course, that last impression might just be mine.
I’ve also found that Zambians have interesting and diverse tastes in music. This is especially true when it comes to American music. For example, every third person has a 50 Cent shirt, but I have never heard his music played here. It’s more common in fact for a Zambian to pop in a Don Williams or Jim Reeves tape- even if they are wearing a shirt that says, “Get Rich or Die Trying.”
A neighbor of mine once put in a Kenny Rodgers tape as we sat drinking local beer. The Gambler came on and, naturally, I started singing along. He asked me what the song meant. I stopped singing and looked at my friend. Then I looked at the ground. I had never thought about a Kenny Rodgers song that deeply. It turns out that The Gambler has a pretty profound message.
I said it was about poker- a card game- but it was also about so much more than games. “The Gambler is about life,” I said, “The old man is talking about life. ‘You have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. You have to know when to walk away,’ says Kenny, ‘and know when to run.’ And in the end the Gambler breaks even. The Gambler dies,” I said, “because he’s finished the game.”
We both settled back in our chairs to think about this complex work of art. The next song on the tape was Daytime Friends and Nighttime Lovers. To my great relief, my neighbor didn’t ask about that one.
The local beer here is something that deserves to be the dedicated subject of volumes, but I will try, in brief to give you an idea of its importance. There are three different types of local beer in my area: mbote, monkoyo and lutuku.
Mbote is made from honey and I’m not sure what else. I know that I’ve seen buckets of it that seemed to be boiling of their own accord. Mbote is generally golden in color, quasi-honey flavored, and-despite the bits of honey comb and dead bees floating in it- the closest of the three local beers to something you would actually want to ingest.
Monkoyo is made from water, a grain (like maize, sorghum, or millet) and the monkoyo root from which it gets its name. Unlike the other two local beers, monkoyo comes in comes in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties. The alcohol content is dependent on how long the mixture of ingredients has been sitting in the calabash. A calabash is the big, dried husk of a gourd. Monkoyo of relatively short-term calabash residence (one to three days) is called sweet monkoyo. This can be misleading as there is nothing inherently sweet about it. You can add sugar, but it’s not required. Sweet monkoyo tastes good but fails utterly at giving the drinker a “buzz.” More aged monkoyo (oh a week or three in the calabash) is deemed hard monkoyo and is quite potent. Try to imagine extremely watered-down Cream of Wheat that has been in a jar next to the heater in the garage for a week. I’ve heard it compared to a rough oatmeal stout. I’ve also heard it compared to vomit. The problem, of course, with hard monkoyo (other than that it tastes like vomit) is that it’s like drinking Cream of Wheat. You have to be a very determined drinker in order to feel any alcoholic effects before you are so full you have to unbutton your jeans.
That’s where lutuku has the advantage.
Lutuku is something like Grandpa’s moonshine. The term “beer” is a bit of a misnomer when applied to lutuku. It’s closer to rubbing alcohol. It’s distilled in pipes with a heat source (I think), maize (of course), and water (I would imagine). I always envision something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory- only with a more distinct possibility of explosion and fewer musical numbers. Once finished, lutuku is light, less-filling and quite powerful. The only down side is that drinking it may make you blind.
If you are going to indulge in any of these local beers, it’s best to do so with a solid base of food under your belt. You’re fortunate in this respect, because as a “solid base” is the only way they do food here. The center of any meal in Zambia is nshima. Nshima is like a very thick porridge (something along the lines of Play Dough) made, like monkoyo, from maize, sorghum or millet that has been ground. It can also be made from dried and pounded cassava root. Cassava root nshima is closer to Silly Putty than Play Dough, but some people prefer it.
Nshima is spiced with nothing. It has no flavor, and yet having a meal in Zambia without nshima is unimaginable. When eating Zambian, you don’t use forks or spoons. You form the nshima into a little ball with your right hand and use the ball either to pick up whatever else you are eating or as a tiny edible bowl in which to transport gravy (called supu here) to your mouth.
There are a number of things to be eaten with nshima. The hardest for me to get used to was the fish. There aren’t many options for preserving fish here, so it is usually dried. A favorite dish is called kapenta. Kapenta are little tiny dried fish that you fry in oil with onions and tomatoes. Their a lot like those crappie minnows that got dropped out of the minnow bucket into the bottom of the boat last spring and won’t be found now until next spring. Now, I know that doesn’t sound so appetizing and I admit I didn’t like them at first, but now I’ve gotten used to them. If they are prepared right, they really are quite nice; especially the supu.

Now I know you want to hear about the weird stuff I’ve eaten, so here it goes:
caterpillars and flying termites- they kind of tasted like a movie theatre snack with legs; hippo- tasted a little like beef, only somehow more aquatic; monkey and bush baby- kind of like squirrel I guess; puff adder- Zambians won’t go near it, but I had to try it and it tastes nothing like chicken; songbirds that the kids kill in the sorghum fields- their good, but you have to eat twelve- like chicken nuggets; goat offal’s- the stomach lining and other various bits and pieces from the inside of the goat that are now my favorite Zambian dish; and pork that still had the hair on it- no getting around it, that tested my ability to suppress the ol’ gag reflex.
My most memorable culinary experience in Zambia, by far, has been eating rat. It wasn’t the eating of the rat that was memorable. After all, I’ve eaten squirrel and I would guess that they’re pretty close to rats in the chain. It was the method of preparation that stuck with me the most:

Step 1: Take whole dead rat in right hand.
Step 2: Throw whole dead rat on bed of hot coals.
Step 3: Once thoroughly charred, fish dead rat from coals.
Step 4: Take hold of front and hind quarters of dead rat with right and left hands, respectively.
Step 5: Twist front and hind quarters of dead rat in conflicting directions.
Step 6: Hand half of dead rat to your friend.
When someone hands you half a charred dead rat, you either politely decline or remember the adage “when in Rome…” Then you pop the rat in your mouth and get a little closer to understanding why Rome fell.

Well, as I’ve been writing this, the workshop has run it’s course and it’s time for me to head back to the village. Don’t let my kidding fool you into thinking that I dislike it here. Zambia is a beautiful country. There are times when the sunset illuminates the clouds and the whole horizon is like a frozen, silent explosion of blues, violets, pinks and you can do nothing but stand and stare. I think that that’s the beautiful part- you can stand and stare. There are times when the pace of things here can be frustrating for an American- but you can’t argue with the fact that, once you get used to it, the pace here gives you time to really enjoy being alive. Zambia has taught me many things, but that’s the most important lesson. There’s time to breath and see and taste and, yes, smell and that that time has value too. I may never cook a rat again, but I hope that this appreciation for just living is something that sticks with me when I return to the hurry-up of the U.S.
So with that, I sign off so that I can go back to my hut for the next few months. I’ll pack my things, make sure I have correct change and head out to the road to wait for the mini-bus to “slow down.” I won’t let poop- chicken or baby- bother me. I’ll just open that one window, take a deep breath and enjoy being alive.