Lake fly cake

A while ago a friend sent me a local recipe for me to try. ‘This dish is rich in protein and calcium and contains six times as much iron as liver’, the introduction said. It continued: ‘Catch lake flies and squeeze together in cakes which can be dried. Break the cake into pieces and boil in a little salted water until soft. Add onions, tomatoes, oil and groundnut paste. Cook gently for a few minutes and serve with rice. The lake flies can be caught once a month by placing a pressure lamp outside at night. You can easily grab them in handfuls; after that put them in boiling water’. I had seen swarms of little flies, smaller than mosquitoes, but never given them a lot of attention until last night.

The last week I spent some lovely days in the village close to the border with Uganda. I had enjoyed a very basic week without electricity, having only rainwater to drink and cooked bananas for lunch and dinner every day. No rush, no stress of all the things I thought I had to do, just nothing. Yesterday morning I travelled back home and while our bus drove into town I noticed swarms of the little flies. I jumped on the back of a motorbike, closed my eyes to avoid the things to enter and came home without a lot of trouble. My house is up a hill, above the lake and normally the flies don’t make it up there. This time, however, I could see them flying around my place as well. I went to my neighbours to tell them I was back in the house. The man seemed surprised to see me back healthy. ‘You went to the village and look as if you enjoyed. How is that possible?’ It is funny how ‘rich’ locals seem to think that life in the remote places is bad and again I explained how much I liked being there. While talking I asked about the flies. ‘Have you ever eaten them?’ The neighbours both laughed and said this cheap meal had never been on their menu but if I wanted they could arrange a dish for me. I thanked them and went home. As soon as it got dark I could see that the little flies made their way into the house via all little cracks. I escaped the place and hit myself under my mosquito net. Soon I fell asleep.

This morning when I opened my eyes I decided to close them straight away and think. My mosquito net was covered with dead flies and so were the floor and all other surfaces in the house. Some bastards had survived the night and were still buzzing around the ceiling. I got up, took the broom and got rid of the worst. I am not lying when I say that I had 2 dust pans full of dead little things. Since quite a few were still alive I decided to wait a bit before cleaning the whole place and worry about my breakfast first. I walked to the neighbours borrowed an egg, bought fresh milk and started making pancakes. I cracked the egg and found a little chick in it instead of the stuff I wanted. I threw everything on top of the pile with dead flies and opened the tap to wash the bowl. The water that came out of the tap was white. I walked to the shop to buy another egg. I made the dough again and started frying. In the mean time I had poured myself a cup of fresh tea. While waiting for the first pancake to dry, I took my cup of tea to take a first sip. Two dead flies were floating in my drink. I chucked it away, poured myself a new cup and covered it with a lit. I turned around to turn the pancake and saw a couple of dead flies on top of that as well. Really I tried to stay calm but at that point I had reached my limit. Within 2 minutes I went through all stages of culture shock: denial, pining, anger, guilt and depression. I am still wiating for the last stage, 'acceptance' and in the mean time I will continue cleaning.