Ant Feathers

Day three in Ghana has been good so far. I slept in again after being up late last night working in the computer lab (I didn't even hear Dwayne snore last night - thanks Dwayne). There was a cobra on campus today and one of the American college students here chopped its head off. He was so proud. We had spaghetti for lunch, which turned out to be real tasty. And I found out this morning that all of the climbing on the rocks yesterday left me with a small cut on one of my toes that ends up hurting when I walk because there's always sand and dirt in my sandals. OK, enough whining for now.

Last night around 11:00 there were millions of flying bugs swarming all over the place. We weren't sure what they were, but they were everywhere. You couldn't walk outside without stepping on them. By 1:00 (we left the computer lab late again) they were all gone. But they left there wings behind. This morning, there were clumps of wings all around the campus. Millions of wings.


I picked up a few of these wings and asked a group of local workers here what they were. He told me they were "ant feathers". But not from ants exactly, some other bug similar to ants. Termites? Not exactly. I'm still not sure what they are. He said that when it rains they come up out of the ground and fly until their feathers fall off, then they crawl around and make new holes in the ground. He said that many Nigerians like to eat these bugs, but not the feather part, but Ghanaians don't eat these bugs. Then one of the other workers said that actually he did eat them. I had to take their picture.