Residents and Their "Goodies"

We've really enjoyed the opportunity to have the resident Bible study at our house.  Every Tuesday the resident doctors that have a rotation in Shell attend a Bible study put on by one of the main doctors here.  These residents are usually in Shell for a little over a month before heading back to Quito.  Some of the residents are Christians but many are not.  Often they have a Catholic background.  Please be praying for the doctors here as they lead the Bible studies and for the visiting residents.


We always make some kind of dessert for the residents when we host the Bible study.  Anything with chocolate chips is a big hit since they aren't available here.  Last week I had made a dessert, but a few of the residents said they wanted to bring a treat too.  Apparently the early morning hours of that day had been one of the few a year when the giant ants rise from underground and fly into the sky.  The residents had joined hospital patients in collecting these "delicacies" by the bag full.  To prepare them the heads and wings are pulled off and then the thorax and abdomen fried. We've eaten 'lemon ants' before in the jungle, but they are very small and you barely taste a sour flavor on your tongue. These ants, however, were ten times as big.  I wanted to try their tasty treat and not offend the work they'd put into preparing them.  The thorax wasn't so bad as it just tasted fried.  When I got to the abdomen, though, I was in for the 'best' part of the ant.  It was full of ant oil and grease.  I can usually tolerate strange foods pretty well, but I started to gag and had to spit the rest of it out.  I guess I'll blame it on the pregnancy and stay away from this tasty treat for awhile.

Caleb wasn't so sure about trying the ants.