Bricks and Ants

My Mom took me to see where they’re making bricks. I guess we own a small plot of land in the marshy area, down past our house. There is good clay for making bricks there and it’s a source of secondary income – helps to pay the school fees. She said each brick was worth about 130 USh (about 5 cents) and with labor, costs about 70 USh to make. They dig up the clay (when it’s dry so there’s no H2O in the pit) then mix it to the right consistency with their feet, (I think that’s what my Mom said) pack it into tight mold, and stack a huge pile so that there is space (oven like) to start a fire underneath to bake the bricks. The whole structure is covered in mud, cooked, and then people drive up, take what they need, pay, and are off. Very different from good ol' Home Depot. I got to see the huge pile of cooked bricks – about 10,000 my Mom says.

While we were hanging around there, I accidentally stood across a line of ants – there are these black ones that determinedly go from A to B (seemingly random locations) and all over you if you happen to interrupt. Unfortunately, they bite. Not like the red ants in the SW, but annoying. My Mom apologized profusely (as if it was her fault . . . ?) but I asked about their names (and have, of course, forgotten it since). She was surprised we only have one word for ant. I said people don’t really like them, avoid them, and have no desire to differentiate, except for red ants (ouch!) and scientists. She told me some are delicacies, as well as grasshoppers, termites, and others. They found it hysterical when I made a face and said most Americans feel similarly. Sometimes it’s a lot of fun to share cultures – everyone with us got a hoot out of it, and the faces I made.

From a letter postmarked March 22