Kanye West and churas

I love this picture. This kid helped us catch a chura (Swahili for frog). Everytime we go to the river, I'll ask the kids if there are any chura's in the area. Usually they'll run off and track one down and bring it back. This kid couldn't find any next to the river we were at...so he ran down to a small stream and grabbed the chura that he is holding in his hands for this picture. He was pretty happy with his catch...and his friends were envious. I was envious of his Kanye West t-shirt.


We were further down the river a few days ago. I was walking along the bank looking for frogs and lizards. There was a group of about four boys bathing in the river. Before I knew it, I had a couple naked boys following me around, trying to find frogs. I went further down the river with two of them. One of the boys had a machete (as it is customary and quite normal for men to carry machetes, bow and arrows, or large sticks). He was probably only 9 years old. He was vigorously looking for frogs in the tall grass next to the river. We would see frogs jump into the water from the grass as he walked by it. Finally, he saw a frog before it jumped...I saw him swing the machete way over his head and then bring it crashing down into the grass with a loud SMACK!... My heart jumped....I imagined that he had just sliced the frog in half. I was mortified. He calmly reached into the grass and picked up the frog. As he was carrying it over to me...I was trying to figure out how to explain to him that I wanted the frogs alive...not dead. We weren't going to hurt any of them...and now I just saw one sliced in half. As the kid got to me...he put out his hand and handed me the frog. The frog was in one piece but he wasn't moving so I didn't know if he was alive or dead. I took the frog into my hand and then he jumped out. I was extremely relieved. The kid had smashed the machete down next to the frog but didn't actually hit him....close call.