Crabbing

The dry season has begun. As the river descends, food becomes easier to catch. Gideon, my neighbor’s eleven-year-old son and I sought crabs yesterday. We took the Endurance over to a large rock in the middle of the river, where we looked under the water plants in the shallows for hiding crustaceans. Gideon found the first one and taught me how to catch them by the pincers and break them off to render the creatures harmless. I found one too on the first rock, but it was too small to eat, so I told Gideon we would catch it another day. After about an hour Gideon and I had captured enough crabs to make a tasty snack.

On the Tapanahony, crabs like to crawl on rocks that have water plants for them to hide under. Kumalu nyan-nyan (Kumalu is a type of fish, and nyan-nyan is food) grows all over the place when rocks begin to rise above the water. Kumalu nyan-nyan has stiff leaves, sometimes with spines, which remain submerged. Purple flowers on stalks rise above the water. Gideon and I lifted up the leaves of these plants and found a few crabs. Holes in the rocks are also prime crab hideouts, though they are more difficult to extricate.