Eating Ants

I opened up my fresh box of oats in the morning to make oatmeal. As I poured some into my bowl, I noticed that it was moving! There were ants everywhere as well as a few small white worm type things. Yuck! I really wanted oatmeal, though, so I decided to take the time to sift through it and pick them all out. After completing the process, I added my boiling water, cooked my oatmeal, and enjoyed my breakfast. Teonna (another volunteer who just left) told me that I should probably throw that box away because of the worms that she believed were maggots. Since she was leaving, Teonna gave me her oats because they were in a sealed Tupperware container and she said there were no ants or worms in them. Completely believing her, I made oatmeal the next evening without sifting through it. After enjoying a few bites, I looked at my next bite and noticed an ant in my spoon—a cooked ant. I then started pushing my oatmeal around and looking more carefully only to find an abundance of ants! Trying to be a tough missionary, I took two more bites and then decided that was all I could take. I dumped out my oatmeal and made some toast instead. I have found out since then that ants are everywhere and get into everything! Pasta, rice, anything left out, even certain sealed packages! I have now moved a lot of my food to the freezer so even if there were ants, they are now dead and won’t be having any more babies in my food. In order to make it edible, I just need to work on my patience to sift through it!