Our guest bathroom’s drain pipe for the sink and bathtub has been backing up so I had to dig both the pipe and the soak-away up. It was a solid day’s work but I got quite the reward. A friend was helping me and in the process we ran across a giant rat that had been living in the soak-away. He killed it and Talata promptly started prepping it for our lunch. She made a light soup with the rat meat which we enjoyed with some white rice.
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what species of rat it was. In Mampruli it is a called a dayuuwa and considered one of the best tasting bush meats (we agree!). In English, folks usually refer to these as cane rats or grass cutters. However, cane rats are much larger and more suited for the wetter climate of southern Ghana. I’m thinking it may be an Emin’s pouched rat (Cricetomys emini).
Giant pouched rats of the Cricetomys genus are popular pets, easily tamed, and even used for their bomb and tuberculosis sniffing abilities.
Maybe we should keep the next one as a pet instead of stewing it!
I also found two snakes while digging. One was the always awesome worm snake but the other was a very-not-awesome night adder!