I wanted to share this story with you because I thought you’d enjoy it too. I originally sent it to my sweet friend who also appreciates all things bug-free and clean, but I thought you all would find a smile if I shared this story here too.

“I took the girls on a walk a couple of days ago and we stumbled upon a sewage gutter alongside the national highway. The mucky mud in the gutter was thick and green but in an effort to not get hit by cars, we were closer to it than I would have preferred. And low and behold, my reptile-lover 8-year-old spotted a bunch of tadpoles in all this scum on the side of the road. (Cultural backstory: Mozambicans hate reptiles and dirt.)

So I half-acknowledged Abi’s discovery hoping to drag the crew back home already when my six-year-old asked if she could touch one. …. yeah…. touch one…. We’re standing alongside the national highway with a million people staring at us and she wants to touch a sewage frog?…

Remembering it’s their childhood, “fine,” I said, hoping we could move on. So she pokes one and I tell her not to put her hands in her mouth or near her face until we get home and wash. Natually, at this point everyone else has to touch one and I have a crazy idea when I saw a broken butter tub nearby. Any guess?

Yep, to the audience of passing Mozambicans, this psycho scooped up four tadpoles from the muck and carried them home, holding them out from her body at a distance so none of the sludge would splatter my skirt, to the utter squealing delight of my kids.

The kids came home, we researched info on tadpole care and we are now the proud owners of four boiled lettuce eating scuzz-suckers who now live on our kitchen table. Ha! And this mother is cleaning out their water here at 10p after I’ve been awake since 3:50a because love makes you do some crazy things.

Goodbye reputation in Moz, hello cone of shame. 😉 And to ease both our consciences, we did a good doctor’s scrub when we got to the house because EWWW!!!”

This process even encouraged some self-initiated drawings and recording of directions so we wouldn’t kill our little friends – so bonus school! =)

The story continues as we faithfully fed those little vermins for a few weeks, even transitioning them to a terrarium and protecting them from the cats. Half of them even survived and transitioned to full-grown frogs! Then we let them go in the “Garden of Eden” in our backyard and I held my breath that the dogs wouldn’t eat them and thus horrify my children. We even wet the ground because compassion matters for these squishy friends.

Would I do it again?

Hands down, absolutely.

Would I still think it disgusting?

Hands down, absolutely!