Once, one kid said, “My daddy says if you eat three or four snakes in the summer, you won’t feel cold in the winter. And you also get healthier.” We all believed him. So, If we found a snake during work, we would whisper to each other, “Look! It’s a snake!” We would pick up sticks or stones and smash the head of the snake. The dead snake was for everyone who took part in the hunting. We collected dry leaves and firewood. Oh, boy, such a good smell! But you had to be careful with security officers who might be around. Many of us were detected and beaten by security officers for catching and eating snakes. But that did not stop us from hunting snakes because hunger was more serious than “being beaten”
We also ate frog eggs and, whenever possible, caught fish kin the stream, when we were lucky, we caught a squirrel. We ate practically everything except poison. Having survived the first spring in the detention settlement, I found myself to be just like the other children there.
