Snakes

Right before we came, Cindy started really worrying about scorpions.  I mean, she was REALLY worried about scorpions.  When we were visiting with some of our missionary friends in Bulgaria (who spent many years in West Africa), John said, "It's not the scorpions you need to worry about, it's the snakes!"

He is proving to be very right.  Although we did see one scorpion outside our front porch early on, we haven't seen any others.  We HAVE, however, had some snake incidents.

Not long after we moved into Nalerigu, we were sitting at our dining table one morning when Evan looked out the front door and noticed a snake moving across our front yard.  We ran out, started yelling "wafu" (snake in Mampruli) and the watchmen came running with their sticks and killed it. They said it was a carpet viper.  They are the ones that cause your blood to thin out and not clot.

Then, one night Cindy and I were at a meeting at another house and the kids wanted to go to the school house to get on the internet.  Just like they have been taught, they put on their mosquito spray (to protect from malaria) and grabbed their flashlights (to watch for wafu).  Just down the driveway they nearly stepped right on top of another carpet viper.  They remained amazingly calm, held the light on it to keep in sight, and went for help.  Watchmen to the rescue again!!

Lately, all the grass on the compound has gotten much taller.  There has been lots of rain and the only way the grass gets cut is with a sling blade.  The grass cutters work hard, it just takes  a while.  A little over a week ago, they called me over to see what they had just killed -- a small COBRA -- in our yard.

Thankfully, we moved away from that house hoping to leave the snakes behind.

WRONG!!

This weekend we were doing some cleaning around the house.  We were doing a little "landscaping" by moving rocks from one place to another.  The young boys helping us found a baby snake but it was killed before we could even come over and see. 

The next day, Cindy walked out to the trash pit to throw away some trash and almost stepped on another COBRA!  She said she doesn't know how, but she remained amazingly calm.  Needless to say, the very next day we  hired our own grass cutters to clear away our tall grass.  We've got a pretty big yard, so it will take a while.  We're just being very careful now.  

We have heard several other snake stories:

1. A volunteer doctor walked into the doctors office near the operating room one day and reached up onto the shelf for something.  Thankfully, he had his surgical goggles on, because there was a hissing cobra up on the shelf that spit right into his eyes!!
2. About 10 years ago, right next to our old House 8, a large PYTHON was killed that was over 6 feet long and as big around as a persons thigh!!

We DO have some snake antivenom -- just in case.  But it is a bit unnerving.

Pray for our safety as well as for those we have hired to cut our grass.  

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