chasing the snake!

Today's update on our snake situation! He has been seen again, sliding under the gate out of one compound and back through a drainage hole in the wall back into the other compound, and out again when he heard voices! So we have blocked up our drainages holes until rainy season comes round again, and this evening Marc and Philémon burnt the long grasses out in front of our compound wall where the snake was hiding this morning. Here is a photo taken over the wall:

Hopefully the snake will soon realise that life around here is far too eventful for a shy being like himself, and will slither away to pastures new. Or be killed.

newest neighbour?

When I last saw a snake on our property, it was a cute little thing, black-and-white striped and only about 20cm long. I was a little concerned that a child could have been tempted to touch it without realising what it was, and we had a serious talk with our boys.

Last Thursday morning during break-time I heard a pandemonium, and Benjy crying loudly. The boys and their friend Jochabed came running into the house, and we learned that they'd seen a snake. Benjy was simply crying from the unexpected shock. They'd apparently seen it drop out of a tree and slide away from them, and had very sensibly run in the opposite direction.

We have two compounds on the mission property here. The children saw the snake in our house compound, but the next day Marc saw it - probably the same one, given the description - in the other compound when he was out running. He grabbed a stick, but it managed to hide in some kind of burrow.

So today Marc and the translators went to have a look for it. Philémon is a particularly good snake killer, and having experienced "hunters" around seemed safer! They didn't find anything, though, and their conclusion was that we'd probably scared it off ... let's hope so!

The "snake hunt":