Killing snakes

My third night in my house in the hills.
The children are singing. And I mean maybe hundreds of them. It sounds more horrible than The Chipmunks Christmas collection. I mean, wowza, those kids sing high and loud. And it’s like 11 o’clock! Parents of Lopit, get your children in bed already! And, while you’re at it, get some clothes on those kids! Haha. Juuuuust kidding.
Tonight we had the single fellas over for dinner. It was another long day of working and moving, so we decided a nice dinner on the rock cliff outside our house would be refreshing. We even made food—and it wasn’t horrible! (This, my friends, is a miracle.)
We had a beautiful view of the moonrise over the Three Sisters, the three mountain peaks that define the area. It was so, so incredible. (My camera didn’t get it. Sorry.)
But the real excitement came later.
Mom, stop reading.
So we’re doing dishes and I turn around to see a black snack slithering sideways across our dirt floor. Talk about scary. Pattie (one of my roomies) freaks out, starts jumping around and runs outside, screaming still. I’m laughing and hollering for someone to get me the broom or something heavy. (Unfortunately, the snake was between me and all such blunt tolls.) Kim’s (other roomie) was bringing the volume about how she thinks it’s poisonous and finally—in what I consider a moment of brilliance—suggests the half-full Nalgene bottle on the table as my weapon of choice. Or, I guess, weapon of necessity. (Nalgene bottles are ‘indestructible’ water bottles.)
So I pick that baby up and start taking aim to the tune of Kim yelling, “This is it, Andi! This has got to count!”—and WHAM I nail the thing just below the head, pause, then hit it again before it whips itself into a spiral in pain.
Pattie’s still yelling outside, I’m still laughing and Kim’s applauding the effort. I try to comfort Pattie by saying it’s head, but she’s no drop and still sees there’s traces of life in the thing—she’s been watching it all unfold from the doorway. So I deliver one last punishing blow and erase its head. Whew.
It took a while to get poor Pattie back in the house—I had to bag up my kill and throw it out the other door first—but finally she came in and, after I thoroughly checked her room for any more of the poisonous buggers, she’s now settled happily in bed. (At least I haven’t heard from her in a while.)
But, geesh, how scary. It did do something to remind me of where I’m at and give me a sense of the danger here. I realized, too, later, that this probably isn’t the last snake. And all the encounters might not go so well. That’s what I like the least. (I really don’t want snakes in my bed.)
Haha.
But, yes… the adventures of Africa.