Monday, August 2nd - A week of Firsts

This past week was a week of victorious firsts - I saw my first snake! I have been hearing stories about these amazing, scary, dangerous, sneaky creatures, but have never laid eyes on one here. On Wednesday, I kept hearing a 'thwap, thwap, thwap' outside and I finally went out to find one of my 4-plex neighbors hitting a snake, that was resting on the verandah, with a stick. Now, let me clue you all in on a little secret - this snake was about the size of an earthworm - but it was black and it had the potential to grow into a very large, venomous creature. So, needless to say, the snake wasn't anything to be nervous about, but I can say that I have seen one!

Another 'first' that I was able to do was oxen plowing. I joined my family group for an afternoon of ox plowing and let me tell you; it is harder and easier than it looks. Harder in keeping it straight, but easier because I need to remember that the oxen are the ones doing the plowing - not me. At least I was able to give a few people some laughs.

As I was walking to church on Sunday morning, I got to see my first "Snake Stoning." There was a green black mamba - I don't know how that works, but they said it was a black mamba - even though it was green. People were stoning it outside of the church, which was rather humorous. But the men and boys were being our protecters by getting rid of a potential threat.

My final "First" for the week started yesterday - I was going to wash dishes and I heard a rattling behind one of my jerri cans and some 'fleshy feet' ran across my own foot! I let out a nice yelp and 2 friends came to my rescue. I then recruited 2 guys from across the way to play "Rat Hunt." Since the Sunday Volleyball games were cancelled due to the rain, I figured this would be a nice activity for them to do - and I was also too freaked out to search for it. They set the traps laced with a rat's favorite - tomato. This afternoon, I caught my first rat! It was quite the sick thrill - The thing was so gross, but I did take a picture of it.

Hopefully all the startling "Firsts" are finished for at least a while. But now that I think of it - startling "Seconds" are sometimes equally as frightening...