Snakes and Ladders/Rakes

 The phone rang…jostling us from our innocent enjoyment of a quiet uneventful evening.   Even the Sun had gone to bed.  It was Peter, the contractor for our new building, and in an eager manner urged us to hasten to the rescue of his workers who were camping out in an old building on the construction site.  It appears that the men had left the women at home and they encountered a snake.  Now, let me warn you it is not uncommon to find poisonous snakes here.  In panic they had called their boss, Peter, who called Katie, who told us, Mani and I, to investigate the matter, and we told...ourselves to be calm.  Arming ourselves with a flashlight, a large sack, our new rebar rake we had made, and a machete we traveled the short distance to the site, fortunately meeting up with the wayward men returning from their little shopping trip.  We advanced to the old building where the women were waiting with the door closed in fear.  Through the grating, one lady informed us that the culprit serpent had been sitting in the front of the door like an anticipating cat purposefully waiting to pounce on any unwary passerby.  Whether because of our resolute approach or for some other cause, we may never know, but the serpent has skulked away to some hidden retreat.  Looking about we spied a sheet of metal lying unobtrusively close by.   If I were a snake, I would love to sleep under a metal sheet.  We all had the same idea and mutely and spontaneously decided to take a peek, from a distance of course.  Just like we feared, when the sheet went up the snake came out and the frenzy began.  Telling us it was poisonous and giving Mani and I no chance to act, the men took our rake and some stones and after a confused kafuffle and high paced action it was over.  Mani ended up with the rake again and had secured the snake in place while the deed was done.  All heaved a sigh of relief and Mani triumphantly lifted the rake, then bent out of any recognizable shape and brought it down victoriously by his side.  I must here tell you of the mistake I made, and that was to stand by Mani.  The rake viciously found a new victim in the form of my foot.   Pain, surprise, and the pent up emotion of the preceding few minute erupted in unintelligible ejaculations.  However, upon close examination I found I had suffered only one minor scratch on my toe.  I think because the rake was so battered my foot found a nook in which it escaped a serious rusty collision.  God was watching out for us that day.  The serpent that had disturbed us was rather big, 47 inches long and about the thickness of a baseball bat.  We have also come to the conclusion that it is probably a python and not some poisonous viper as feared.

Now with every experience comes a lesson to be learned if desired.  For me the moral of the story is never stand by Mani if he has a tool or weapon in his hands…the result can be painful.  I guess that does not apply to everyone since few have the opportunity to be in Mani’s company.  Let say that the moral is look before you strike, because you may find out the snake is not dangerous and could have been saved or that the foot really is not worth striking anyway!

I hope you enjoyed this adventure with David the “one footed” Post Host.  So if you have toes stay on them because you never know when I will post again.  Sorry there are no pictures on this one.