In other news, Kris killed a black cobra yesterday (Jan 8). I’ll let him share the details of the actual slaying, I’ll just tell you what I saw. Another PCV and I were biking back from Kpassa so she could share a meal and company with us for the day. We arrived nearly unrecognizable due to, you guessed it, dust. Kris went to put our bikes in the room attached to our house; he jumped back out of the room proclaiming he saw a black snake. I remembered there are no black mambas in Ghana, but unluckily we have a similarly poisonous black snake in the black cobra. He started in the room after it; I picked up the phone and called a friend in the village. I told him we had a black snake in our house, he said, “I’m coming,” and in a minute he arrived.
The other PCV and I were observing from a close distance (me with camera in hand) while the men were seeking out the snake in our cluttered room. After several minutes I could hear a loud thumping noise (Richard with his large strong stick) and a clanking of metal on concrete (Kris with our small garden shovel). Once it was deemed dead, Kris brought it out, dangling from a couple small sticks. Snakes have blood inside them, this was the first time I visualized said statement. The snake was sentenced to death by beating, then cremated. We did not eat it, and I think the rationale behind burning it was to protect the kids who would inevitably poke around in our trash pile. Certainly a venomous snake albeit dead should be neither a child’s toy nor dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment