The Snake

Every night for the last week or so, there has been a power-cut that has begun at around 6pm and that has lasted for two and a half to three hours.  This is hugely inconvenient.  It gets dark in Rwanda at about 6pm and there is not much to do when it is dark.  My laptop battery only lasts for just over an hour so it never lasts for the duration of the power-cut.

On one particular night, I was amusing myself by spending the time making a version of a story about the jungle in order to display it in a classroom for children to read.  There I was, sat in the dark, surrounded by pens and rice sacks which I had spent considerable time cutting to the required banner shape.  I was pretty pleased with my handiwork and was almost finished.  I had my head torch strapped to my head so that I could see the work I was doing.

I got a feeling that something was touching my foot.  I moved my foot ever so slightly, assuming it was one of the many mosquitoes that take the opportunity of the dark to attack me.  However, it was still there.  I decided to look downwards and pointed the beam in the direction of the irritation.  And there, by my foot, was the rear end of a snake.  I have never been this close to a snake before.

I had no idea what to do.  I could feel a certain amount of panic rise in me.  But something was telling me I had to remain calm and be sensible.  Very carefully I stood up and pushed the chair back and stepped away from the snake.  I glanced around and could see that the majority of the snake had tunnelled under my pile of cut rice sacks.  I had no idea what size it was, but it tried to slither further under when I moved.

There was little else to do.  I needed a man to help.  I went outside to seek the help of Patrick.  I told him what I had seen.  He very quickly grabbed hold of a broom and came in to the room.  I showed him the offending article.  He told me we had to find the head.  I said I would help by removing the sacks.  Now, at this time, I could only see the end of the snake and as far as I could see it was not enormous.  It seemed fairly small in circumference and I had no idea how long it was.

On reflection, I am really quite glad that I did not know the identity of the snake.  Patrick told me it was very dangerous, but I am never sure how much is lost in translation.  When I moved the rice sacks, the snake did dart very quickly away from us.  But it went into a corner.  It was hissing.  Patrick quickly managed to pin it’s head down with the broom handle and tried to hit it with another.  The snake was writhing around and it was hard to pin him down.  I managed to remember I had a hammer and between the two of us, the snake received several blows to the head and was eventually stilled.

Patrick then scooped it up in the bowl I had found and I spent some time mopping the floor where the blood had been spilled.  Further analysis has revealed that the snake was a Black Mamba.  One of the fastest, and deadliest snakes in Africa.  It is easy to see how people die quite easily from a snake bite.  When I think of this, a shiver runs down my spine.  That snake was sat by my foot without me noticing.  Had it bitten me and released venom, I would have had about 20mins to get hold of some anti-venom.  Given that I am 2hrs from the main hospitals in Kigali and am a 10min drive from the local hospital - which may well not have anti-venom - I would have been stuffed.  But I am fine.  I have, however, spent most of my time in the house since this incident looking for snakes.  The good news is, I have not see any more.