This is the blog that disappered, that I meant to post a couple of days ago…
On Sunday, I went to church and caught up with Becca and Morgan afterwords. They mentioned that the girls were planning on going to the waterpark that afternoon and we were to meet up with them. When we met up the girls, they decided to go to the concert instead. I was exhausted, so I opted out and came back home to relax and just catch up on stuff.
I was thrilled to be in air-condition and have the place to myself. I had the night all planned out. I would journal, read, rest and do some laundry. So, I ran the first load down and some time later, ran the second one down there.
I got down to the bottom of the steps and noticed that the lights in the kitchen were off. I knew that the light switch was on the wall near the washer, so I walked, in the dark towards the washer. I put my right foot down on something squishy. I then felt something weird move over my foot and to the left side of it.
I don’t scream in intense situations like that, I say “Ew” and “Blagh” a lot and can hear my heart beat in my ears. So, that’s what happened along with me throwing the laundry stuff on the counter while doing a little dance all the way back to the doorframe. I tried to see what I had stepped on.
The kitchen has a open metal grate over the sewer. I’ve seen a rat run across the floor before as well as a little animal that looks like a chipmunk with a squirel’s tail. (They also keep them as pets here) I assumed that I stepped on the rat. However, once I was back in the doorway, I saw that it wasn’t a rat that I stepped on, but a snake!
By then I was really freaking out as I watched it slither under the lockers. What on earth was I going to do? Why me? Where are the guys? Do I just forget about my laundry for tonight? So many questions were running through my head. So, I got this, brillant idea that I needed to turn on a light before I got anyone, to make sure we could see the snake, in case it moved more and tried to escapre. (I have no idea what I was thinking) So, I climbed onto the counter, kind of hopped from the counter to a laundry basket and then onto the dryer-slid across that to the washer and hit the light switch.
The snake’s head was now poking out from under the lockers. My plan had worked up till this point, but it was then that I realized I had no idea what to do next. So, once again, coming up with another brillant plan, I decided to try to sprint for the doorway, to see if I could find someone to take care of the situation. I wondered if the snake would attack me though, so (again, not using my head) I decided to test it first by throwing things at it to see if if moved. After throwing a couple of things, nothing happened. So, I made my big break for the door and made it with out a problem.
I heard a girl’s voice out in the hallway. There was a YWAM group from Hawaii there, so I thought it would be best to go get her and see what she thought and maybe one of her guys would be willing to kill it. I calmly approached her and asked if she knew if any of the guys were good at handling snakes. She looked a little confused (I suppose she didn’t get that question often) and asked why. I told (and showed) her the snake in the kitchen. She started yelling for her guys and eventually two of them came into the kitchen. The one guy goes,”Oh, he’s a little guy” followed by “Actually, we should probably get the Thai guy out front”. When we got the guy, he just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t know what to do with it. The guys ended up finding a big stick and hitting it on the head with it. And that’s the end of the snake story 🙂
When they pulled the snake out with the stick, it ended up being about a foot and a half long and had black, red and white rings around it. One of the guys thought it was a coral snake. I didn’t care what kind it was, as long as it was taken care of. It’s funny, but in Africa, I thought it would be the coolest thing to see one…not up close, but just to see one to say that I saw a live snake on the trip. All that to say, be careful what you wish for!!!
