Sorry Steve Irwin

I came out of our
room looking for Jessica, she had just been in the kitchen and now I couldn’t
find her. It was Tuesday, which for the girls on my team means, Beauty from the
Ashes or the older women’s group. We don’t have enough chairs for all of the
women so many of us sit on extra mattresses or the floor. In preparation the
main room was being swept a few moments before and the women were all waiting
patiently outside. I motioned for the women to come inside still scanning the
grounds for Jessica. Where could she have gotten off to?? I asked our
housekeeper Phindile if she had seen where Jess had gone (when we can pay
someone and give them a job we do, so she cleans our house three times a week
for R120). “Jess is out front”, she said, motioning towards the porch where we
have church and many kids play. ‘Great Jess, you know women’s group is about to
start, what the heck are you doing?’ I thought to myself.

I found her
stabbing a kitchen knife through the slats on the porch outside our room.
Either she or some of the kids had found an inyoka (pronounced in-yoga). That’s
siSwati for snake. It’s front half was pinned under parts of the
foundation. In southern Africa, most snakes are feared and for good reason.
Where as in the states there are only four kinds of venomous serpents, here
there are many and most you find are considered dangerous. I went inside to go
get Bryan. He excitedly jumped up and followed me to the porch so that he could
kill it. Sorry Steve Irwin and all snake lovers, the venomous kind don’t get to
live in these parts where they are likely to strike a child. Bryan eventually
pulled it up onto the porch so he could cut off the head, then burn the body
(Jess had killed it by this point). I was already inside with the women but
Jess got a video of it.

 After I watched the video I went to get my
guide book on snakes of Southern Africa. Yes, I have guide book for them. The
Swazis kept calling it a spitting cobra but I just wanted to make sure since
snakes are commonly mistaken for others. They were certainly correct, a Mozambique
spitting cobra to be exact. The snakes are pretty venomous, but not very
aggressive; I guess that’s why it was trying to hide under the porch. Could
have been worse, could have been a black mamba!