Around the world

Around the world; a Nation Hopper's journy to teach on all 7 continents.




Friday, November 4, 2011

Cobra

I was playing Uno with Suzen's son Jacob. People started shouting in Telugu. Jacob's eyes grew wide. "Snake!" He yelled before launching himself out of the room. Suzan came in, her hair was wet from the shower she just took. I stood up. "Is it a cobra?" I asked jokingly. Suzen's eyes got wide and she nodded her head up and down. "Yes it is." We rushed through the house, into the kitchen and to the back door. Her father in law was yelling, there was a girl on the other side of the screen, standing in a door way to a garden and house. There was a wall directly in front of me, I couldn't see anything. "My camera!" I rushed back through the house, shook out half the contents of my over stuffed purse, grabbed the camera and ran back to the kitchen. We all had our noses pressed against the screen. Suzan's father in law was telling us to stay in the hose. He sounded close by. Suzen was talking anxiously in Telugu, Jacob had his head thrust through a hole in the screen. Suzan turned to me. "Do you want to see it?" She asked. 'Hell yes.' I thought to myself, and responded in a more polite way. We pushed the screen door and fell onto the porch steps. Suzan's father in law was standing on a pile of bricks stacked up against the house, he was stabbing at the ground with a heavy metal bar. I pressed my head against the screen door and looked between the bricks and the house. It was indeed a cobra. With a hiss it shot out and over the bricks. We all jumped back. I gasped. He was a huge sucker, 3 meters long (that's 9 feet), bright green with a black and gold mark on the back of its fanned out head. He coiled up, raising his head a good two feet off the ground. His hood was spread wide, tongue flicking in and out of his mouth. He had beady eyes that were as black as night. I seized Jacob by the back of his shirt and threw him in the house. Ruth was clinging to Suzan, her eyes wide with terror. One of the neighbors, we'll call him Kent, circled around the snake with a large stick. Kent raised the stick and was about to club the snake in the head when the cobra turned. His head struck out, snapping its jaws. Kent jumped out of the way in time. Another neighbor, lets call this one Hank, hefted a steal pipe as thick as my arm and swung it at the snake. The snake launched itself into the air. I was shocked. The cobra got it's entire body off the ground. Man and snake collided in mid air. the woman were screaming, the men cursing and jumping up and down. It was chaos. Suzen had disappeared into the house. I was pressed against the side of the house. Hank was wrestling with the cobra not five feet from me. The snake was whipping its body back and forth, coiling around the Hank's leg. He was too preoccupied with the other end to notice. During the collision he had managed to wedge the pipe between his face and the cobra's snapping jaws. He scrambled backwards, desperate to get away. Kent had collected himself and his huge stick. He ran forward and brought the stick down hard on the snakes back. The cobra stopped moving, the coils slowly unwinding from Hank's leg. We all let out a breath of relief. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the cobra pick up its head, his jaw was open so wide I could see the two poisonous fangs glinting in the sun light. I screamed. Kent turned around. Hank's eyes were wide with fear as the cobra sank it's teeth into his neck. Hank cried out in pain and started thrashing around. His hands waved around widely, trying to push the snake away. It was no use, the snake's fangs were sunk in deep.

Are ya'll buying this?

No?

Dang.

Well, I really did see a cobra today. Was he 3 meters long? Not even close. Maybe three feet. Did Hank really wrestle with it in the dirt in Suzan's back yard? Nope. C'mon Manda, was there really a snake? Yes, there was, I have pictures to prove it.

Here's the real story.

I was playing Uno with Jacob, there was a big commotion in the kitchen. Jacob yelled snake and jumped up, I ran after him. I met Suzan in the kitchen. "Is it a cobra?" I joked. She nodded her head excitedly. We all gathered at the kitchen door, but we couldn't see squat. All the exciting stuff was going on directly to the right of the door, close to the house. Suzan's father in law deemed it safe for us to come out of the house. He was standing on top of a pile of bricks about a foot away from the house. I looked down between the bricks. He had a large pipe smashed into the ground, a green tail poked through. Kent and Hank came over with big sticks. They climbed on top of the brick pile and began smashing the bloody hell out of the snake. After about five minutes, they pulled the thing out. It was about three feet, bright green. They had bashed its brains out. The cobra's head looked like it had been put through a clothes press. It's body was slowly wriggling around. Kent pinned what was left of the head down on the ground while I snapped a few pictures that can be viewed below. Thankfully for Hank, he walked away unscathed.

Wasn't the first story so much more interesting?



From left to right: Kent, Hank, Suzan's father in law



Notice how Kent does not have shoes on. This is how 'real' men do it.


I am in a hugely grouchy sarcastic mood, thanks to the cold I now have. I spent Wednesday in Shilaja's class, where most of the kids were either out sick or sniffling and sneezing all over the place. I took precautions, not touching anyone, washing my hands way more then necessary, and taking extra vitamins when I got home.



Thursday was spend at Mark school, which I forgot to tell you Sue is turning into a house to move into. Everything was covered in a foot and a half of dust and spiders as big as my face. I was not a happy camper that day. I stood uselessly to the side, half hearted caring out paper, one pieces of a time while suffering from violent sneezing attacks, a runny nose and eyes that itched like the dickens. When I woke up this morning I figured all the snot and sneezes were due to the fun day breathing in a pound of dust. However, as I prepared for teacher training at 1, I was hit by a dont of bricks.

From left to right, Ravinder (math), Vajayaloxmi (Hindi), and Rajitha (English)

From left to right: Treeza (Science), Padma (ermm.. Social studies?), and Azia (Koti's replacement for Telugu and GK-aka general knowledge)
From left to right: Srinivous (social studies), Marry (arts and crafts/spelling), and Rebbecca (library). In the back ground you can see the library, the kitchen to its right, and the trolly.

From left to right: Rehana, Yashoda, Shilaja, and Soloman


My head split open, my sinus were rebelling as though they were twenty feet under the water, and every breath hurt. I muscled through training and the cobra event. Fought with the Internet for a hour or two to get this posted. Now I am going to sleep. I'm not even gonna do the dishes. And there isnt a thing anybody can do. 

Shilaja's tattoo, it's her grandmothers name. If you remember, she got it when she 8 years old.

Yashoda's tattoo that is the symbol for the goddess of wisdom

Yashoda's tattoo of the moon goddess

1 comment:

  1. I like the first story WAY better... Except for Hank getting bitten in the neck :p

    ReplyDelete