Friday, October 16, 2009

interesting conversation

What do you talk about after church during fellowship time? Maybe you get into a deeper discussion about the sermon. Or maybe just polite conversation about the weather, boys, girls, relationships, kids, grandkids, or work. Maybe it is about natural disasters, news items, global economics, or world poverty. Maybe you chat about upcoming projects or studies. Sometimes you have conversations, that are just fun - light banter. Do you remember any of these conversations. Recently, after worship during the fellowship, we had a conversation that I just can't seem to stop thinking about. The topic - snakes, yes, snakes. All kinds, the King Brown, the Red Belly Black, the Tiger Snake, and Death Adder to name them specifically. All can be found around here. Now, people who know me know I don't like snakes. But I learned a bit about them. I learned that they can be found in washing machines. I learned that "in the good ol' days" snakes were routinely shot. Now because of animal protection, people call have them them removed. So there were several stories about snake removal. I learned that the gas pipeline crew employs a snake handler to go ahead of the work crews and relocate the snakes. I learned that you can often tell if you have a snake around by listening to the frogs. Apparently, frogs make a very distressed sound when being eaten by a snake. I will be listening for that for sure. I also learned a few ways people keep snakes away. Apparently, if you drape the shade material used for shade sails around fences, snakes will get trapped like a net so that they can be removed before you happen across one accidently. I will not forget this conversation for some time.

1 comment:

Erin Marie said...

We had a couple of snake incidents in Kenya. The main one was when the kids found a snake in the pile of rocks we had collected for building the floor of the school. We tried to simply scare it away, but we weren't sure if it was poisonous or not, and didn't want it to get into the temporary school.

Adam ended up having to kill it with a shovel, and he said that it haunted his dreams for weeks.

Then there was the massive python on the road to Hell's Gate. Snakes are seriously bad juju in Africa, so locals kill them whenever they see them. This was definitely one of the biggest snakes I've ever seen. Our matatu driver actually turned the van around so that we could stop and take photos.

That said, I think I've seen more snakes in The Gap than I ever saw when I was living out west. I think you'll be okay.