The past 48 hours have been filled with lots of excitement. In addition to the bushbuck, diker, and vervet monkeys that we see around from time to time, and mouse we had in the house on Tuesday, this week has done a good job of convincing me that , yes, we do actually live in a relatively wild part of Africa:
1. Wednesday morning as I was unlocking the Arensens' house to begin construction, when with my peripheral vision I noticed two eyes peering at me. As I turned, I noticed a two and a half foot boomslang climbing the bricks of your wall. Boomslangs use the same vemon as vine snakes - one of the few with no antivenin. Thankfully, like the vine snake, the boomslang is also incredibly docile. I knocked it down with a stick and Michael killed it and we fed it to the ants (which are also swarming because of the rains).
2. Then on Wednesday night, as I walked between the hot water heater and our house in the dark, I heard something to the side of the path. Turning my pathetic little nearly-dead flashlight in the direction of the sound, not three feet from my foot, the coil of a huge black cobra! I freaked out, jumped back, as it slithered away hunting rats...it was 6-7 feet long! I ran the fifteen feet back to our house and promptly closed all of our windows until dawn.
3. To top off all of that, this morning I walked Katrina down to the zipline, as she crossed for school. As Katrina prepared to swing across, we heard a HUGE splash, followed by a massive explosion of foul-smelling bubbles...hippopotamus! Further confirmation of the hippo footprints that David found on their driveway last week.
We are anxiously awaiting our friend Dan's arrival this weekend. Maybe he will be able to independently verify for you all the plethora of fauna sightings we've had here at Masumbo.
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4 comments:
Am mightily impressed by the boomslang, as the only venomous snakes I've ever seen at Masumbo was one wee terrified vine snake and one angry cobra who Melissa and I accidentally interfered with during a reptile sunbathing session... Large cobra at night sighting would have made me very unhappy--keep the windows closed!
Which banda are you living in? Lisa
Hey Lisa! We are in the banda that you stayed in during my program. We are even attempting to plant GRASS in the front lawn where there is only hard earth! :-) By the way, what's your email?
Dang. So far we've only encountered one venemous animal...you're beating us!
hahaha wow! yeah... no venemous animals, reptiles or otherwise, here in WNY. I'm jealous of Dan. grins (not concerning possible confrontations with venemous creatures, but the fact that he gets to spend time with you in TZ!)
Love you guys!!
hey! When do you head off to the Philippines?
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