Rats & Snakes

February 23, 2008

We have gotten a wonderful chance through the last couple weeks to really experience Chadian creatures to the fullest.

Gary (pilot) and Wendy arrived home one evening with their two little kids and waited patiently while Caleb attempted to unlock the screen door. Finally Wendy pushed past him as he finally opened it, preparing to walk in…until she suddenly saw a big black snake curled between the screen and door. Gary and her each grabbed one of Caleb’s arms and jerked him back. Gary then proceeded to pin it down with a shovel and kill it. They say it was trying to bite itself which is characteristic of poisonous snakes as a defense mechanism if they think they’re going to be killed anyway. Afterwards, Gary identified it as a Black Mamba, neurotoxic…not the kind of snake I ever want to come across!

All the excitement is happening at Gary’s and Wendy’s house. A week ago, while Gary was gone taking James and Sarah to the capital, we went to hang out with Wendy one evening and while getting ready to leave, we thought we saw a cat run around the side of the house. Hans went to check it out and suddenly exclaimed, “Wow! That’s the biggest rat I’ve ever seen!” We all hurried over to check it out and immediately backed away as we saw a big fat rat about a foot long with a 2 foot long tail. From our position of safety (we thought), all of us girls yelled, “Kill it! Kill it!” Hans picked up a large rock and threw it at the nasty rodent. Before we realized it, the rat ran around the corner right into the alleyway that all of us were huddled into. I’m sure the whole village of Bere heard our screams as the confused rat scampered around our dancing feet. Wendy and I have battle wounds from throwing our bodies against the wall to get away. Hans cornered it and proceeded to throw rock after rock until it was dead, belly up. He, of course wanted to save it as a trophy to show the other guys when they returned, but our protests led to launching it over the wall into their neighbor’s courtyard.

Tonight we met the rat’s younger brother while leaving their house again after a great Sabbath. Gary and Hans eagerly took off on the chase to kill it. It tried to crawl up over their fence, but Gary knocked it down with a rock and they beat it to death. After gathering around to ooh and aah over their handiwork, we ended up giving it to the guard who was excited about having a delicious rat dinner that night. He already had the fire going by the time we finally headed home.

Who knows what we’ll find next. I hear scorpion season has started…