The Wandering Three and The Unwelcome Visitor

Last friday we had just gotten home from a visit to Nyandhoma Early Childhood Development Center (ECD) and were sitting around the table in the living room when all of the sudden Olivia screams ''OH MY GOD THERE'S A SNAKE IN OUR HOUSE!!'' Naveed, Oti, and I turn around and see a bright green snake coiled in the mail slot of our door. Ever since we've arrived here in usenge Naveed has been saying that he wanted to see a snake (preferably a black mamba).  Now imagine our surprise to find the very thing that Naveed has been wishing, hoping, praying, asking, and nagging for to appear inside our house.
So anyways, we all jump up and away from the door, then Naveed runs for the camera, but then wants a close up so he runs for the other camera to get some better pictures.  While we're all busy snapping away at the green snake's impromptu photo shoot, Oti, the only practical one, runs outside and comes back with a big stick and a rock to kill the thing. Meanwhile, our neighbor Paul along with Kofi Annan had just happened to stop by for a visit and wanted to know what all the commotion was about, and when he heard "snake" he also runs in armed with two big sticks. So there we all were, Naveed taking close up shots of the pretty snake, me also taking pictures, but keeping my distance, Oti armed with a stick and a rock, Paul armed with two sticks, and Olivia hiding in a bedroom. It was showdown time.  Of course, Naveed and I would have been happy to continue the photo shoot, but our brave Kenyan friends were a little bit more wise and kept saying "ok, let us kill it; enough pictures..." Finally they told us it was poisonous so that put an end to the fun, cameras away and big sticks came out. Paul went in first and made a jab at it, but instead of slithering out the mail flap in the door like I thought it would, the snake came in the room, flopped on the floor and made a mad dash away from Paul and his big sticks. Unfortunately for me, the snake was heading in my direction, so I jumped on top of Oti's bed, while thinking to myself "Holy Cow! This is scary!'' But also at the same time, ''Why aren't I filming this?'' So I'm scrambling to change the camera settings, while Naveed and Oti are backing away from the action to give Paul some space, Paul is going after the snake with his sticks, and Olivia is screaming in the background.  Paul lunged with the stick but missed and the snake reared its head and hissed. Sadly I didn't get the camera into video fast enough because all too soon the snake got a smack down: Neighbor Paul 1, Green Snake 0. Paul scooped it on the stick and carried it outside where part two of the photo shoot commenced, but finally that bright green snake met its final and rather stinky end of being dumped down the outhouse. After all that excitement we said a very heartfelt thanks to neighbor Paul (the very same savior from the midnight cat episode.)  He waved goodbye and along with Kofi Annan strode off into the sunset.  We went back inside and sat in the living room (though no one sat very close to that highly dangerous mail flap) to ponder these recent events and thank our lucky stars that no one had been bit.  Oti and Paul had told us that the snake was a green mamba and so our curiosity got the better of us and we found ourselves researching green mambas on Wikipedia. We read that they are not as poisonous as a black mamba, but any bites if not treated are fatal.  (As this was being written we had the sudden panic attack that we might get Paul into trouble for killing an endangered species, though the thought of someone reading this blog, finding Usenge and then finding the right Paul is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, and in our defense it was endangering our lives.) So after thoroughly shocking and horrifying ourselves with all the gory details that Wikipedia so handily supplied (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_green_mamba) we then thought it a good time to read the directions of the snake bite kit that Naveed had brought. Unfortunately the kit was a little more simple than we had hoped and doesn't contain antivenmon, but still its better than nothing. So yes, that was our fun day with a surprise visit from a green mamba.
Naveed spends his time developing conspiracy theories as to how the snake managed to slither up a very smooth iron door and into our mail slot, we'll keep you updated if he thinks of anything good... For now we've ruled out aliens, flying snakes, neighbor Paul planting a snake to play the hero, and a bird dropping it precisely into the mail flap. Oti blames Naveed for this encounter as he says that when you wish to see a snake it will come. Apparently Naveed didn't learn his lesson because following the green mamba episode he has been asking for a black mamba.. Olivia and I are praying that the nearby black mamba does not answer Naveeds call.

Nothing else has been quite so exciting in comparison, just more ECDs, laundry, cooking, reading, teaching Oti computer lessons and card games, etc... We did invent a fun, if slightly depressing new game to play. Every time we cook a meal and are waiting to eat it we name our cravings of the day. Each person gets one drink, one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert. Its actually quite entertaining (until we realize we're eating dahl, soup, or rice yet again ;)   Well, here's an example: Today Olivia wished she had a mango lasse, pigs in a blanket, the entire diavola pizza from primastrada pizzeria, and the great wall of chocolate from P F Chang's and Naveed wanted bottomless strawberry lemonade from Red Robin, poutine from New York Fries, a bucket of extra crispy Kentucky Fried Chicken, and creme brulee from the marina in Oak Bay.  (He also wanted Mary's sugar cookies but he wants those every day so they don't count.. And he would also like to add a disclaimer that today he was in the mood for greasy food.. our chapatis today were rather oily... But I don't know if it met the demand)
In other exciting news from today we discovered that Lake Victoria, like Lake Malawi, also has lake flies. There weren't quite as many as what I'd seen from the Wandering Two's pictures from Malawi, but the water did look like it was on fire, with what looked like large wispy clouds of smoke hovering over the surface. Unfortunately it was rather windy and we began to see swarms of the very same lake flies outside our windows so we made a mad dash through the house to seal off the windows and save ourselves from them.
Tomorrow we have one last visit to an ECD before they all close for the April break.
Love,
The Wandering Three