A boy, a mouse burrow, and a snake

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Last night, right after supper, I got a call. It was one of the health workers. Someone had come to his home and asked if he would give a 9 year old child with a snakebite an injection.  The bite was 3 days old and the first shot had been administered at a hospital. Knowing he lived too far to come back each day for subsequent shots, they sent the vial home with instructions to find a health person to administer them. He hadn't received yesterday's shot and had cried from pain all the previous night, so they were desperate. Since health workers aren't trained to give injections, they called me. 

It was dark already so I picked up one of our guards to accompany me along with the health worker who received the call. We drove along a wide dirt path that wound through the huts in the local community. After taking several left, then right, then left again turns along the path, and where the trail by then was very narrow, we stopped.  From there we walked to the home where the child was. The guys with me used their cell phones to light their way. I had brought my MAG light and in a community that has no electricity and is very dark at night, I was the brightest beacon for miles around.

When we reached the child's home we found the family in the yard huddled around a small fire. This is customary here. The fire in one's yard is central to all evening activity since it provides both heat and light. This is where food is prepared, then eaten, and where evening socializing occurs until bedtime. 

We greeted the adults then called for the child with the snakebite. He got up from amid the group and walked slowly toward us. All eyes were on us from the darkness as we worked in the beam of my bright light.

The boy's hand was very swollen from the wrist to the fingertips and he had a draining gash on the bitten finger. Apparently he had been out hunting field mice so he could have some meat in his stew. (Meat is an absolute luxury in these parts.)  He found a mouse's burrow but when he put his hand in to grab the mouse, discovered a snake instead (which was probably there because it had eaten the mouse).  

 I asked why his finger had a gash instead of puncture holes from a snake. I was told that per tradition, the puncture site had been cut open to remove possible fangs left behind by the snake. I know about this tradition, actually. So I launched into my usual explanation that the chance of a fang being left behind is very, very low while the chance of the wound becoming infected is very, very high. Rather just leave it alone. But I know letting go of long-held traditions and beliefs is difficult. I have some myself. We all do. And even though my explanation is received with subtle skepticism, I give it anyway. I am convinced that things can change over time if we are patient yet consistent.

Anyway, to wrap things up... We decided on the best course of treatment, gave him medicine to help bring the inflammation down, and prayed for him. Today, the boy and his uncle stopped by for a check up. The boy reportedly had slept soundly and his hand was visibly less swollen. He was in much better spirits and chattered away with me while I cleaned and bandaged his finger. 

We'll closely follow his recovery and trust we can keep damage to a minimum. When they left, I told him that next time he's out mouse hunting for meat for his "caril" (stew), rather probe the holes with a stick than his hand. And I couldn't help but restate the part about not cutting a snakebite open to search for fangs. He's young, and impressionable, and I hope he remembers. I also hope that when he tells his friends his story, he includes that and the part about using a stick to probe the burrow instead. Maybe we can save someone else needless injury and pain.

A hand is far too high a price to pay for a bit meat.

Warming Up

Winters in this part of Mozambique are cold, and this winter has been especially cold. Some guests from colder climates sort of smile when we say this. I suppose once you've tented in -10C, +10C doesn't exactly rate. But this week, it didn't look like anyone minded standing in the sunny spot for morning devotions after a long Mozambique-cold night.

At 7 a.m. the sun's rays are still rather weak, and only come in at a slant, so sunny spots are scarce. But when you're really cold you find those spots. I do anyway, and it looks like these guys do too.


You know how some days take a weird twist? Well, I seldom take my camera to morning devotions to take pictures. I'm not sure why I snapped this one below either, and I had no idea at the time (neither did they) what was hanging in the tree right behind them.


Until Heather, who was beside me, pointed and whispered, "Is that a SNAKE hanging from that tree?!"

Yep. A twig (bird, or vine) snake.
Cleverly disguised and swaying ever so gently even though there was no breeze.
Probably he was cold too and this was the only unoccupied sunny spot he could find!

It was sure hard to stay focused on devotions.

Dwight later lifted him onto the branch so we could see him better. I think he's stunning.

There's been an increase in snake-track sightings this week (by me, anyway), and thankfully our days have been warming up. So I guess the +40's are on their way.

Big fat snake track.

Little, skinny (juvenile?) snake track.

Unfortunately, the cold winter has meant we've seen an increase in then number of burn victims at the health posts too. Mostly it's children sleeping too close to hut fires to stay warm at night and the blanket or their clothes catch alight. In one particularly sad case, a young boy sustained extensive 3rd degree burns to his chest, back and one upper arm. We couldn't get to his home by vehicle so had to walk there to get him and take him to hospital.

The men carry the boy the 20 minute walk, on a grass mat, to where our vehicle is. Concerned women family members follow.

(This happened during seminar last week. Several monitors who were visiting a local bush church came across this home and helped out by calling us then gave money to help with related costs. I was moved by their kindness.)

Because the burns were so extensive, and because the child had other special needs, he was taken to Vanduzi Hospital.

We are thankful that the others can be treated at the health posts and for donations toward blankets that have come in for them.

Moving along here... Besides being a cold week, last week was a busy one too with people coming and going.

We welcomed Rick Cogbill, Todd Green and Ed Hyslip who are here to teach a mechanics course, fix vehicles, and contribute in a number of other ways. We also said goodbye to Tony and Leila, and Urs as well.

(Urs, straight above. Willing servant...everyone misses you already.)

It was great to have Tony and Leila here participating in the seminar...

And Leila's Brazilian Portuguese came in very handy for interpreting for a few days for the mechanic's course.

Todd Green teaching a session while Leila interprets.

Some of the donated materials for which we are very thankful!
To see more photos of their activities, check Rick's latest blog post.

Otherwise, there was the usual hum of building activities.

Here, trusses go up for our car port. (The previous one dangerously collapsed during rainy season.)

Andy making progress on his carport/room he hopes to move into soon.

This water tank was purchased largely by a donation from Brazilian partners. It will be used to provide running water for the mission's primary school and health post.
Running water is a good thing :)

Work carries on at the training center. We're so thankful for this machine that helps speed the job along!

We're also thankful it actually got up to +29C one day this week. Even if it means snakes are out and about more. And even if it means we'll soon to into the intolerable +40'sC. Somehow it's always nice when things warm up a bit.

Pouco-pouco

There's a saying here, "Pouco-pouco vai longe". Its English equivalent would be, "Slow and steady wins the race". That saying is used a lot here because speed is a luxury we simply often don't have in the developing world. Speed, one can generally live without. Persistence, on the other hand, is essential. Because without persistence, you have nothing.

These were the thoughts going around in my mind yesterday as I watched the backhoe at work. Let me state at the outset that work with the backhoe has far outpaced moving soil a shovelful at a time, which is the way we were doing it before!

This is how it used to go. A group of guys, each with a shovel in hand, would loosen dirt then swing it a shovel full at a time up onto the truck. The soil would then be driven to the training center site where it would be unloaded in like fashion...one shovel full at a time. It was a bit like ants moving a bowlful of sugar one grain at a time. Not ideal, but you can get the job done if you keep at it.

With the backhoe, things are moving much quicker. Even if not "speedy" by some standards.

Imagine the work and time the backhoe saves here.

Dumping the load of dirt.

Returning for more soil.
(The "sugar bowl" empties a lot quicker when you have a scoop!)

Here, the guys spread the dirt as it gets dumped.
The goal is to fill with dirt to the floor line (at the bottom of the doors).

Future classroom currently being used to store roof tiles.

With more roof tiles up, and plastering in place, it looks more like a "real" building.

Sometimes though, we're happy if something goes slowly here. Like the speed with which a Puff Adder moves toward you. They're poisonous, and there are plenty of them, so it's good that they're not a fast snake. It would be nice if they moved out of the way a bit quicker, but then, you can't have it both ways :)

A puff adder that was found on the road leading to the airstrip.

Dwight discovered him just minutes before Mushu (our little dog) and I came waltzing happily along.

In strike pose.
(Photo credit for Puff Adder photos: Paul Middleton of Mercy Air)

They may not move fast but they do strike fast. But first, they huff and puff in warning (hence the name).

I mentioned in a previous post that there have been a lot of snake tracks around here of late.
This is on the airstrip. It was only one of about 6 snake tracks I saw.

A bit more news:

Francisco and Mateus stopped by the mission the other day. They both receive sponsorship so they can stay in school. Here, Mateus (who is blind) reads a note from his sponsor done in Portuguese AND in braille. He was very pleased!

It was such a busy week I didn't get to go see my friend Robert for dressing changes. But the health workers say he's doing well. "He even brings the grass mat out himself now for us to sit on for dressing changes. Usually a family member would bring it out for him." He's been getting home visits for about 3 weeks now and soon won't need them anymore. Slow and steady wins the race.

Mushu agrees.
Slow and steady. And how about a bit of soft too, please?

Happy weekend everyone.

Connectedness

In order to achieve important (for that matter, most) things in life, connections of all sorts have to take place.

Some take a good ear.

And some, a good eye.

Actually, Ernesto and I had an interesting week last week. First, we spent some time doing health checks on school kids. We've been working at getting the new health post organized and functional, and things are going well. There's been one rather big obstacle though--there is no easy way for us to connect with him (a good 20 or so km away from the mission base) and vice versa. So if he or the school staff have trouble of any sort, they have to try to communicate via bush telegraph (aka: sending messages with people on foot).

Recently, with the arrival of Vodacom to our area, we've had better cell phone contact. In other words, we have reception in our yard and there is also reception at the mission's school and clinic. So I asked Ernesto if he still had the cell phone that he bought a year or two ago. "Yes, but the battery swelled after its last charge so it doesn't fit in or work in the phone anymore." I checked it out and sure enough, the battery was bulging. It probably didn't help that his cell phone's brandname was something like "SNARFBLAT". Apparently it was cheap. Anyway, I took it when I left and promised I'd look into getting things working again so we could be in better contact.

I guess I wasn't quick enough because the very next day, he showed up at our house on the mission base. He'd received a letter saying that he was to attend a meeting in Vanduzi (nearest hospital to us) and he wanted to arrange his travel plans.

As Dwight was about to step out of the door to greet him, he noticed a juvenile spitting cobra on the steps between himself and Ernesto. Hearing Dwight saying, "Whoa-a-a...espera, espera! Tem cobra aqui! (Wait, watch out, there's a snake here.)", is what brought me running with my camera. A snake in the yard always generates a fair deal of excitement in these parts.

The young spitting cobra, obviously feeling insecure, spread his hood and eye-balled us menacingly as he back-tracked his way up the steps.

That's him on the left.

Unfortunately this photo is not very clear and I got him with his back turned looking not very threatening at all. No spread hood or beady eyes. We did catch it on video though and I'll post that as soon as I have the bandwidth to do it!

In these parts, a spitting cobra is everyone's enemy. That's because they can either spit their venom with amazing accuracy at their "attacker's" eyes, or bite, if need be.

By the time this guy got to the top step though, Ernesto had his slingshot loaded, taut and ready. A few zinging stones, flying dust, dancing feet, squiggling snake and a fair bit of adrenaline rush later, and the connecting shot that stopped the snake dead in his tracks was fired. This is not the first poisonous snake Ernesto has killed in one of our yards. He's earning quite the reputation for himself!

Ernesto's small collection of perfectly shaped stones, for self protection of course.
He smiled when we called him "David", for short.

Once the hype of the moment was over and we finalized the question about the meeting in Vanduzi, Dwight and I headed to town. I took Ernesto's cell phone (of unheard-of-before-brand-name) and the swollen battery to an electronics shop. The shop owner had never heard of that make of cell phone before either and suggested that if we were looking at replacing the battery, why not just pay a little more and replace the entire phone? It did make sense. And if it meant we'd have better communication with Ernesto and the school staff, it was worth it. Not that I mind having him pop around now and then, especially during snake migration season...

I don't even know if there is such a thing as snake migration season but they're definitely on the move right now, that's for sure. We've found quite a few snake tracks through our yard this week. I've darkened the photos to help the tracks show up a bit better:

One of the shepherds figured this was a Python track.


I'm not sure about that one. Could be.

This track is squiggly, so likely another spitting cobra or maybe a mamba. Just as well I didn't see him.

Anyway, that was some of the excitement in my week.

But before I go, two last photos. This one is of the bridge to the landing strip. The hardwood planks are now being oiled and nailed into place. What a huge project this has been, but it's a wonderful feeling to walk on the bridge and lean over the sides. Carefully though...those side guards aren't solidly in place yet.

Today, a small group of us here from the mission went to the hotel in Garuso (located between where we are and Zimbabwe) for lunch. It was a nice afternoon after a hectic week. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the pink walls, red waxed floor, and white door to one of the suites.

But I better run for now. This post is quite long, and besides, I promised Ernesto I'd try to send a test message on his new phone and phone line. Here's to hoping the message gets through.

Take care, ttyl, and if you live in Africa--keep your eyes peeled for snakes.

Changing Planets

I often say that North America and Africa are so different from one another that going from one to the next is like changing planets.

For example, the latest news/buzz here in Edmonton includes:

1. Federal elections that are underway. Hmm, who to vote for? Who to vote for? :)
2. Stanley cup playoffs (Well, some sort of important hockey games. I'm pretty sure it's Stanley cup. Poor excuse for a Canadian, I am!)
3. Current temperature: +18 and the snow is almost gone.

While the latest news/buzz at my African bush home includes:

1. The water pump broke a few days back and last I heard everyone was back to lugging water by hand and bucket bathing.
2. Crocs and Pythons are being a nuisance in our vicinity. Crocs have killed several sheep in the last few months and this Python was caught while attacking a local farmer's chickens.


Sorry Snakey, but I think your family better move back further into the bush.
3. Current temperature: +31 and late-for-the-season storm activity.


Today, I'm "changing planets". My time in Canada is up and my suitcases are packed weighed, labeled, etc. All that remains are the goodbyes, the long trip, and of course gearing my mind for re-entry into a very different world. I don't mind the reptiles so much, but I sure hope that water pump is up and running again!

Until next week, goodbye.

Oh, and here are some videos to check out.

Rick Cogbill and Bob Denesiuk's video after their Mozambique visit:



Shaw Cable interview before their trip out:

A snake is a snake

Let me start by saying that I have this friend. I like him quite a bit, but, he’s grumpy and demanding. He’s always whining about something. Either his food isn’t tasty enough, or his bed isn’t soft enough, or whatever. He often snaps at people, too. You’d swear he gets up on the wrong side of the bed every single day.

Granted, he has his problems including a special mental condition that has never been officially diagnosed. He doesn’t hear or see so well either, and he’s losing his teeth. Poor buddy. He’s getting old. My friend is our little dog, Mushu.

So why do I like him? Well for one thing, he’s quite cute. This is when he was young.

He's aged a little, as you can see.

He’s also very protective and loyal. If he thinks anyone, in any way, is a threat to me (this includes making any quick moves or even walking in rubber boots behind me), he goes berserk. He shadows me night and day and is always game for a long end-of-day walk, even if I pause for 100 sunset photos.

August sky

He has a real attitude toward strange dogs and snakes, too.

(Snake track we came across on our walk.)

If he discovers either of these in his territory, he switches to attack mode. Now, attack mode is dangerous for him because when he goes there all logic, and apparently some of his remaining faculties, are suddenly lost.

1. He goes deaf (as in, save your breath, yelling won’t help).
2. He becomes oblivious to size (his moto: it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.)
3. He is immune (in his mind) to snake venom or vicious bites from other dogs that actually have teeth.

This can be a problem, especially because we do have strange dogs or snakes coming by or through our yard off and on. So yesterday when some of the staff came to let me know there was a snake in our woodpile, my first move was to put Mushu behind closed doors. He wasn’t very happy about that. If there was a snake in our yard, he had business to do!

Guy at door: “Senhora, can you give me the snake spray please? There’s a snake in the woodpile.”

Me: “Snake spray?”

Guy: “Yeah, you know, that pesticide 'DOOM'.”

Me: “I’m not sure pesticide is going to kill a reptile…”

Guy: “Well, but it could scare him out from under the logs, right?”

Me: “Hmm, maybe. So let’s use something I don’t mind wasting. I have some mosquito repellent that smells so strong it makes me gag, let’s try that.”

So off we went, armed with a can of mosquito repellent, to hunt a snake. Two other guys awaited us by the woodpile. Guy #1 stepped up carefully and emptied about half the can of repellent into the woodpile. Nothing.

Guy #1: “We’re going to have to pull the wood off the pile, piece by piece, to find him.”

Thankfully, there wasn’t a lot of wood on the pile and they used a long iron rod to do the job.


Then suddenly, “There he is! There he is!”

Snake's tail.

Guy #1 managed to jab the snake with the iron rod on his first try.

“Got him!”

These guys have deadly aim. Had it been me with the rod, it would have been *poke* “agh, missed!” *poke again* “aagghh...missed again!” *pokepokepokewhapwhapwhap*.

When we were certain the snake was quite incapacitated, we stepped in for a closer look.

Me: “He doesn’t have belly stripes, does he? So he’s not a ‘cuspideira’ (spitting cobra).”

3 guys in unison. “No, he’s not a cuspideira.”

Me (checking his mouth with a stick after rinsing it with water--very funny thing to do, apparently): “His mouth isn’t black, so I don’t think he’s a black mamba either. Maybe he was a totally harmless snake.”

Guy #1 “But if you’re wrong, and you get bitten, things can go very badly. A snake is a snake, Senhora.” Other guys nod and express their agreement.

Had Mushu been there, he would have sided with them as well.

Otherwise in life this week, I took a run up to the mission school to check on several things including progress on the new health post that’s being built there.

We can’t wait til this building is ready!

Apparently, the school kids had been painting rocks.

That's quite the splash of color!

This coming week, Mushu and I are on our own here at the house since Dwight is on a trip north holding seminars.

Getting supplies ready is always quite the undertaking.

I plan to use the time to get caught up on my course and other work. I may even get around to tiling and painting where it’s still needed in the house.

And Mushu? Well, I’m sure he plans to be right here with me, keeping strangers at bay.

And going on walks with me

while I take an endless number of nature pictures.

Hopefully, there'll be no more snake incidents.