It's Alive!

This time, the snake we found in our garden was alive!

It was spotted by Wani, a South Sudanese MAF staff member, who keeps the compound in good shape for us all. He wanted me to take his photo next to the papaya tree and show you the fruit it has produced recently:

 At the foot of the tree, you can just see the edge of the drain cover. Wani had removed the drain cover by our house and was sweeping the dead leaves out of the drain underneath when he came across the snake. Grace was nearby, sweeping up the dust and dirt by our front step:

 Hearing Wani shout out in alarm, Grace rushed round the corner and spotted the snake too. She began shouting in her own language, adding to the general din, so I looked out of the window to see what was so exciting outside!

"A snake!!" yelled Grace in English, for my benefit.
"Here! In the drain!"

I put my shoes on (!! very important to wear shoes near to snakes!) and popped out to see the snake. It was curled up defensively in the drain area:

 I called the children and Andrew, who were all nearby and we watched in fascination as the snake uncurled its scaly body and then tried to climb up the concrete wall out of the drain:

 It's amazing to see how strong their bodies are and how it could push itself up so far without any legs! However, it was unable to climb out of the depth of  this wall and we looked down on it, armed with the Snake Identification book that Andrew had sensibly grabbed on his way out of the house.

We then called Ruan over from the office, a staff member from South Africa, He prodded and probed the snake and it showed only fear and a desire to escape, rather than any aggression. So we decided it was probably a harmless house-snake. Ruan asked me for a dish we could put it in, to get a closer look.
This is the first time I have had a live snake in my casserole dish!

Agreeing that it did not seem to be a threat and was unlikely to bite us, we decided to let it go further down the garden, by the fence and into the grassy area.

This decision was unpopular with Wani and Grace! As far as they are concerned, any snake is a dangerous snake: all snakes should be killed on sight. Grace in particular is of this opinion, having been bitten by a similar-coloured snake a few years ago. It took 4 months for her leg to heal (but partly because the treatment she received was to slash her leg in several places to 'let out the poison'. Her legs still bear the scars of all that cutting of her flesh.)

Our snake slithered away, no doubt relieved to be free, although relief was not what Wani, nor Grace, were feeling!

With all the excitement over, we got back to our respective tasks. I'm still not sure if the snake survived the rest of that day, though- Wani seemed quite determined to follow it and Ben said he spotted him with a sharp-bladed spade, looking carefully through the grass later...! However, it was an interesting interlude in our morning and a great living biology lesson for the children!