Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Slithery Predator

This last Friday evening, as we were calling the girls to worship, I went to go turn on all of our outside lights. As I was heading into our upper building, something with orange caught my eye. After focusing in, a 3.5 foot coral snake came slowly into view. First thought: scream. Second thought: run. Third thought: kill it. Next thought: how? I found a canoe paddle in the corner and went after it. I got one good stab, but then ran around the corner because it came after me. Herkie hid behind my neck, I hid behind the paddle. After watching the snake attach a black garbage bag for a few minutes, and then slither off into a corner, Herkie and I decided to go get backup.

We went and got Casey, two machetes, and two flashlights. Herkie was left with his mother, because this was a man’s battle. We found the snake, agitated it enough so that now it wanted a piece of us face to face, and then fought it. It took a few minutes, some screams, and Casey’s precision accuracy with the machete to finally kill it, but we got it. This guy was definitely poisonous. We cut off its head, and played with its fangs enough to see the venom shooting out. God took care of us. The snake was hanging out where one of our workers lives, and where our night watchman sleeps… I mean sits. We were fortunate to find the snake before it found them. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, you are so brave. Or is that foolhardy? Love the stories and photos. _Brent

Neil said...

Way to win the man battle Aaron...as I started to read it I didn't think you enough manness to win, but I was glad to see I was wrong. I hope you are enjoying yourselves over there. Miss seeing you guys!!

Anonymous said...

I don't know about snakes in Peru but the old saying goes, red on black poison lack. Red on yellow will kill a fellow for coral snakes in general.

madre said...

WOW!!!!! My Prayers for you are Constantly being Answered for your Safety! God Is Sooooo GOOD! Blessings to your spunk yet I'm glad you knew when to retrieve and get help my Son! Blessings and Praise TOO.....