This is the outside view of the guest house (the black building) and part of the medical clinic. Shaun stayed in the guesthouse, we shared the kitchen area, and I stayed in the clinic building. Here's the kitchen, after we made a huge mess cooking dinner...
The kitchen had two propane burners, so basically everything that we ate did not require refrigeration and had to be able to be cooked in a pot or a frying pan! Pasta, tomato sauce, and canned corn was the default meal if creativity was lacking (which it often was!)So, now to the frightening experience! A few weeks into my time in Uganda, Shaun and I headed to Kibaale to spend a couple days with our friends Jeff and Shannon. Shaun decided to head into Kampala with Jeff and Shannon for a couple of days after our time in Kibaale, but I decided to head back to Mpigi as I had some things I wanted to do in preparation for the upcoming clinic day. So I got on a taxi in Kampala and traveled back to Mpigi on my own. I arrived no problem, and spent much of the evening with the kids (that was the night of the baby fashion show). The kids went to bed, and I went back to the guest house.
At 10 pm I decided to head to bed. The generator had just been turned off, so the guest house was lit by solar power. I went into the bathroom, closed the door, and then I noticed something unusual. In the corner behind the door there was a black object, kind of coiled up. At first I didn't pay that much attention...the lighting wasn't great, and I was tired. But I looked again, and then I saw the coiled-up thing move...and then I clued in!! It was a snake of some kind...and one that looked black...which was not a good sign. (A note...Ugandans are very, and justifiably, afraid of snakes, as there isn't really such a thing as a harmless snake in Uganda).
I got out of the bathroom as quickly as I could, and willed myself to think of what to do. I grabbed my cell phone, and called the property manager, Mulumba. It was late, so I wasn't sure he was going to pick up...but after the phone rang and rang he finally answered. I managed to get out, "Mulumba, it's Rebekah. I think that there is a black mamba snake in my bathroom!" Mulumba said something to the effect of "oh, goodness", and then said he would call someone to come and help me. (Mulumba lives about a 5 minute drive away from the property).
So I hung up the phone, and then tried to think of what else to do. I then called Shaun, and at that point I started to lose it! I was practically gasping out through sobs that there is a snake in the house...and fortunately, Shaun was thinking clearly since I was not anymore! He wisely suggested that I actually leave the house (I was still standing like 4 feet from the bathroom) and go down to Pastor Geoffrey's house (Geoffrey and his family live on the church property). So grabbed my headlamp and went to wake Geoffrey up. By the time he was out of bed I also heard some boda bodas (motorbikes) coming up the road. It was Mulumba and a few others, armed and ready to get the snake! They had sticks with nails poking through the ends, as well as a bottle of kerosene to drown the snake in if necessary. So we headed up to the guesthouse to get that snake...I think there were 5 of us in total!
Once we got inside, I opened the bathroom door to show Geoffrey where the snake was. However, it was not there anymore! I started to worry that maybe I had just imagined it, and I had gotten all these people out of bed for no reason. I was sure they were going to think that I was just being paranoid and getting over-excited about nothing, and I would just reinforce the stereotype of mzungus not being able to cut it in Uganda!!
As I am starting to think this, I hear Geoffrey moving things around in the bathroom. I then heard Geoffrey yell out, and I hear smack, smack, smack, smack, smack of the stick on the concrete floors. After a few seconds, Geoffrey emerges from the bathroom with a dead snake!! I felt relieved (mostly because I was thankful I hadn't imagined what I saw, and also because the snake was now dead!) I found out that it was a baby cobra, and Mulumba figured it had managed to get in under the door while we were away for those few days since it was pretty small.
So it wasn't a huge snake, and thankfully it wasn't a black mamba (which are extremely deadly), but still!! Thankfully I found it when I did, and didn't accidently step on it in the middle of the night! And I was very thankful that so many people came to help me out that night - they definitely went above and beyond:) We did one final sweep of the house to make sure that there were no mothers or sibilings of this baby cobra hanging around, and then I headed to bed (amazingly, I slept pretty well that night!)
So that was my frightening experience...which now I find quite humorous:) Oh, and don't let this story deter you from going to Africa...I'm sure cobras aren't really all that dangerous, and it was only a baby, after all;)
