The rainy season has begun. The snakes have started to descend. There are 11 species of deadly snakes in Swaziland, including black mambas, boomslangs, and Mozambique spitting cobras. None of these have antivenom. Of course there are many more species of non-venomous snakes than there are venomous ones, but the locals here don't really wait to find out which kind they are dealing with- they kill any snake they see. We found a green bush snake hanging on our electric fence a few weeks ago.
The guard believed we were saved an encounter with a boomslang but he doesn't have the Google, and as far as he is concerned, all green snakes are boomslangs.
The next week, he gave chase to a four-foot long, light-brown snake that ended up in the thick vines that cascade down one of our walls. He found the snake under a bush a few days later. He and the gardener worked together to trap it on the stairs and pierce it with a long branch. Ants were carrying off the entrails by the time we returned from our errands. The guard had left it where he had killed it so to show us his heroic deed. Upon closer examination, it appeared to me to be a grass snake, but it looked almost identical to a black mamba. If one has to be inches away to tell these differences, it's no wonder the Swazi kill them all without question. Looks like bio-mimicry is a disadvantage around humans. I feel like there's an object lesson here somewhere...
Noemie doesn't care about the snakes as much as the monkeys, Vervets to be exact. The little boogers have helped themselves to every last peach despite Noemie's watchful eye and her frantic war whoops every time they venture into our yard. My school readings have been interrupted on more than one occasion by the kids running off in a mad dash to save our fruit trees. The other day we caught one carrying off a papaya. On the breast cancer walk last week, however, we saw large groups of them, including mamas faithfully porting their little ones that hung from their bellies.
Our hearts softened a little.
Until Noemie caught another couple on our roof yesterday.
The truce was short lived.
The walk itself was gorgeous. It was fifteen kilometers through the Mantenga Reserve behind our house. The halfway point was at a waterfall. Noemie and I didn't make it the full 15 km (roughly 9 miles). Her legs gave out after about 10 km at which point we were, conveniently, walking by our house. But it was good exercise nonetheless. Noemie took advantage of the hike to check off an item for her American Heritage Girls Hiking Badge.
Swaziland is nominally a Christian nation. Its historic folklore includes prophecies of Bible-toting missionaries. But it is one thing to embrace Christian ideas and another to embrace a total submission to the lordship of Christ and the life-changing power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Many Swazis, the king included, practice a hodgepodge of religious traditions. Among them is the Incwala Festival at the first full moon of the summer solstice in January. The success of a king's reign is measured in Incwalas, and representatives from every chiefdom of the kingdom are expected to attend and participate as a testimony to the cohesion of the kingdom. Ceremonies include the beating to death of a bull, and exercises of witchcraft. So though Swazis may maintain, for instance, a strong insistence that women should wear skirts (pants if they must be so progressive, but shorts are taboo outside of the tourist areas), having the world's highest HIV rate kinda gives you the hint that there's not a whole lot of restraint achieved by their dress code. Rape abounds during the firstfruits celebration of the Marula Festival where civic leaders and persons of importance come from all over Swaziland to get drunk on the kings' sacred marula wine. Pentecostal- flavored "prosperity gospel" churches far out-number the Bible preaching ones, with pastors in designer clothing selling the service of their "charismatic gifts" to the highest bidders. And polygamy presents its own set of problems that further devalue women. So while Christian ideals have helped preserve modesty, peace, close knit families, and a strong sense of common humanity, in contrast to the rapidly secularized South African nation that surrounds it, don't let Swaziland's self-proclaimed "Christian" status fool you. There is darkness here as well as light.
For Dominic's birthday we went to Hlane Royal National Park for an overnight stay. Our amazing hut that had mosquito netting draped romantically around the beds and had no electricity. During the day, the finches twittered nonstop. I didn't sleep well at night and in my delirium thought that the finches had scarred my eardrums as I couldn't seem to get the sound out of my ears. I think in retrospect, it was the sound of crickets. We did a sunset drive and a sunrise drive. I really don't have much to add... I'll just let the pictures suffice.
We didn't take too much time with the lions because they just kind of sat there looking hangry.
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