Do not chase after people while holding a chameleon

Today, we had perhaps one of our most interesting sessions of our entire training period.  Our host families have constantly been warning us about snakes, and we kept hearing that our Safety and Security Coordinator had a whole zoo of them as pets, so I suppose it was only natural that we have a training devoted exclusively to the reptiles.  Peace Corps brought in two snake experts to school us on everything we need to know about snakes in South Africa, and the experts did not disappoint.

The main speaker was an Afrikaner with long sideburns and a mop top and looked he could have been a long lost son of one of the Beatles.  Personality-wise, though, he was the South African version of the Crocodile Hunter.  He started off by telling us that there was far too much hype regarding snakes in South Africa given that while the country does have something like 150 different types of snakes, only 10% of them are poisonous.  So apparently we only have to worry about dying from 15 of them, while the others will just bite us.  Very reassuring.  The gentleman then proceeded to tell us that, in a good year (for the  snakes that is), only about 15 people will die of snakebite in South Africa.  That being said, two of his friends were part of that statistic.  Again, very soothing stuff.

He went over all of the most common and dangerous snakes that we might encounter and also discussed the various types of venom that they employ to shut our body’s systems down.  Who knew that some snakes are cytotoxic, meaning the venom attacks cells, whereas others are neurotoxic, and their poison destroys the nerves?  And let’s not forget the hemotoxic venom, which is a slow acting venom so that people don’t think anything is wrong until they are dead 24 hours later as a result of internal bleeding. Not to mention that some snakes inject the venom with their fangs, while others simply spray it at you.  The man said he had had venom sprayed in his eyes before, and that if we are interested in replicating the sensation, to just light a cigarette and then put it out in our eyeball. Awesome stuff.  And that was just the snakes.

Apparently, scorpions are a major point of concern here in the southern hemisphere as well with some species being quite poisonous. The area where I will be living, the Northern Cape, is where they are most prominent.  We were encouraged to shake out our shoes every morning before putting them on, or even better, hang our shoes by hangers to prevent scorpions from crawling in.  To give us an accurate idea of what it’s like to be stung by a scorpion, the man said we could slam a hammer onto our thumb since the pain will be similar.  This guy really knew how to captivate a crowd.

All of this wonderful information was punctuated by some very random comments.  For instance, there is a chameleon here that turns black whenever it is afraid or stressed, and some of the black South Africans are scared to touch it because they believe that it will steal their color.  For this reason, we were warned not to go chasing after people with chameleons in our hands.  Darn it.  That was the first thing on my list.  Then, as the Afrikaner was instructing us on the proper way to kill a scorpion (with your shoe), he felt that we should know that by pulling the sections of the scorpion apart, you can actually eat the insides.  He then quickly mentioned that, of course, this should only be done in a survival situation.  Ok, got it.  The next time I am randomly trekking through the South African desert, I will be sure to search out some juicy scorpions for my meals.

The entire session was capped off by everyone going outside and the Afrikaner pulling out boxes filled with a puff adder, a black mamba, and a boomslang.  In true crocodile-hunter style, he would periodically talk to the snakes as he was demonstrating, telling the snakes “Danke” (Afrikaans for “thank you”) for their cooperation in showing us how they strike and spray venom.  Finally, our Safety and Security Coordinator, who is himself a snake lover, pulled out his 35 pound albino boa constrictor for people to pet and put around their neck.  I did it, and am I happy to inform that the snake, Patricia I believe was her name, was very courteous and polite (Danke, Patricia).

So as a graduate of Intro to Snakes and Scorpions, I think I am now ready to face the lovely wildlife that South Africa has in store for me.  Hopefully, since my site is a bit more urban, this will not be as much of a problem compared to my rurally-located counterparts.  But yes, dad.  I will be sure to be careful out there.