Snakes in the street! (Nov. 14)

This last Monday was Auntie Enjati’s 75^th birthday and Uncle Enjati invited Zach and me to her birthday party at their house Monday night. It was going to be a typical India birthday party with a small service at the beginning and then a meal to follow. Zach and I get super stoked about these events because the food is always amazing! So we started over to the Enjati’s house around 7.

When we arrived we were 15 minutes late and yet still the service didn’t start until 30 minutes after we had arrived. (Typical Indian Standard Time.) There were plastic chairs arranged outside on the front porch/driveway area underneath the trestle that had vines growing all over it. The service started with Pastor Vara Jacob giving a short worship talk along with another pastor who spoke before him. After the worship there was the garlanding of Auntie and then we lit the candle on the cake and sang happy birthday to her.

Just as we finished singing there was a commotion 20 feet away at the front gate. A young kid came running back into the house yelling, “Pamu, pamu, pamu!!!” which means snake in Telugu. Zach and I had our cameras out already since we were documenting the singing and stuff so we rushed over and caught the entire killing of the viper that had been found amongst the parked motorcycles at the front gate. If the snake hadn’t been spotted we may have had someone with a snakebite at the end of the party. The snake had come from the jungle across the road and thankfully a motorcycle had been driving past when the snake crossed the road. There are no lights in front of the gate and the only way the snake had been seen was with the headlight of the motorcycle.

The viper was a “Russell’s Viper” and is one of the 4 common snakes in India. It is also an extremely poisonous snake. We were told after that they call in a “five step snake” meaning you’d be dead in 5 steps after being bitten. That may be a bit of an exaggeration since we’ve never had a viper kill someone here in Nuzvid since we arrived. We did however have a cobra kill a little boy earlier in the year but that was due to his small size and the fact that the family waited over 2 and a half hours before seeking modern medical treatment.

After the snake was good and dead Zach and I got pictures with the snake! It was huge as you can see from the photos! Anyway, it was good surprise to have at Auntie’s birthday party! Again, never a dull moment here in India!