Ahh! Snakes!

The weather has been unbelievably HOT lately with temperatures above 35˚C making it very difficult to get any studying done as all we want to do is lounge in the pool. Friday came around so quickly this week and everyone realized that we had not done any studying for this week’s exam, which will be on Saturday. I had Aislinn’s assessment drive to go on in the morning as a guest, so I decided I would do some hard-core studying after brunch. We had just finished the dishes when from the kitchen we hear Lucy, she's our cook, cry for help. Turns out there was a snake in the kitchen, a spitting cobra, this snake can be very deadly. We called the instructors and Daryl came out. After much moving around of the deep freeze he eventually got the snake out of the kitchen. It was our first sighting of a deadly snake on campus. As we finally settled down to get back to studying Lucy calls for help again. She is starting to feel dizzy and her foot is hurting. Lucy thinks the snake bit her. Aislinn and Kathryn grab the first aid kit and bandage up her leg while I sit and talk to her trying to keep her calm. Suzie calls the instructors on the radio and Ruth brings the vehicle around, as we have to get to the gate to get cell phone signal and call an ambulance. If bitten its venom affects the Nervous system and your breathing and if not monitored can lead to death. Most snakes however, will try to get away to a safe place rather then bite and if they do bite a lot of time it is a “dry bite” where they don’t inject venom. Lucy, we don’t think was bitten as the symptoms didn’t seem to be severe enough. Daryl thinks a lot of it was in her head from fear. She was taken to the hospital and all they did was give her a shot of anti-venom and send her home. So far we haven’t heard anything but we are sure she is OK. The scariest part is the doctor who treated her gave her anti-venom. This is never a good idea and most places will not give it to you as you have to know exactly what snake bit you and the problems that arise from the anti-venom can be as bad if not worse than the snake bite. Usually you just treat the symptoms and eventually your body will rid itself of the venom. We are all worried about her but think she will be fine. Later that night Daryl spotted a python up by his house. It was just a small one and no need to fear it but we are now even more cautious around here about snakes as they seem to be coming out.

That makes our snake sighting total at 6, Brown house snake, vine snake, tiger snake, sand snake, python and spitting Cobra. Photo is of the tiger snake. As for studying well not much got done but the test was not too bad and I think we all passed.