The Story of the Python.

Strait from my journal:

Sunday January 27th 2008

“Today I was worried I’d have nothing to do I brushed my teeth and while doing so two of the boys from the homestead went off into the bush with rifles on their backs. I though nothing of it… Then I went looking for a place to hang my hammock and while walking near the main road towards some trees I saw some more people from the homestead including the father. From the road the man called to me asking if I’d seen a python. He informed me that a dog had been eaten one village over and they were going to find and kill the python. I asked if I could come and he said yes! We all walked into the bush and as we approached the village where the dog had been taken we heard a gun shot. We then caught up with the boys who had gone into the bush earlier to track the python. They had shot the python in the head and were in the process of trying to coax it (it was still moving a lot) out of the bush they found it in. I helped the older of the two boys drag it out and stretch it flat. We then held it down and sliced open the stomach next to the bulge that we correctly assumed was the dog. As we cut through the python’s skin it retracted like a popped balloon in a way that made it seem like it was pushing the dog out. The only thing worse than the sight of the partially digested dog was the smell. We pulled some bark of a nearby bush and used it as rope to tie a noose around the dog and in one motion the boy pulled out the carcass and threw it into the bushes. We then proceeded to carry the python back through the bush to the homestead. That night one of the families on the homestead eat well (I wish I had been around to have some…) because the next day the entire skin was wrapped around one of the rafters in the cooking hut…”