SNake Friendly

For the next two weeks I'm headed around to each of the villages with Me Makhoase to talk about improving gardening in Semonkong. This is the first of several trips. I'm loving the chance to be out in the villages again. I get up at 5:30 to catch the morning bus out to the village. We've been talking about adding organic material to the soil and creating seed beds so we can start producing our own seeds. We talk, we share pest control methods, and I get a chance to encourage everybody not to kill everything they see. There is a reoccurring theme in my discussions with farmers. “Let Nature work for you not against you so you work smarter not harder.” Not original but effective. Don't kill snakes, don't whack birds (or let your kids) just to kill them; Yea universals have been tempting. Today a farmer asked “So you want us to live with snakes. Would you live with a snake?” he asked. It's tough to argue with that cause I can't say I would. I, however, can't say people need to go searching for them either. There are stories of herb boys coming across snakes in the mountains. The snake would stalk the guy and from a higher ledge leap straight up in the air and turn vertical coming down onto their head. This is a true story to them and I've heard it numerous times from many different people. Of course, these farmers are also the onces that think earth worms and slugs as snakes too. Where's a Jack Hanna when you need one!