I Hate Snakes

I hate snakes. I really really really hate snakes. They are everywhere here. The mambas even come in three varieties – black, green and Jameson’s. Liberia has one of the highest concentrations of snakes in Africa. Of the 10 deadliest species in Africa 7 are found right here in Liberia in higher numbers than anywhere else. Wonderful.

Let me tell you more about the black mamba specifically. It is far and away the most feared snake here for reasons that will become very apparent as you read along. The black mamba (picture below) is not really black. It’s more of a dark gray. The name comes from the intense purple black color of the inside of the mouth. They are the fastest land snakes in the world. They can reach speeds of 10-12 miles per hour in short bursts. You cannot outrun them. The average human can maybe sprint faster but good luck getting up to speed faster than a pissed off black mamba can. Being pissed off is a big part of the problem actually. Black mambas are very aggressive snakes and very territorial. They can grow up to 15 feet long and tend to race along with the front third of the body off the ground.  When striking they throw their head upwards from the ground to about two-fifths their total length. Do the math. Two fifths of 15 feet is 6 feet. Easily head high for most people and a number of black mamba bites are indeed inflicted about the head and neck. What!! They are also great tree climbers and often hang from branches further contributing to the number of bites on the head.

The bite of the black mamba is deadly. The venom is neurotoxic and cardiotoxic. If not treated the symptoms include tightening of the chest muscles, shortness of breath, coughing, blurred vision, mental confusion, and an overall feeling of great discomfort. Sounds so much like falling in love. Except rather than getting married, having kids, raising a family and living out your golden years these feelings are followed by death in about 4 hours. Prior to antivenin a bite was always fatal. And I know exactly the question many of you are now asking. Do we have access to antivenin? Yes. We do. Oh yeah, as deadly as their bite is you’d think they would be satisfied just biting you once but no. The black mamba tends to inflict multiple bites in rapid succession. Let’s review. The black mamba is huge, very aggressive, can outrun you, bites multiple times about the head and shoulders and its bite is uniformly fatal if untreated. We killed five over the past two weeks at one of the remote sites. Next time I’m out there I am going to pee in a jar at night rather than venture out of the tent.

There are other crazy bad snakes here too as mentioned. There is the lovely Gaboon Viper famous for its two-inch long fangs, the black spitting cobra capable of accurately shooting neurotoxic venom into victims eyes up to twenty feet away and the black (what is it with black snakes?) tree cobra which is even more ill-tempered than the black mamba by some reports. Liberians hate snakes even more than I do. For a snake bites dog story – don’t fret, it ends well – take a look at this story.

http://turningleftatyesterday.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/cant-do-nothin/

There are lots of other things that bite here. Seems at times most every critter has a fang, a spike, a stinger or a spray. Darwin rules. There are countless species of spiders, bees and even a beautifully colored ladybug like thing – it looks like a ladybug – that sprays a burning chemical on your skin if you disturb it. I have a spot on my right elbow that still itches after two weeks. I mistakenly tried to flick it off and you can hear an audible hiss as it sprays whatever it sprays. It burns like acid and then itches for hours. I can’t find what the bug is. The kids put them on each other and disturb them to make them spray. Fun. Of all the biting creatures though, the deadliest by far is the smallest – the mosquito. Malaria is everywhere. We’ve had a number of cases amongst the team already. Thank goodness for Coartem. Most everyone is on anti-malarials but it still happens. Some of you may remember the US Marine deployment to Liberia back in 2003 during the civil war. A quarter of the troops were hospitalized with malaria. I now take malarone for my prophylaxis. Taking a daily pill is hard though. I have to admit, I just realized while writing this that I forgot today’s dose. See. I switched from doxycycline a few weeks ago. It was tearing up my stomach. I had used doxy for years without a problem but not this time. Must be getting old or something.

It wouldn’t be fair to speak of only the biting things here. Liberia is blessed with all the beauty the West African rain forest has to offer. There are chimpanzees, pygmy hippos, a bazillion beautiful birds and some 800 species of butterflies. There are even orchids but Hawaii still wins that contest. Speaking of Hawaii, love to all my friends and family there. I miss you all dearly of course. So many of you have made a special effort to support Jess and the girls. They’re strong and well practiced at dealing with my absence but your caring still helps so much. Mahalo. And did you know Hawaii has NO snakes.

Ebola still continues to dominate every aspect of life in Liberia. Mine certainly.  There was a bump in cases over the holiday period. The epidemic remains but the numbers do look a bit better. I’m at  meetings all morning tomorrow and should hear the latest. Sierra Leone is a different case unfortunately and my colleagues there are in the thick of it. I’ll write about them sometime soon. I head back to the bush later this week but will plan to put out another update before I go. I’m planning on writing about life in Monrovia. The café society – kidding – and what daily life is like here. I will do the same for life in an ETU soon as well. We are opening more in the next 10 days or so. Time flies when you’re busy. Not fast enough though. Aloha. Did I mention I hate snakes?

Black Mamba

Where he gets his name...

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