Welcome to Africa

Oh, the differences between South Africa and South Carolina. Unisex bathrooms in McDonald’s. Assorted vocabulary oddities (bonnet = car hood; boot = trunk). The driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road thing. KFCs everywhere – and far tastier than the American version, I’m told.

Then there are the snakes. In SC, we have our copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes – all dangerous, to be sure. But the serpents here, they’re hard-core. The cape cobra and the puff adder both live in the Cape Peninsula, and both are highly venomous and deadly. Guess what turned up in the garden on Tuesday, right outside the house where I’m staying? A puff adder.

Who knows how long it had been there. It was in some thick brush that the grounds staff was about to clear. After some unsuccessful prodding to coax it out, a call was placed to the local reptile professionals (“Snake Busters”!). They said leave it alone, it’s a protected species, we’ll come fetch it (fetch is another South African term, by the way).

Soon a free-spirited dude showed up with a hook and a sack. He quickly captured the adder, made a thorough search of the area and concluded the visitor was alone. But it’s a bit unnerving. The mountain this house rests against is prime snake habitat, and clearly human residences aren’t off limits. As the saying goes, TIA – this is Africa.