Bigger, better torches required

The ‘official’ visit went as well as can be expected today. I think we made a pretty good impression on our visitors. We have been waiting for some time now for our official registration as a children’s home to be finalised and I’m hopeful that today’s visit will make it happen at last.

We have fascinating conversations some evenings. We have been experimenting with small torches for our night guards instead of the huge lantern like things that they have been carrying. The small torch casts a very powerful beam with new batteries and we were hoping to be able to save some money and improve security at the same time. Unfortunately it seems that the new torches eat batteries so we will be abandoning the experiment and going back to the status quo. As well as the sound economic case for keeping the old torches Mary, our manager, let slip another, much more practical reason during our discussion.

“Did you know that last night one of the guards killed a snake?”

“No I didn’t Mary. How big was it?”

“Quite big.” (Demonstrates about an inch in diameter and eighteen inches long)

“Oh!”

“Yes, so you see it is very important that the night guards have powerful torches all night”.

You can’t really argue with that kind of logic. The snake in question was a black mamba. National Geographic is a mine of useful, (if somewhat unnerving), information about this snake:

“Black mambas are fast, nervous, lethally venomous, and when threatened, highly aggressive. They have been blamed for numerous human deaths, and African myths exaggerate their capabilities to legendary proportions. For these reasons, the black mamba is widely considered the world’s deadliest snake.

Black mambas live in the savannas and rocky hills of southern and eastern Africa. They are Africa’s longest venomous snake, reaching up to 14 feet (4.5 meters) in length, although 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) is more the average. They are also among the fastest snakes in the world, slithering at speeds of up to 12.5 miles per hour (20 kilometres per hour).

Black mambas are shy and will almost always seek to escape when confronted. However, when cornered, these snakes will raise their heads, sometimes with a third of their body off the ground, spread their cobra-like neck-flap, open their black mouths and hiss. If an attacker persists, the mamba will strike not once, but repeatedly, injecting large amounts of potent neuro- and cardiotoxin with each strike.

Before the advent of black mamba antivenin, a bite from this fearsome serpent was 100 percent fatal, usually within about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, antivenin is still not widely available in the rural parts of the mamba’s range, and mamba-related deaths remain frequent.”

So now you know. I’m all for floodlighting the place!