Killian Killing a King Kobra

My African experience is almost complete.  I have seen a king cobra and subsequently its death (thank goodness!).  We were on our way to Roche for clinic and my school visits, the Hilux is packed, and so Sam, Harry (Rosie’s husband and my driver/translator for the day), Fernando, Marta (a Dutch med student tagging along), and I are all in the truck bed, enjoying the breeze.  All of a sudden a HUGE black snake crawls into the road and before we can do anything we run over it.  Nyamusi immediately slams on the brakes and backs up.  In front of us is a snake, easily five to six feet long and about two to three inches in diameter.  Before we know it, Killian and Nyamusi are picking up massive rocks, throwing them at the snake.  The snake is in the middle of the road – its middle section was squished by a tire and so stuck to the ground – getting beaten with big rocks. It is about a minute in when it raises up about a foot and splays its cobra crown.  Oh s***!  This is when Harry and a couple of villagers join in on the stoning of the snake.  Within another minute, the cobra is dead, only its tail twitching, and Killian is holding it swinging it around.  I will remind all that in no way am I embarrassed that at this point I am still frozen in place in the truck bed, only having moved to grab my camera.  Once Killian put the snake back down, a woman from the hut right off the road ran up to it and through one last rock on the head, obviously thinking, “Take that, damn cobra!”  We soon learned that the snake had been terrorizing the locals for months and so it was a big public service (Killian should receive an honorary degree from CSPS) to kill the snake.  We also found out that the cobra was not only a king cobra, but a spitting cobra! Again, it was intelligence not fear that kept me in that truck bed.  Let’s hope that this is my only experience with a snake while in TZ.