My days in Africa II

Sunday, 30^th October, 2005
 

After breakfast, there was nothing to do, so I just spent some time on my laptop, listening to those songs which I have stored, just for single reason, that I got it from somewhere and my laptop had a lot of space. Sometime you have so much time that if you believe in the old saying that time is money, you will feel like billionaire. It was just like that. My guide here has gone to Libreville for a meeting and I was here alone, fighting with French language and giving very tough time to the person whom I am talking too.  One of my seniors told me, don’t take tension that you don’t know French, make other person tensed that you don’t know French. And let him understand. So basically I was doing the same thing.
Afternoon, Paul came to pick me up and in his heavily accented but fairly good English explained me that we are going to visit the city and places around it. What more I could have asked for. Really great. Outside my hotel, there was a Landcruiser waiting for me. I just took my laptop, camera and passport was ready for action.
First we visited a near by village to Makokou and it was really beautiful. Located on the banks of river “La river de obendu�, I asked for the name but Paul’s heavy accented reply and my ear’s refusal to get accustomed to that accent, suggested me not to waste time getting the right name. By the way, some Mr. Shakespeare has already explained the futility of names.
I went to the river and was surprised to see that the color of water was black. O my god, I am seeing a black river in this Dark Continent! I asked the reason to Paul, expecting some really interesting answer. But the result was a dud. He simply told this due to high content of iron ore.
Suddenly something caught my attention, some people were there washing their cars in the river and alongside them some girls having bath. I hurriedly avoided eye contact with the girls, who knows they might get offended and then I will have to spend some really good amount on doctors to get my face straight. There one punch is good enough to change the geography. But that did not happen luckily and Paul asked me to follow him and we went to them. I was greeted with ‘bonjour’, really these people are very courteous. I asked Paul “Can I take some photographs ?� and he replied me in affirmative.
I clicked some really good shots there.
Returning back to my hotel, I was lucky enough to meet ‘bady bhaiya’ and that too ‘sabse bade wale’. On the way, Paul suddenly stopped the car, and I could see some people moving and making noise. I asked the reason and he told me ‘get camera, photo, photo.. ‘ I was unable to understand anything what happened, why this fellow is asking me to capture pics of these people.
‘Se’paan’
What ?
Snake….
Then I looked at the crowed, on the ground there was huge black snake moving and two three person equipped with small sticks were there to tackle and him and 20-30 people around them. I took out my camera and from the car itself took some snaps. I asked about the snake and the answer was “it is black cobra�. One of the most deadly snakes on earth. And those people were treating him like harmless non-poisonous creature. Within few seconds, two-three strike with the small sticks and ‘bady bhaiya’ was flat on the ground. Though still moving rapidly, but unable to go anywhere. I was mesmerized by their skill.
The first thought that came to my mind was, there must be a number of ‘bade bhaiya’ and their family members in bush. (I was supposed to visit  bush next day.) I quickly put my query to Paul.
“Not many�
You idiot. One is enough. I uttered some good expletives in hindi.
He explained that they are normally found in and around homes. Not normally in bushes. It gave me some hope.