Black Mamba and a sunset the color of cotton candy

I learned something new yesterday. Poisonous refers to a toxin that is ingested. Venomous refers to a toxin that is injected. Therefore, there is no such thing as a “poisonous snake” unless you fancy eating one for dinner.

The black mamba snake just outside the guest house gate went down a treat on the game drive yesterday. It seems they are rare in these parts, so having one so close to the house is rather exciting. While it is the world’s more aggressive and venomous (not poisonous) snake, the guests seemed to be thrilled. I just happened to be on the game drive yesterday and we followed it in the safari truck for about 10 minutes snapping pictures. Over dinner last night the owner refused to believe that it was a black mamba until we all pulled out our cameras and proved it to him.

A whole family group of giraffes have wandered into the riverbed in front of the house. I was going to take a wander down there to gawk at them this evening. But, considering that’s exactly where we saw the black mamba, I think I’ll give it a miss.

I got talking to one of the guest last night who is a volunteer for the VSO (Volunteer Service Organization) at the University of Namibia where her job is to facilitate the studies of disabled students. She has been doing it for 10 months and it has been an assignment from hell. She has two quadriplegic students that she is supposed to be helping. Both of them really need 24 hour care. She has no help and doesn’t have the body strength to shift them in their seats if they complain of being uncomfortable in their wheelchairs. Plus she is taking care of other visually and hearing impaired students all of whom need constant attention. The faculty is unresponsive and doesn’t want her there. When she complains, they just ignore her. She is living in Windhoek where invariably all of her volunteer friends have been mugged at knife point during their time in the city. She had come to the guest house just to get away from it for a day.

When we got back from the game drive, I cleaned myself up and went to tend the little bar in the lapa. There was a magnificent blue and pink sunset and I was early, so I poured myself a glass of wine and wandered to the lapa lounge area that looks over the dry river bed. The eland were chomping at the grass about 15 feet away and the sky was starting to fill with the stars that on moonless nights are blinding. The air was hot and still and you could hear the scurry of other animals wandering down the river bed. The new horse volunteer came by for a chat. She just arrived from Minnesota two days ago and is all young and bright eyed and excited to be in Africa. We grabbed our flash lights and spot lighted the riverbank to see what we could see out there. The kitchen was cooking up a feast of beef stew with green beans and pasta with apple fritters for dessert and a new and more-

interesting-than-usual group of English speaking guests were starting to gather for dinner. We all sat up to 11pm in the warm Namibian night solving the world’s problems over wine and Amarula. I’m so glad I didn’t volunteer with the VSO.