SNAKESSSS...part2

by Ben Soloria

I hate snakes, myself.  If I visit a zoo, I skip the snakes area.  I had two traumatic experiences when I was growing up in Dupac.  The first incident happened in the school yard by the mango tree that belonged to Uncle Placido (Orallo).  His family's lot was adjacent to the school yard.  Unlike in America (or elsewhere), child labor was tapped to clean up the school and its premises.  School had just opened in the month of June and the school grounds were overgrown notably with sticker bursts (puriket) and all kinds of weeds.  I was 5th grade.  The school garden where 5th grade boys learn a little bit of horticulture and agriculture was relocated from it's old site to the northwestern corner of the school yard.  Mr. Roman Agapito, our  teacher wanted us to clean up the area first before he would assign us our individual plots for gardening.  He instructed us to form a line facing north towards the Orallo property and then told us to stretch
our arms sideways.  The land area corresponding to the width of our stretched arms from where each pupil stood  to the boundary of the school yard and the next private property, was each boy's area of responsibility to clean up.  We were armed with sickles.  Dutifully, we squatted on the damp ground and started to weed out our assigned areas.  Pidong Ordonio, an older boy in my class was late for the clean up ritual.  As he approached our area, he noticed something sticking up above the weeds a few feet in front of me (he told me later.)  Without a word, he grabbed my shirt collar and dragged me on my back, a position which allowed me to get a good sight of a
snake's head propped to strike.  The snake didn't seem to be bothered by the commotion.  Pidong grabbed a flat stick from the ground and threw it like a boomerang, and got the snake down.  Still lying on my back on the ground, I saw Mr. Agapito's jaws dropped in disbelief.  He came to me and said, "Okenam, nagistay ka natayen!"  (Pidong, if you are still out there, I owe you my life, man.)

      Years later, I was on my way to Macalong from our house in Dupac.  It was harvestime for the so-called second crop - rice planted after December or January.  The long rainy season in the Philippines was just starting and all the brooks, creeks and tributaries were overflowing with water.

Well, to get to my destination, I had to cross a man-made irrigation canal.  There was a tree trunk laid out as a bridge over the canal.  The water was high, so that all the debris floating on the water were stuck underneath the tree-trunk-bridge. 

As I got in the middle of the bridge, I playfully stuckmy foot underneath the floating debris and attempted to clear that area with my bare foot.  I felt something slimy touched my foot but paid no attention to it.  When I raised my foot, there was a snake hanging on my foot. Whew, I break out a sweat until now everytime I recall that experience.

By some magic, I ran over that little trunk bridge without falling into the
water!